By Dr. James G. Dahle, WCI Founder

Endowing a university scholarship requires little attempt, costs less than yous might recollect, and allows you to be pretty specific about who gets the money.

Many of you know most The White Glaze Investor Medical School Scholarship program. We run it correct here on the blog. It is essentially an essay contest that gets close to one,000 applications a year and is judged by dozens of blog readers. In 2022, five grand prize winners each took home $12,000 in cash and v second-prize winners took home $2,000 in cash. In 2022, we had 10 winners overall in the category of fiscal and inspiring stories. It helps us to promote fiscal literacy and directly reduce the indebtedness of a few students each twelvemonth.

However, this scholarship plan requires a lot of labor to run and requires annual fundraising. It is funded by contributions from regular readers, past soliciting sponsorships from our advertising partners (including offering sponsored posts on the weblog to 5 platinum sponsors a year, which usually attracts some flak from readers), and by a substantial contribution from WCI profits. Without providing that labor and doing that fundraising, there is no scholarship. The likelihood that the WCI Medical School Scholarship Program continues for a long period of time in its electric current form is probably pretty low. Non much legacy at that place.

As Katie and I have built wealth across "enough" (financial independence), our focus turns more than from earning, spending, saving, and investing toward giving, estate planning, asset protection, and legacy building. We are highly motivated by a desire to provide for others only without ruining their lives with the gift. "Others" range from family members to people on the other side of the world. A couple of our college friends who also became quite financially successful take like issues and desires. Knowing they had started some scholarships at our alma mater, nosotros asked to be put in bear upon with their contact. It turned out the process was MUCH easier than I had expected. And so we endowed a couple of scholarship funds this yr and will probable exercise some more in later years.

Aside from having enough money to endow the scholarships, nosotros have also benefited from the assistance of others in obtaining our didactics. We both worked in college (especially during the summers) and had some help from our immediate families (Katie'southward >> mine). Katie also received a fleck of "education money" from her grandparents but mostly didn't need it for her actual pedagogy due to scholarships and hard work. Our grand full of educatee loans upon completing two available's degrees, a master's caste, and an MD was the $v,000 I borrowed every bit a college freshman. We both had academic tuition scholarships as undergrads. Her niche graduate degree in Adaptive Physical Education was substantially paid for by the plan itself. And every bit well-nigh of you know, my medical school was paid for via a contract programme with the U.S. Air Force known equally the Wellness Professions "Scholarship" Plan. So we view these scholarship endowments every bit "paying forward" what we received ourselves. It is something we've always wanted to do and now we can, then we volition.

What Is an Endowed Scholarship?

The aim of an endowed scholarship is to donate money that can be invested and managed past the university and so that the involvement that's earned on the principal of the donation tin can and then be used as a yearly scholarship to those students who need it. An endowed scholarship is not supposed to be a one-off. Instead, information technology'southward supposed to continue to produce income for years and is supposed to help a number of students instead of only 1.

This is different from funding a regular scholarship, where you'd donate a set up amount of money and information technology goes direct into a scholarship fund. The money isn't invested. Information technology's just given to students directly. If you want a regular donation to final for years, well, you're going to have to give money to the university every year.

Yes, an endowed scholarship volition require more than money than a regular scholarship—mayhap $50,000 for an endowed scholarship, possibly $100,000—but the gift should concluding for much, much longer.

How to Commencement a Scholarship Endowment

It turns out that universities want your money, and then they make it really easy for you lot to requite it to them. Our friend introduced us by e-mail to his contact at Brigham Young University Philanthropies. Over the class of two or three months, nosotros had all of our questions answered. It was great. He was always available, but we never felt rushed. In the end, the process was super bones. The university attorneys draft upwardly a "letter of the alphabet" describing the endowment fund and nosotros send them some greenbacks. That'due south it. Similar all the rest of our charitable giving, we run it through our Donor Advised Fund (DAF) for convenience and anonymity. All advice was past email and everything was signed electronically. Like shooting fish in a barrel-peasy.

How Much Does Information technology Cost to Endow a Scholarship?

One of the best parts of Brigham Young University is that every yr it is rated as one of, if non THE, best educational value in the country. It is a big, private university with a pretty good academic reputation in many fields (and 1 of the best not-Ability 5 football teams, I might add). All the same, its tuition is less than in-state tuition at most flagship land universities and at many customs colleges. For the 2022-2021 year, tuition was simply $v,790 for the ii main semesters. Since the cost is so depression, endowing a scholarship that will provide a total-ride scholarship is also relatively cheap. While in that location are no guarantees that the endowment fund will provide a full-tuition scholarship to a student every year, the toll is essentially $120,000 for a full-tuition scholarship and $lx,000 for a half-tuition scholarship.

It does non pay out to a student in the calendar year that you make the endowment or in the next calendar year, simply it is felt that it volition likely provide a full-tuition scholarship every year indefinitely after that. It works out to be nearly a five% "return" on the "investment." If you lot want the scholarship to pay out immediately, you lot can just add the first year's "distribution" to your contribution and get started right abroad. You lot could exercise the same (at to the lowest degree during your lifetime) in a year when the fund is unable to distribute a scholarship due to poor returns. We funded these at the cease of 2022, then they will beginning paying out in 2022.

Yous exercise not accept to fund this during your lifetime, either. You can designate money in your volition or trust to go to the university. Y'all can name the academy equally the beneficiary of your life insurance policy. You tin can fifty-fifty use a charitable remainder trust. The university even lets you into a special "Jesse and Amanda Knight Society" just for naming them in your volition, trust, or policy at whatever amount.

If y'all're wondering what it would have to endow a similar scholarship at your alma mater, just multiply tuition there by xx.

Endowed Scholarship Recipients

The other part of the process I constitute particularly impressive was just how much command yous tin can accept over who gets the scholarship. You can't exist on the scholarship committee and you can't name your kids or those of a neighbour equally the recipient or anything, but every bit long equally the criteria is reasonable and achievable, y'all tin can make the criteria whatever y'all want it to be.

You can name a gender, race, state or country of origin, major, career ambition, talent, economic condition, GPA, etc. In the end, we kept the two scholarships we funded fairly like shooting fish in a barrel with relatively broad criteria to leave maximum discretion to the scholarship committees. You lot can also proper noun the scholarships. You can name the scholarships after yourself, a family member or mentor you lot wish to honor, or even a business. Here is the meat from each of the letters of our two funds:

The Pre-Med Scholarship

To Philanthropies BYU:

The purpose of this letter is to institute the White Coat Investor Pre-Med Endowed Scholarship Fund at Brigham Young University (BYU). The undersigned intend (without obligation to practice so) to recommend that a grant for this purpose in the corporeality of $120,000.00 be made to BYU contemporaneously with the signing of this certificate from a donor advised fund created past the undersigned. Other contributions may be made from fourth dimension to time at the discretion of one or both of the undersigned, or by other donors. However, contributions consisting of assets other than greenbacks may exist added only upon the prior consent of BYU. Unless specifically designated every bit currently spendable in writing at the time of contribution, additional contributions shall be added to the main of this endowed fund.

This fund shall be administered by a commission (Committee) consisting of BYU personnel appointed past the Manager of Student Development Services at BYU. Awards shall be fabricated from currently spendable amounts and bachelor earnings from this fund on an annual or more than frequent basis for i or more selected students who are pursuing a caste at BYU, who are in their inferior or senior year, who have expressed an intention to attend medical schoolhouse, who have successfully completed at least 20 credit hours of science classes with a course bespeak boilerplate of at least 3.3 (on a four.0 calibration) in such classes, and who are deemed by a Pre-Med advisor to be likely to matriculate to medical school in the next approximately two years. Those receiving awards shall be eligible for awards in more than one bookish twelvemonth.

Once the initial contribution is made, this endowment fund shall be in perpetuity, or for as long every bit BYU policy permits. Direction of the endowment (including simply not necessarily limited to, investment, decision of income, and payment of any unusual expenses directly related to its administration) shall be reasonable, prudent, and in accordance with policies of BYU and whatsoever applicable Utah laws regarding the management of institutional funds, such as the Utah Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Deed, or whatever other like human activity which may be enacted. Small portions of endowment income may be added to principal from fourth dimension to time so that there can be growth in the endowment fund.

Subject to the foregoing criteria and BYU policy, the Committee shall take full discretionary power regarding the option of recipients and the amount and timing of awards distributed to or on behalf of each recipient. Reports and correspondence should be sent to the undersigned at the address shown above.

If for any reason in the time to come the purpose or purposes for which this fund is established no longer exist or get impractical, this fund shall instead be used for such charitable purpose or purposes as closely related as possible to the purpose or purposes stated above every bit may exist determined by the President of BYU.

Reference herein to any higher, school, department, institute, middle, organisation, committee, board, office, major, class, plan, position, or personnel at BYU, shall include and shall too refer to any successor of such college, school, section, institute, center, organization, committee, lath, office, major, class, program, position, or personnel at BYU.

BYU volition be the accented owner of the fund and shall apply reasonable care in overseeing the administration and investment of the fund. However, BYU shall not have the duties of a trustee.

The provisions hereof may be amended or modified in whole or in part by agreement in writing signed by BYU and by the undersigned, the authorized agent or assignee of the undersigned, or, after the expiry or incompetency of one or both of the undersigned, by the survivor or the other of the undersigned, or, if both of the undersigned are deceased or incompetent, by a direct descendant of the undersigned, regardless of whether or non at that place are other donors to this fund.

Our goal for this scholarship was to have information technology go to someone who was actually going to go to medical school, not one of the thousands who say they're pre-med as freshmen. That's why nosotros set up the requirement to be an upperclassman with a decent science GPA. Since there is no pre-med major, we decided to exit information technology up to the pre-med advisors (who make upwards most of the commission anyway) to decide if the recipient was actually probable to go to medical school. Now pre-med advisors are obviously not perfect in determining that (it seems similar many docs recall existence told by a pre-med counselor they'd never get in), merely we figured they could at least find one person to give the scholarship to each year. At any rate, now in that location are two White Glaze Investor scholarship programs, one for medical students and one for pre-meds! Just only one of them is set up to exist in perpetuity.

The Educational activity Scholarship

The other scholarship alphabetic character reads similarly, except for this section:

The purpose of this alphabetic character is to establish the ———— and ————- Endowed Scholarship Fund at Brigham Young University (BYU). The undersigned intend (without obligation to exercise then) to recommend that a grant for this purpose in the amount of $120,000.00 exist made to BYU contemporaneously with the signing of this document from a donor advised fund created by the undersigned……. This fund shall exist administered by a committee (Commission) consisting of BYU personnel appointed by the Dean of the David O. McKay Schoolhouse of Education (McKay Schoolhouse) at BYU. Awards shall be made from currently spendable amounts and available earnings from this fund on an annual or more frequent basis for one or more selected students who accept been accepted into the Elementary Education major in the McKay Schoolhouse or who have been accepted into another teaching major within the Educator Grooming Program at BYU. Those receiving awards shall be eligible for awards in more than 1 bookish yr.

scholarship endowmentHow to Proper name a Scholarship

Nosotros named this scholarship after Katie'southward grandparents, who had long careers as a school district superintendent and a teacher. Education was always very important to them and emphasized in her family unit. Despite living on the income of educators, they put away money early for each of their grandkids to assist with their educations, and they have even founded a fund to help future generations of their descendants obtain university educations. Interestingly, the university fabricated us get their written permission to name the fund after them!

We have some ideas for other scholarships, besides. For instance, I played on a club hockey team while I was at that place, and it would sure help recruiting if that team had a scholarship or 2 to offer recruits.

As yous can see, endowing a scholarship is relatively easy and perhaps non every bit expensive as you lot might take idea. You also get plenty of control over who receives the scholarship. If you accept always wanted to endow a scholarship, I would encourage you to contact your favorite university today to become the process started.

What do yous think? Have you endowed a scholarship before? What was it like? Practise y'all plan to do information technology later in life or at your death? Why or why not? Annotate below!

[This updated mail was originally published in June 2022.]