I would like to find out the neccessary steps required to create a
scholarship fund.  This would include paperwork required, any fees
associated with startup, financial requirements, reporting, and any
other legal requirements or restrictions associated with starting the
fund.  The purpose of the fund is to help pay tuition for children or
grandchildren of soldiers that are currently on active duty or served
on active duty in the military since 1989.

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Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 19 Dec 2002 07:52 PST

In whic  country? If US, which State?

idontlivein,

Thanks for your question.  The generosity you are showing in
establishing a scholarship fund is wonderful and I commend you.  There
are several steps involved in setting up a scholarship fund.

1.  Determine the funding available
2.  Determine amount available to be paid annually.
3.  Determine the duration of the award (one-time or annually)
4.  Establish the criteria for award.
5.  Determine administration of the award.  This involves application
procedures, selection procedures, student progress monitoring, fiscal
reporting, promotion, application design and timelines.

The tax laws involved are fairly complex (as tax laws tend to be) in
that how the fund is established will determine the tax liabilities. 
A recommendation that I would make would be to contact a third-party
scholarship administrating organization. You can explain your
situation to them and they can provide direction in the best way to go
in your particular case.  Also,you may want to consider contacting
established non-profit veteran's groups and have them maintain and
adminiter the scholarship program.

Below, I have provided several resources on establishing scholarships
as well as some organizations that can assist you:

Setting Up Scholarship Funds
http://int1.cof.org/fnc/18peckham.html

Developing an Educational Scholarship Program
http://www.asrt.org/toolkit/recruitment/scholarship_program.pdf
(Note: This requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.scholarshipadministrators.com/links/faq.html

Scholarship Program Administrators, Inc
http://www.scholarshipadministrators.com/

The Center for Scholarship Administration
http://www.scholarshipprograms.org/

If you visit http://www.nonprofits.org/lib/stateoffices.html, it has a
list of contacts for States that will be able to provide you with a
list of non-profit organizations, including those dealing with
veterans, that you can contact regarding their policies as it pertains
to establishing scholarships.

Good luck in the this wonderful endeavor.  If you need any additional
clarification, please let me know.

Regards,

-THV

Search Terms:
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Thank you very much for your speedy and thourough answer.