Scholarship Funds
An endowed scholarship fund provides a tangible link to the future. The gift of education that a scholarship bestows benefits not just the students, but the community as well. Whether as a lasting memorial to a special person or to meet current charitable needs, an endowed scholarship fund can provide access to educational opportunities to a wide variety of students – preschoolers to post-graduates. The Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF) offers a flexible, affordable vehicle for donors to realize their charitable goals.
ECCF provides an opportunity for donors to establish endowed scholarship funds to benefit individuals who might otherwise be unable to complete or continue their education at the secondary or tertiary level.
Community Banks administering existing Scholarship or Memorial Funds might consider working with the ECCF to establish an ECCF Investment Account to which these funds can be transferred, aggregated and managed as a single fund.
To set up a scholarship fund, a donor needs to decide a few things about how what the fund will do, using the following options:
Will the fund be advised of designated? 
Advised - ECCF will work with an independent advisory committee selected by the donor(s), responsible for the selection and recommendation of award candidates to ECCF's Board of Trustees. In many cases a local high school has already established such a committee. An advised scholarship fund works well for scholarships intended to serve a local community.
Designated - The amount available for disbursement is automatically paid annually to a non-profit institution (college, vocational school, etc.) named by the donor(s). It is the institution's responsibility to determine award recipients, annually. A designated scholarship fund works best for donors who are particularly interested in supporting students at a specific institution.
Who will serve on the Advisory Committee?
Each advised fund must have a voluntary committee of interested individuals that meets annually to review all the scholarship applicants and recommend recipients to ECCF. The committee may be selected by the donor(s) but the majority of members may not be family members. The committee also helps create selection criteria, design and disseminate applications for the fund and publicize the availability of the scholarship.
Other things to know about scholarship funds:
Role ECCF Board of Trustees The role of ECCF's Board of Trustees is to ensure accountability in the distribution process.
Minimum Opening Balance and Fees
A Scholarship fund may be established with as little as $10,000, and an administration fee of 1.5%, charged annually. There is also an investment fee. Click here for management fee information.
Scholarship awards
Awards are paid to students in June to coincide with school payment schedules. Checks are made co-payable to the student and the school of choice and mailed directly to the student. By making checks co-payable, ECCF minimizes the possibility of an award being misapplied by either the student or the school.
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