UNC Asheville better matches scholarships with students, boosting fund utilization from 70% to 95%

The relationship-driven education at the University of North Carolina Asheville prepares undergraduate and graduate students for lives of leadership and service with an emphasis on critical thinking, applied research, and community engagement. To more effectively match its 3,000+ students with 400 active scholarships, increase fund utilization, and provide a better student experience, the public liberal arts and sciences university relies on Blackbaud Award Management.

Associate Director of University Scholarships Brian P. Davis explained that the university previously had antiquated, manual ways of collecting and processing student scholarship applications and as a result only utilized around 70% of available scholarship funds. “After using Blackbaud Award
Management to identify recipients and match them with scholarships, we were able to forecast spending around 95% of both our endowed and
annual fund scholarships across the entire institution. As our sophistication and use of the software continues to progress, we’ve been able to award even more funds.”

With Blackbaud’s scholarship management software, universities can automatically use the most relevant student population data and match funds to students to meet institutional commitments. “Now, using tools within the software, we can identify students more readily, quickly, and accurately, and award the scholarships appropriately,” Davis said.

Having this data enables UNC Asheville to award more scholarships to more students. The advancement team can also use this data to work with donors who may have not realized their criteria was too strict and encourage adjustments. “This shows them we’re making sure their funds are being fully utilized as intended and enhances the donor experience, which could potentially lead to bigger donations in the future,” added Davis.

A Seamless Scholarship Experience for Students

A centralized office at UNC Asheville brings together the foundation with the financial aid and advancement departments as well as the budget and finance division. They all work together with academic departments, athletic
programs, and others to award scholarships to students.

UNC Asheville has over 30 academic departments, and each has its own
unique way of identifying which students best fit a certain scholarship.
“Blackbaud Award Management provides us a holistic tool for managing scholarship applications,” said Davis. “Every student is tracked and considered equally and equitably eligible for scholarship opportunities. The software also helps us remove unconscious bias because opportunities are
now disseminated to all students who are eligible based off their major code.”

Blackbaud Award Management makes it simple for students to identify and apply to relevant scholarships through a general application form that
connects to the university’s nearly 400 active scholarship opportunities. UNC
Asheville typically awards over 300 of them annually. “The software is very student-centric. A student can answer a question once on any application, and then it’s applied to any scholarship they are or might be eligible for, saving them time and improving their experience,” said Davis. “Funneling everything across the university into Blackbaud Award Management ensures
that the data will be accurate and consistent for all departments.”

Many of UNC Asheville’s scholarship gifts are eligible to be renewed. The scholarship is tagged as a renewal on the student record, and as long as the student still matches the criteria, the funds will be dispersed once approved.
“Blackbaud Award Management enables us to create a seamless experience for students by not requiring them to take additional steps with renewal scholarships,” said Davis. “The software allows us to keep the renewability and still have a review option before funds are dispersed.”

UNC Asheville partnered with Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community
College to create a joint program called the CORE Scholarship program
for A-B Tech students intending to enroll at UNC Asheville. As part of the
program, students annually receive a $2,000 scholarship while attending A-B Tech and $4,000 scholarship when attending UNC Ashville. “Blackbaud Award Management makes managing these scholarship funds so easy for us and A-B Tech,” said Davis.

Setting Everyone Up for Shared Success

As they gear up for the next scholarship season, UNC Asheville continues to expand its use of Blackbaud Award Management with academic departments
starting to manage their own scholarship application processes directly in the software. With the software’s flexibility, they adopted a unique custom categorization that enables them to tag a scholarship applicant as “department finalist” with suggestions for funds the student could receive.
The financial aid office can authorize and approve the recommendation, then
disperse the funds accordingly. “This gives them autonomy and ownership of their scholarship funds, while allowing financial aid to still ensure we’re being
compliant with the donors’ wishes,” said Davis. “The faculty were thrilled, I mean absolutely thrilled for a secure, automated, paperless process that’s going to provide them with the accurate list of candidates for each of their scholarships.”

Plus, the advancement office can leverage student thank-you letters directly within the office’s fundraising and relationship management tool, Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, because it seamlessly integrates with Blackbaud Award Management. That should be a huge timesaver.

Prior to Blackbaud Award Management, UNC Asheville would have in-person thank-you note writing sessions that had an 84% completion rate. “Now students can use the software to share their thank you letters or post acceptance information to all their opportunities instead of having to write
a unique letter each time for each one,” said Davis.

Instead of a blank space, staff can provide prompts to students that
encourage thoughtful letters that show donors the impact they are
making and encourage them to consider doing even more. And that’s just one of many ways that the software supports all the stakeholders. “I’m excited to see what else we can accomplish with Blackbaud Award Management as we continue to tap into more of its capabilities.”