Scholarships
Central Valley Community Foundation awards close to 240 scholarships annually and has awarded nearly $3 Million to students since 2017. Scholarships honor the Foundation’s mission to increase opportunity for Central Valley residents. Currently, the majority of the scholarships awarded have an external application process that is not managed by the Foundation. To learn more about current scholarships opportunities, please email scholarships@centralvalleycf.org.
Scholarship Recipients
If you are an existing scholarship recipient and have been asked to complete our Scholarship Recipient Processing Form*, please use the link below.
Click here to download our Scholarship Recipient Processing Form.
* Please note: This form is not for scholarship applicants and will only be processed for awardees who have been previously notified.
Please email scholarships@centralvalleycf.org to learn about current and future opportunities.
Thinking of starting a scholarship fund at the Foundation?
A donor often has a vision for a scholarship fund when partnering with the Central Valley Community Foundation. Once the scholarship fund is established, a donor works to refine their vision and collaborates with the Foundation to identify committee members.
Scholarship Criteria
Create a document that outlines the background, purpose, eligibility, and selection criteria for your scholarship fund.
IRS mandates
The scholarship must be awarded on an objective and nondiscriminatory basis, and the group of applicants from which the recipients are selected must be sufficiently broad as to be considered a charitable class.
No grants may be awarded to an officer, manager, or trustee of the organization, a member of the selection committee, a substantial contributor, or certain US government officials. Family members of these individuals are also not eligible to receive grants.
Read the full list of IRS mandates around scholarships compiled by The Foundation.
The Selection Committee
Create a document with the names and contact information of each individual who will review the applications and — based on the eligibility and selection guidelines for the scholarship — make a recommendation to the Foundation’s Board of Directors on who should receive the scholarship award.
The donor and related parties may sit on a selection committee, but they may not make up a majority of the committee. The majority of the committee must be comprised of individuals who are not related parties and who are not designated or appointed by the donor.
For more information
Anali Fuentes
Donor Services Coordinator
scholarships@centralvalleycf.org