Setting up a scholarship fund

[rlay1]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I am looking at establishing a scholarship at a provincial state high school for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It is the same high school that my asawa attended, so we already know the principal and teachers there.

As I understand it, there are no tuition fees and only an annual P500 contribution payable.

We will be in PH next month and will visit the school with the objective of setting up the scholarship fund.

So my questions for the brains trust are:
- What type of criteria should be put in place to ensure the most appropriate candidate is chosen?
- What would be a reasonable amount for the scholarship?
- Would giving a cash handout even be a wise idea?
- Any other advice?

NB: Whilst I appreciate that there is an introductions section in this forum, I do not wish to identify myself any further.

Regards,

R.

[Lee2]

Welcome to the forum. I will only comment on one aspect and it comes from my personal experience, it were me, then I would pay the contribution directly to the school for the students rather than give the students the cash, or it will very likely be long gone by the time they need it.

[JoeLP]

I know a guy who loved college football. He literally had over 12 season tickets to both Michigan State University games and University of Michigan games.  But, for whatever reason, he hated going to the yearly MSU v UM games and would donate those to the school under specific regulations.  Students needed to be athletes, be on honor roll, and more. 
Anyway, he was talking to my dad about what went into setting those up and it was pretty crazy with lawyer papers and fees.  He had the money and did it and I am sure he's now dead and if his plans were continued to his wishes, that school is still getting the tickets for the students that qualify and are chosen. 
Not sure what exactly you are looking at, but if your plan is just to have an account opened in a trust setup or some form like that and have a set amount of money withdrawn every year/month...probably need to do the lawyer thing also.
If you and your wife trust someone in the school system to be honest and not say more students need it than really do so they can skim...then that would be a nice setup.  Just have them call/email you the information and send the school the money for it.  Use a Western Union/Xoom.com or some form to send the money when needed.
I'm just spit balling.  Not sure really what is needed to be setup to run a scholarship setup.  But I do agree with Lee 100%.  Give the money to the school to pay for the kid's need, not to the kids/parents themselves.  That will often lead for your scholarship paying for Red Horse rather than schooling needs.

[iamjames]

As I understand it, there are no tuition fees and only an annual P500 contribution payable.

We will be in PH next month and will visit the school with the objective of setting up the scholarship fund.

R.

Must be a mistake there. I have never paid school fees for students at less than 3,500 per semester. Add in accommodation, food and school materials and it grows quite a bit.
A $10 per annum scholarship does not sound realistic.

[FastWalk]

Sounds like a nice idea.  Consider why you wish to do this.  There are plenty of existing charity set up that are happy to get donations.  One idea is to train and fund a small org with a goal to reach out to poor students to help them locate and compete for existing grants.  I would discourage from handing out a cash grant. 

Would you want to be hands on or just looking to provide funding?  I recall in the past disaster aid in province areas that aid can readily be stolen if not closely watched by the contributor. 

Good luck,  sounds fun.

[rlay1]

Thank you all for your feedback so far.

@iamjames It is a public high school and as I understand it other than the P500 contribution, tuition is free. Accommodation would not be necessary as students reside locally. So really, the scholarship would be for school supplies, books and maybe food.

@JoeLP You raise some interesting points about setting up a trust and involving lawyers which I had not even considered.
My asawa knows the school principal and a lot of the senior teachers there, so I think we would just have to trust the school to do the right thing. We have already set up a meeting with the principal to discuss the finer details.

@FastWalk I have previously donated to other charities, but I really had no idea where the money was going to.
I suppose my reason for doing this is to give back directly to the school and community that my asawa grew up in.

Now all I have to do is work out how much would be a reasonable amount:
- school supplies
- meals?
- anything else?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

R.

[JoeLP]

All those questions have answers that can vary depending on things like location and the people living there.
I suggest you just be careful.  I know of 2 cases where local schools got help and both times burned the foreigners who helped them.  On school got a library completely built and the couple got books from friends in Canada to fill most the shelves.  After 2 years of it being good for the kids the couple took their normal trip back to Canada only to return to an empty library and no one telling them what happened.  A few months later it was turned into a teachers lounge.
Another guy did something similar to another school.  An Aussie built a complete new wing when the school asked for help so it could start a college level educational school.  He built a complete 2 story wing with over 12 classes in it only for the school to use it part for more high school rooms and the rest for teacher lounges and at one point let teachers live there in some of the rooms.
Not saying that will happen to you...but just to give you some ideas of what can happen down the road.  Try and do some research into what's going on at that school and what is needed and look for ways that they could abuse what you're offering to do to help before taking that final step is my suggestion.

[rlay1]

Thanks for the heads up JoeLP.
I suppose it should not be too much of an ask for the school to provide names and details of the scholarship recipient?
Asawa still has batchmates that still live within the province, so we can get them to keep an eye on things.

[piozam13]

what about financial assistance to graduates going to college?  currently those in school "can make it".  but there maybe  academically worthy students whose parents cannot afford to send them to college.  i was approached by one before.   she finished a 4 year course.  i paid for tuition fees and gave her a monthly allowance.  when she found gainful employment she wanted to pay me back.  i told her to help someone in need - that meant more to her and me.
   

[JoeLP]

what about financial assistance to graduates going to college?  currently those in school "can make it".  but there maybe  academically worthy students whose parents cannot afford to send them to college.  i was approached by one before.   she finished a 4 year course.  i paid for tuition fees and gave her a monthly allowance.  when she found gainful employment she wanted to pay me back.  i told her to help someone in need - that meant more to her and me.
 

I think Piozam is on to something here.  Tina had 2 cousins and now our house keep's daughter that we have, or are putting through college.  Her cousins were a different story, kinda.  Public college is now free in the Philippines, in the same way the public elementary and high school educations are free.  You still need to pay for things, just not tuition.  That said, neither of her cousins could have started their college without our paying for it. The younger of the 2 brothers was in college when it became free, so we just helped with the extra costs then.  The house keep's daughter will get a full education free, again, except the extras.
Maybe set up something that helps them with their extras costs for college. The books, the fees and such that a college assesses.  Even if you want a job at the local Jolibees here in rural Northern Samar...you need to at least be in college.  So a HS diploma alone doesn't do much. 
I know that if we didn't pay for Irish's fees, her mother would be very hard put to do it.  She has other fees she needs to deal with concerning her other daughter and the 2 grandkids with that daughter. 
I'm sure there are other kids who graduated HS and want college...but cannot afford the books and fees.

[rlay1]

That is indeed an interesting evaluation of things.
Maybe I should reconsider instead of years 7 - 12, I should focus on senior years 11 & 12 and college?

@piozam13 If you don't mind me asking, how much were the fees and allowance?
If you don't want to disclose on a public forum then please PM me.

[suzukig1]

We provide all expenses for college including room and board for cousins of my wife.  So far 2 have graduated and now 2 others are going to college.  No need to worry about where the money goes.  In our case there would be an unlimited supply of cousins or family friends that could use financial help for college.

[Lee2]

As for costs, it varies depending on area, school and what they would be studying for. We had put 6 of our family into college and only one made it to graduation, a male, the ladies did not stick it out, that was years ago, so the cost back then was around p18,000 to p25,000 per semester for college and room and board, I wonder what costs would be now? 

[Peter]

As for costs, it varies depending on area, school and what they would be studying for. We had put 6 of our family into college and only one made it to graduation, a male, the ladies did not stick it out, that was years ago, so the cost back then was around p18,000 to p25,000 per semester for college and room and board, I wonder what costs would be now?

Lee.


I did post something similar earlier in another thread, but here are the costs, in PhP, for our daughter.

We live in the Bataan and she is a 3rd year MedTech undergrad at the Saint Louis Uiniversity (SLU) Baguio, which is a private, Catholic, Dep-Ed accredited university. So she's not able to live at home. during term time.

The fees are quite reasonable, about 25,000 per term/semester (3 a year) plus around 10,000 for special projects/personal safety equipment/tools etc. etc. per year.

The 3 terms (semesters) are; August to December, January to Easter, and Easter to June.

An optional, 8 week summer (June/July) school is 12,000 which she chose to do, as most of her 5 year classroom lectures and academics (a unit credit system is followed) can be completed in 4 years, with the 5th year almost totally devoted to practical OJT in outside labs and hospitals, before final graduation refresher studies.

There are only 3 outside medical facilities accredited to the SLU for 5th year MedTech OJT. One in Baguio, one in Pangasinan and one in Ilocos Norte.

Her single occupancy accommodation (split level 2 rooms with small kitchen area, toilet and hot water shower) with free water, is PhP 6,500 per month.

Room electric is a fixed charge of 700 pm.

Internet - Smart Pocket WiFi internet, 10Gb package, is 799 pm.

Plus 5,000 for her monthly food and necessities allowance.

So around 250,000 +/- a year

On the plus side, both our local Municipality and the Bataan Provincial Government, have awarded her yearly (but paid in 2 tranches) bursaries of up to 4,000 from local and 8,000 from Bataan. Both these allowances are based on her achieving, in all her grades, 90% or better in the preceding academic year.


Peter

[rlay1]

Hi Peter,

Thank you very much for the informative post.
It definitely gives me some numbers to work with, especially regarding the bursaries offered by the Municipality and Provincial Government.

Can you advise the application process and selection criteria for the bursaries?
You wouldn’t happen to have the paperwork for the bursaries?
How was the payment made?

Regards,

R.