Why create a scholarship?

Help us solve the combined problems of more jobs requiring college education, and the cost of college tuition rising outside of the reach of many in our community. Creating a scholarship enables you to help our youth start strong in their career while creating a legacy for yourself or your loved one.

Create a Scholarship:

100% of money donated towards scholarships administered by KEYS goes to the student benefit.  Administrative expenses for KEYS are covered through our annual fundraising efforts, with our largest fundraiser being the KEYS 5K Run/Walk.

For all of our scholarship types we offer the following services:

• A single scholarship application form for our Kewaskum Highschool graduates to complete.
• Interview students and select the best candidates for a scholarship based on that scholarship’s selection criteria, or enable the scholarship donor to select.
• Administer scholarship payout, including verification of students achieving the required academic status of full-time enrollment and 2.0 minimum GPA.

We administer four types of scholarships for our Kewaskum Graduates.

Endowed Scholarships

An endowed scholarship is a scholarship funded by a permanent gift (the principal) that is invested to generate income. The income, or a portion of it, is then used to award scholarships annually, ensuring that the principal remains intact and the scholarship can continue in perpetuity. In essence, it’s a gift that keeps on giving for future generations of students. Typically Endowed scholarships are part of a will or estate plan, but can also be created by caring community members who want to leave a lasting legacy.  Minimum starting values are $25,000.

Building Endowment Scholarships

Building Endowment scholarships start with a permanent gift (the principle) and yearly donations that cover the scholarship payments that year, and add towards the principle.  Once the principle reaches the full endowment value, the scholarship converts to an Endowed Scholarship.  These are for donators who wish to start providing scholarships today while working towards creating endowed scholarship, (but do not meet the full financial requirements for an endowment today).

Fixed Term Scholarships

A fixed-term scholarship is a scholarship funded by a gift (the principal) that is invested to generate income. The interest income and a portion of the principle is used to award scholarships annually.  The fund is designed to provide scholarships for a specific number of years.  Typically these are established in memorial of a community member.  Fixed Term scholarships require a minimum of $5,000.

Pass-through Scholarships

A Pass-through Scholarship is a type of scholarship where the donor provides a direct, annual gift, and the scholarship is passed directly to the student’s account without being invested or held by the institution. Unlike endowed scholarships, which are funded by the investment returns of a larger fund, pass-through scholarships are funded by recurring contributions.  These are typically sponsored by local businesses.

When creating any scholarship, please consider the following items:

• Type of higher-learning education: College-based, Tech School based, or flexible
• Term of impact you are looking:  yearly, fixed term, or endowment
• Scholarship number of awarding years and total scholarship value
  • Ex: $10,000 scholarship awarded at $2,500 each year for 4 years.
• To reach endowment status: fund principle needs to be 25x the yearly scholarship value.