Frequently Asked Questions for Scholarship Administrators

NCCF scholarship awards are only issued to not-for-profit institutions and government entities such as public colleges or universities.

Scholarships using NCCF’s Universal Scholarships Application may not accept paper or hard-copy applications.

Other scholarships may accept hard-copy applications, but the administrator must maintain a copy of the hard-copy application and all supplemental documents, including transcripts and letters of recommendation. All the documents must be submitted to NCCF to award a scholarship.

The minimum scholarship award amount is $1,000.

All scholarship funds will be sent directly to the recipient’s college or university, with payment split equally between the fall and spring semesters.

No, NCCF scholarship funds can only be awarded to domestic institutions.

Yes! Scholarships are awarded independently, so students can be awarded more than one scholarship.

Graduating high school seniors must provide an official transcript. College students may upload a copy of an official transcript, or an “unofficial” transcript, which can usually be obtained free of charge from the Registrar’s Office or by downloading it from the college’s website. However, unofficial transcripts are only acceptable if the student’s name, school ID number and school name are printed on them.

Yes! While some scholarships are only available to graduating seniors or incoming college freshmen, many scholarships are open to anyone attending college, regardless of age or time off.

FAFSA stands for “Free Application for Student Aid” and is the form students use to apply for federal student aid. The form collects information that is universally used by financial aid offices and scholarship providers to assess a student’s financial need. Congress passed legislation in 2020 to simplify FAFSA that led to a significant overhaul. The revisions were designed to create a more streamlined process, expand eligibility for federal student aid, and improve the experience for applicants. The revised FAFSA was implemented for the first time in 2024.

Generally, changes were made that streamlined the FAFSA application form and improved the process for students. Additionally, the changes expanded federal Pell grant eligibility for students based on family size and federal poverty level.

The “Expected Family Contribution” or EFC was replaced with the “Student Aid Index” or SAI in 2024. The SAI is an evaluation of a family’s financial resources that may be available to help pay for college. The needs analysis formula no longer includes the number of family members in college. The SAI number has a minimum of negative 1500; the lower the score, the greater the financial need the student has. As a reference point, students with an SAI between zero and negative 1500 qualify for the maximum Pell Grant amount.

Given ongoing delays in rolling out the updated FAFSA application, it is possible some students will not receive their SAI before NCCF’s Universal Application closes. Therefore, students will be asked to elaborate on their financial needs as part of their application. This additional information should be considered in addition to the SAI number, or in lieu of it if the student did not receive an SAI prior to the application closing date.

All scholarships using NCCF’s Universal Scholarships Application close on March 3 and cannot be extended or closed early. For scholarships not using the Universal Application, a deadline change can be requested by emailing scholarships@nccommunityfoundation.org. Changing deadlines is not recommended.

If you have submitted your Scholarship Committee Form that named all committee members and need to make a change to your scholarship committee, you must notify NCCF immediately via email at scholarships@nccommunityfoundation.org. Please provide the name(s) of anyone no longer serving on the committee and any new members added to the committee for NCCF’s review and approval.

Yes, but contributions intended for the current year’s scholarship awards must be sent to NCCF before the closing date of the scholarship with a letter specifying that they are “pass-though” donations.

You can use the search function on the NCCF website to locate your scholarship’s page or you may search for scholarships by county using the dropdown menu at nccommunityfoundation.org/scholarships.

Contact us at scholarships@nccommunityfoundation.org if changes are needed.

Students do not need an access code to apply for any NCCF scholarship, including scholarships not on the universal application.

Scholarship award displacement occurs when receipt of one form of financial aid, such as a private scholarship, results in a reduction in other forms of financial aid. There are several reasons why scholarship displacement occurs, and it can cause problems for students, such as preventing them from getting the full benefit of the scholarships they win and ultimately means a student’s full financial need is not being met.

Review more information on scholarship displacement from the National Scholarship Providers Association, including tips on how to reduce it.

The universal application is an online application form that allows students to apply for multiple North Carolina Community Foundation scholarships using a single application. The universal application is used by over 130 NCCF scholarships and provides students with an easier and more efficient scholarship application experience.

Prior to 2024, students had to research all NCCF scholarships individually to determine the ones for which they may be eligible, potentially missing opportunities. Students had to complete a separate application for each scholarship, including submitting transcripts and letters of recommendation for each.

As a result, many applications were abandoned or incomplete, leading to fewer applicants for scholarships and missed opportunities for students.

The universal application improves and simplifies the scholarship research and application process for students. It will match student details with scholarship criteria, alerting students to all scholarships for which they are eligible, relieving them from the burden of researching and applying individually to each scholarship.

With the universal application, students complete one base application. The universal application will use information submitted on the base application (e.g., county of residence, GPA, intended major) to scour scholarship opportunities and present students with all NCCF scholarships for which they qualify, noting those that may have a custom question or supplemental essay.

• If a student is eligible for scholarships with no supplemental questions, their application will automatically be submitted into the pool for those scholarships.
• If a scholarship requires supplemental questions, the student will have the opportunity to submit those.

During our first two seasons (2024 and 2025) using the universal application, there was an increase in applications to NCCF scholarships and an overall increase in scholarship awards. In addition, the management and administration process were streamlined for students, NCCF staff and scholarship administrators.

The universal application also makes it easier for guidance counselors, teachers and others to submit transcripts and letters of recommendation. They upload one letter per student and the system then applies those documents to all scholarships for which the student has applied.

Yes, after a student completes the general questions, the universal application matches them to a variety of opportunities they are eligible for, and they answer supplemental questions that are specific to individual scholarships before submitting their application.

Some scholarships may receive more applications, which may result in additional review for administrators. Some scholarships may receive fewer, but better aligned, applications because the universal application will filter in only those students who qualify; this will reduce the time needed to cull applications.

No, all scholarships using the universal application have a deadline of March 3 and application deadlines may not be extended.

There will be one deadline for all scholarship applications using the universal application. However, administrators can schedule scholarship committee meetings based on convenience and committee availability.

Yes, you can use the portal to view and download applications only. You cannot score applications from within the system.

Fewer than 20 scholarships administered by NCCF will not use the universal application. Students can review a listing of those scholarships and apply for scholarships they may be eligible for through the NCCF Scholarships Portal. Students will need to submit a separate application for each of these scholarships and will need to individually upload transcripts and recommendation letters for each application.

Watch this six-minute video to view the universal application from a student’s perspective.