3.44 Endowed Scholarship Policy

Piedmont University has an Endowed Scholarship Policy to help ensure that endowed scholarships are accepted, invested and awarded appropriately.

Procedures: Endowed scholarships require a minimum corpus of $25,000. If the scholarship is established with less than $25,000, earnings will not accrue until the fund reaches the $25,000 threshold. After five years, fund balances with less than $25,000 may be, at the discretion of the Piedmont University Senior Management combined with other general or like purpose funds.

Accounts established prior to July 1, 2019 that reached the former $15,000 threshold will be notated. Accounts established prior to this date that have not met the $15,000 threshold, will have 5 years from the date of inception to reach this amount, otherwise, the funds will roll into general scholarship or be combined with an account closest aligned with the donor’s intent.

Once the minimum corpus is attained, an endowed scholarship fund specifies that the principal be held intact, invested, and the spending allocation be used for scholarships as described in the Endowed Scholarship Agreement. One full calendar year’s earnings must accrue prior to the first award unless other arrangements are made.

Name and Area

 The donor has the opportunity to name the scholarship and designate criteria for the scholarship (such as Chemistry, Mass Communications, Need, etc.). It is important that the criteria be broad enough to award to a qualified applicant each year.

Selection

 Endowed Scholarships are awarded by Piedmont University’s Financial Aid Office unless the agreement states it differently.

Publicity

 The donor is asked to state whether publicity for the establishment of the endowment will be allowed.

Endowed Scholarship Agreement

 Advancement staff will work with the donor and the president to draft and approve the agreement. Two originals will be signed by the president. One original will be given to the donor and the other original will be filed in Controller’s Office. A copy of the agreement will be sent to Institutional Advancement and Financial Aid Office.

Implementation

After the endowed scholarship fund has been invested for one year, the spending allocation will be calculated (based on current board policy) and assigned to this scholarship. The Controller’s Office will send a list of endowed scholarships and the yearly budgeted amounts to be awarded for the upcoming academic year to the Financial Aid Office no later than February 1each year. Financial Aid Office will coordinate with other offices that were designated to select the recipients and collect that information.

Financial Aid will create a preliminary endowed scholarship recipient list by mid-March. Financial Aid will review this list July 1st to remove students who have not registered for classes for the for the upcoming fall term. A final selection of endowed scholarship recipients will occur after the final summer orientation date has passed. Financial Aid will send the final list of recipients and their awards to Advancement and the Office of Finance one week after the start of the fall semester. Advancement will work with the students to write the donors and/or representatives and the Controller’s Office will reconcile the funds, reinvesting any monies not awarded in that endowed scholarship fund.