The Cleveland Alumnae Panhellenic has had great successes with their Alumnae Panhellenic scholarships. Hear what they have to say about what makes them so successful:
"The Cleveland Alumnae Panhellenic has proudly supported a scholarship program since 1915 – 103 years! We are fortunate to have a separate foundation, Cleveland Alumnae Panhellenic Endowment Fund (CAPEF), holding more than $200,000. CAPEF has its own bylaws that govern how the money is invested and managed. CAPEF recommends a scholarship amount to be distributed annually and CAPA considers the recommendation and votes to approve the amount to be awarded. We share our fall fundraiser profits with CAPEF and host an annual scholarship luncheon where scholarship winners are recognized. During the luncheon, CAPA's Ways and Means committee puts together a basket raffle that benefits CAPEF. We typically raise $2,000-$2,500 towards future scholarships.
Our Alumnae Panhellenic promotes our scholarship program in a few ways: 1) Each delegate contacts their headquarters and asks for an email contact list by zip code (our surrounding 7 counties) of women currently enrolled as collegians and forwards to our scholarship chair that email blasts out the information. 2) The scholarship chair sends the information via email to NPC and Ohio Colleges Panhellenic advisors to post on their webpages and promote at meetings. 3) Alumnae delegates promote to their own alumnae chapter members to encourage collegiate and alumnae to apply. 4) Alumnae delegates themselves promote to individual collegiate chapters (email, Facebook, Twitter etc.). 5) We host all of our scholarship information and documents on our website: clevelandpanhellenic.org.
The current CAPA president's sorority hosts an annual luncheon the 2nd or 3rd Saturday in May. The attendance varies from about 150-300 people. This year it will be on Saturday, May 18, 2019, 10:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., at the Cleveland Metro Parks Zoo - Stillwater Place. All are welcome to join us to see firsthand how we celebrate our scholarship winners!"
The Cleveland Alumnae Panhellenic also shared this advice if your Alumnae Panhellenic is starting a new scholarship program or wants to improve on an existing one:
- Set up the scholarship application online from the beginning.
- Determine the eligibility requirements and scholarship amount and add to the group's standing rules.
- Raise funds ahead of time and possibly set up and endowment fund with a separate board of trustees to manage the fund.
- The scholarship committee should have a least six members that review each application independently to give it balance.
- Use the scholarship to promote your Alumnae Panhellenic to a wider audience. Who knows, today's scholarship winner may join their local alumnae chapter and possibly be a delegate to Panhellenic someday.
