Grants and Scholarships

Coastal Bend Community Foundation Annual Grant Application Live

by Brian on May 15, 2012

The Coastal Bend Community Foundation’s (CBCF) Annual Grant Application is now live.  Individuals and institutions from the seven counties served by CBCF in Texas (Aransas, Bee, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Nueces, Refugio and San Patrico) are eligible to apply.

CBCF is a philanthropic “pool” that treats all donors, no matter the size of their contribution, equally.  They allow donors to name their fund and choose the field of interest.  Donors to CBCF receive the maximum tax benefits allowed by law.  The Coastal Bend Community Foundation’s Agency Endowment Funds total in excess of $3.2 million.

Areas that can be funded include arts and culture, education, environment, families, health, human services and public good.  The funds received can be used to implement a new program, expand a current project, aiding expenses such as personnel essential to the project and community outreach to targeted clients.

In order to receive more information on the process, you can attend the Foundation’s seminar on Wednesday, May 23 from 10-11:30am at the Del Mar Economic Development Center in Corpus Christi, TX.   For more information, please contact Sue Jackson or visit their site.

WizeHive’s grant management system helps make the process of applying as smooth as possible.  Applicants can not only respond to questions concerning objectives and other such project information, but can also upload documents concerning project budgets as well as balance sheets.

The deadline for applying is June 21, 2012.  From there, CBCF will utilize the private judging portal of WizeHive and determine the allocation of its funds and announce the Annual grant awards on August 23, 2012.  So for a chance to aid your project, please apply here.

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New WizeApp: The Private Review Portal

by sarah on March 30, 2012

There is now a private portal app available.   It is available right now in your workspace.

To enable the WizeApp, click on the WizeApp gear in the top right corner of your enterprise workspace. Click on “Show” for Private Review Portal, then click save. You should now see it on your main menu (if you use a high number of WizeApps, it might be under “More” on the right side of the menu).

Once you are in there, you will be able to specify the portal name, URL, start and end dates (and times) the message text on the left, whether assignments are on, whether editing is on, and which folders are displayed on which tabs.

If you would like to change the fields or elements that display or have any unique layout elements, please get in touch and we’ll be able to help.

Also New – Setting a Maximum File Size

You can set the maximum file size for uploaded files. With WizeHive, you can upload very large files. However, we understand that you might not want applicants to uploading massive files. Therefore, we’ve enabled a feature so you can limit the maximum file size on an application using the form builder.

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Citrus College Scholarship Application Forms now Live

by sarah on March 23, 2012

Citrus College, in California, opened online applications this week. Students can apply for over fifty scholarships through WizeHive’s online scholarship manager. Students can apply to the scholarships by going the Citrus College website. In addition to the application form, Citrus College has provided helpful tips on applying for scholarships.

By moving to online applications, scholarship providers can set the system to filter students to the correct scholarships automatically. Instead of going through each application to ensure a student matches the criteria, WizeHive sorts eligible candidates. This means scholarship providers spend less time on administration, often saving hundreds of hours of tedious work.

We’re happy to have Citrus College using WizeHive and wish all of the applicants well as they further their education.

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New Features for Grant and Scholarship Applications

by sarah on March 16, 2012

New Portal Layout

The private reviewer portal (and public judging portal for custom contests) just had a design overall and looks great. Your logo is now front and center at the top and will not bump into our “Powered by” logo. In addition, the tabs have been refreshed and each applications now looks like a card on the screen.

When an application is selected, there is a nice new layout that makes navigiation and review even more pleasant. The previous and next links are now buttons at the top of each review (which can still be turned on or off). In addition, the “Add Review” button is clearer as is the review screen itself.

Assignment Grid Enhancements

One of the most significant improvements is in our assignment grid. First, as you can see below, we’ve made some modifications to make it look really nice. In addition, you can now scroll up and down the grid as well as right and left between users.

Last month, we released a feature on the assignment grid that enables you assign folders to certain judges. As new applications come into that folder, they will automatically be assigned to that judge.

Another new feature in the assignment grid is the “Batch Assign” feature. From this button you can have the system automatically assign applications.

For example, pick the folder, then pick the User of Page/Application. If you pick User, you can specify that each user (Judge) should get x number of applications assigned to them. WizeHive will go through the applications and evenly distribute them out to judges. If you pick Page/Application, the system will assign each Page/Application in that folder x number of times, distributing it evenly among the judges.

Letter of Recommenation Enhancements

We’ve made it more simple to track which applicants are missing letters of recommendation.

First, in the letter of recommendation setup we added a field which indicates the minimum number of recommendations that are needed for an applicant’s application to be “complete.” We also added two fields to the report writer which you can see below, “Recommendations Completed” as well as “# of Recommendations Completed.”

This will let you see at a glance which applicants still have recommendations due and how many they need completed. You can use this information to send them an email through WizeHive.

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Conversion rate on online applications

by sarah on February 29, 2012

Have you ever wondered how many people you can expect to apply to your online scholarship or grant? You aren’t the only one. As there are so many factors that contribute to conversions, it is tricky to give a concrete number as an answer. For example, is there anything unusual happening on your website? Have you done any marketing to people that would be interested in completing the online application? Every additional click will mean less conversions on your form.

Although online scholarship and grant applications are different from sales, we can learn from what retail websites do to increase conversions. Here are a few key tips to help ensure that as many people as possible are filling out their applications:

1. Define nice versus necessary. If you want people to make it all the way through their application form, give them less to answer. Think about each question you put on your application as an opportunity for people to abandoned the application.

2. Ask people what’s stopping them from finishing. Often, a quick reminder that they need to finish before the deadline is all that’s needed to spur them into action. People are busy and love to procrastinate. Help them to not miss a deadline by emailing them a reminder to get the application done.

3. Validation from a 3rd party. The more legitimate your scholarship or grant looks, the more people will be willing to fill out the application. Include information on previous recipients, including what they’ve done with their grant, or what school they went to with their scholarships. If you have high profile judges reviewing applicants, create an area to showcase thier bios, or an area to discuss the history and sponsors of the scholarship or grant.

4. Track and modify each year. Once applications are closed, find out what works and where people got stuck. From there, tweak the application process each time to include additioanl information, helpful links,

5. Explain everything. If you are asking people to gather information that takes more effort than recalling something from memory, include an explanation of why it is important. Also, ask people to preview the application to ensure each question is very clear and that there is no room for misunderstanding.

Cayman Islands Ministry of Tourism Continues Scholarship Program for Students Planning Careers in Tourism

by sarah on February 20, 2012

The Ministry of Tourism is once again inviting applicants for the Ministry of Tourism Scholarship Program. Caymanians wishing to pursue a Bachelor degree in a tourism or tourism-related discipline are urged to apply for one of the available scholarships. Also, secondary consideration will be given for tourism or tourism related studies for Masters degrees. The scholarship represents the Government’s effort to facilitate more Caymanian involvement in the tourism industry

Since its inception in 1996, this annual scholarship has awarded over 95 students either full or partial scholarships. Many of these students have gone on to work full time in the tourism industry, and some of the “Ministry’s graduates” now hold senior positions at the Department of Tourism and other tourism establishments, most notably the Department of Tourism’s Director, Shomari Scott, acting.

One of the primary goals of the scholarship is to attract a steady stream of skilled and enthusiastic tourism professionals who can actively contribute to the future prosperity of the tourism sector. The Ministry and Department of Tourism are working hard to achieve this through the Scholarship Program and through other initiatives such as the Tourism Apprenticeship Training Program.

Local students were awarded MOT scholarships in disciplines such as Marketing, Public Relations and Communications, Tourism and Environmental Management, Hotel Management, Travel Tourism and Hospitality and the Visual Arts at universities and colleges in the US, England and Canada.

New York Needs You launches online application form for 2012 Fellows

by sarah on January 12, 2012

Students are now able to submit applications for the 2012 Fellows Class of New York Needs You.

New York Needs You (NYNY) aims to level the playing field for first-generation and low-income college students in New York City.  NYNY closes the opportunity gap through its intensive career development and leadership training Fellowship that enables high-potential, first-generation college students to realize their college and career aspirations.

NYNY’s intensive 2-year Fellowship program includes bi-weekly career workshops where Fellows develop relationships with more than 200 highly accomplished Mentor Coaches and engage with community and business leaders. In addition to working one-on-one with a Mentor Coach for a total of 800 hours over 2 years, Fellows also receive a $2,500 professional development grant, access to 2 summer internships at prestigious companies and organizations, free business attire, free writing and ESL support, subsidized test preparation services, and discounted laptops and tablet computers.

This program is a huge opportunity aimed at students who are the first in their families to attend college and are from low–income backgrounds.

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Top 3 ways that online applications save more than just trees

by sarah on October 14, 2011

If you’ve ever been in an administrator’s office around application entry time, you’ll know the main reason to switch to online applications is managing all the paper.  We’ve heard from administrators who can barely get into their office due to applications and administrators who write summaries of each application so they don’t have to mail out the complete form multiple times to reviewers. However, there are other benefits as well, check out these three things that will get so much easier when you move to online application:

Processing. With paper applications, you’ll need to process each one regardless of eligibility. Online, eligibility is automatically determined. Each application will be sorted into folders based on criteria you set, so you can quickly determine why an applicant is not eligible and if you choose to, let them know.

Reviewing. If your reviewers need to focus on one part of the application, when they log in, they’ll only see the parts they need to get their review done. For example, much of the information on an application determines whether or not an applicant is eligible for a scholarship or grant, but the review criteria is outside of that information. By limiting what reviewers see, they’ll be able to get through each application more efficiently. They will also avoid any biases based on applicant eligibility information.

Scheduling. Once you’ve reviewed all of the applicants, think about the length of time it takes to schedule interviews. Managing this process can quickly turn into a full time job for someone! With WizeHive, what was once hours of work turns into a five minute task, freeing you up to concentrate on the interviews, not when they are going to happen.

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Online Application Management: How do you ensure unbiased results?

by sarah on October 5, 2011

How do you set up your review process so that applicants are getting the most unbiased reviews possible? Here are some tips from our experience:

Make the rules clear before you start. Put the criteria for judging down in writing. Explain the goals and whether or not certain questions are more important than others. It seems simple, but it is difficult for reviewers to keep objectives and priorities straight as they are getting into the minutia of each application. Reviewing can quickly get off track, so give your reviewers a hand by reminding them what’s important.

Obfuscate personal information. People relate to other people through shared experiences. If reviewers can see that an applicant went to the same college, or grew up in the same area, it will be difficult for that judge not to have an affinity towards that applicant. Eliminate the issue by removing those ties from the equation.

Weight answers according to importance. If you have multiple criteria for reviewing an application, you’ll want to make sure those criteria are appropriately weighted. For example, in some situations, spelling and grammar might not be as important as creativity. In others, it might be the deciding factor. By moving to an online application system, you can weight each category so that reviewers can give an absolute score and won’t need to worry about balancing each according to importance.

Have more than one person review. The more people you have review something, the less likely one biased opinion will matter. This can be as little as three judges reviewing each application, or as huge as calling on America to pick the next American Idol. On a large scale, people refer to this as crowdsourcing. For example, if you take the average guess from a crowd, you’ll be able to give an accurate guess on the number of jelly beans in a jar. The same principle works for reviews.

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American Heart Association launches Online Application Process for Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarship Fund sponsored by Macy’s

by sarah on September 28, 2011

We get to work with some cool people doing cool things at WizeHive. Today, we’d like to highlight something the American Heart Assocation is doing. As part of the Multicultural Fund, Macy’s and Go Red developed the Multicultural Scholarship Program with the goal of increasing the number of minority women in the healthcare profession. This year, the Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarship Fund will award 16 scholarships of $2,500 each ($40,000 total) to qualifying applicants.

To qualify, women must be of Hispanic, African-American, Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian/Alaskan Native heritage. They must also U.S. citizen/permanent resident of the U.S., be attending an accredited college or university in the U.S. and currently in her freshman or sophomore year. Finally, they must be pursuing a career in healthcare with a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA.

Once applications are in, a review committee will use the online WizeHive review portal to select finalists based on criteria including academic achievement, community involvement, letters of recommendation and a personal essay.

We asked Eva Gómez R.N., Go Red Por Tu Corazón spokesperson and Staff Development Specialist in the Department of Nursing at Children’s Hospital Boston how the scholarship came about: “Ethnically diverse women are needed in the healthcare field,” she said. “They can have a very positive impact on the delivery of health care services to diverse populations because they understand their communities and they know how to provide care that is meaningful, appropriate and sensitive to their needs.”

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