About Us

The concept for The National Scholarship Fund began in 2003, when a group of educators from Colorado saw that a growing number of their students, even though wanting to, were not planning to continue their education after high school. Through their research it was determined that those students were forced not to attend for two basic reasons. First, they were unable to enroll because of the significant increases in tuition cost. Secondly, they were unable to enroll because of a lack of grant and scholarship funds available to compensate for the tuition and other increases.

In 2005 a consultant was retained by the Board of Directors to help the National Scholarship Fund create their business model and raise the needed funds to fulfill their vision to provide the necessary financial assistance to students to allow them to achieve their college dreams.

After completing a basic strategic planning process in 2007, the National Scholarship Fund unveiled its innovative model and began working to assist youth who specifically grew up in foster care to not only attend college but attend the college of their choice.

Because of our flexible and innovative model, the National Scholarship Fund has fashioned several avenues for creating scholarships. For example, donors have the opportunity to offer various types of scholarships including, what the Board refers to as, “soft scholarships.” The concept of “soft scholarships” allows recipients to use their funds not only for tuition but for other legitimate non-traditional expenses, such as a laptop computer. Ultimately, our goal was to provide competitive scholarship opportunities for Maine’s former foster children trying to navigate the American college and university system without a traditional family to support them.

Maine was selected to test the National Scholarship Fund model, and has received support of the Department of Health of Human Services for the State of Maine, Casey Family Services and the Muskie School of Public Service. As our model is being refined, plans are under way to open an office in Colorado in 2008 and others in the near future.