Stewardship of Donors for Scholarship/Fellowship Awards

As a liberal arts college within a research university, the College of Arts & Sciences offers unparalleled opportunities for students to explore our cultural and natural worlds. Through coursework, study abroad, outreach and research, students develop the skills and intellectual character to successfully navigate the world. Private support from donors for scholarships, fellowships and awards ensures that bright, engaged students — the leaders of tomorrow — have access to our world-class College of Arts & Sciences education.

Each year our programs and departments should collect thank you letters from student recipients and send them on to the donors that supported them in order to demonstrate the impact their gift has made. (The Advancement Services team manages the student thank you letter process for those scholarships and fellowships administered directly by the Dean’s Office.)

Though each department within the College of Arts & Sciences has its own calendar for awarding student support funding, it is important that each department identify time during the year to collect thank you letters from student recipients and share those letters with the donors that supported the awards.

Some departments collect all letters at the same time each year in order to streamline the process and make efficient use of staff time, while others collect undergraduate letters at one point during the year, and graduate letters at another. If you need help determining the best timing for your department, Lindsay in Advancement Services is happy to consult with you.

The University of Washington’s online Beneficiary Portal tool helps to automate the student thank you letter collection process. This tool allows departments to communicate with student recipients, collect letters through an online form, and makes it easy to print the letters onto letterhead in order to share them with your donors.

The Beneficiary Portal is an online resource that easily facilitates the collection of impact reports from students who received a financial award from a gift fund. A single recipient, or list of recipients, can be uploaded into the system and a customized request for an impact report is sent to the student with a few simple clicks. Student responses are reviewed and approved by you online, and then available for download at any time to share with your donors by mail or to convert to a PDF and share electronically.

The Beneficiary Portal tool makes it easier to collect student thank you letters and to ultimately display that information online for donors in their My UW Giving portal.

UW Donor Relations provides training and support for the Beneficiary Portal. The College of Arts & Sciences Advancement Services team coordinates at least one group training each year, or you can reach out to central Donor Relations to schedule a personal one-on-one or group setting training at any time. Please contact Lindsay Bailey in CAS Advancement Services or Vuong Tran in central Donor Relations with any training or support requests. Below are some helpful training documents to guide you.

How to… Add a Single Beneficiary
How to… Add a List of Beneficiaries
How to… Manage Your Messages
How to… Manage Your Fund Stories
How to… Review Responses
How to… Edit Completed Responses

Sample Excel File

The Advancement Services team is here to:

• Coordinate Beneficiary Portal group trainings for CAS staff at least once each year as well as private trainings and refreshers as needed.
• Provide examples of past scholarship letters.
• Answer questions about scholarship/fellowship gift agreements or spending from these funds.

Please contact the Advancement Services team anytime at CASadser@uw.edu with questions or for more information about how we can help your department steward your donors. Additionally, you are welcome to reach out to one of our team members directly:

Lindsay Bailey, Associate Director of Advancement Services

ljbailey@uw.edu | 206.685.7160

For general questions about donor relations and stewardship activities/resources as well as to arrange Beneficiary Portal training for staff.

Becky McIntire, Donor Relations Specialist

rmcint@uw.edu | 206.685.2606

For questions specific to student letters for scholarships/fellowships managed directly by the Dean’s Office.

Theresa Mejia, Manager, Endowment & Gift Documentation

tmejia@uw.edu | 206.616.5373

For questions about scholarship/fellowship endowments or spending of student support funds.