Page last reviewed on 8/30/2023. Pages are reviewed annually.
Each department and center within the College of Arts & Sciences has its own calendar and timeline for both awarding student support funding and collecting thank you letters from students to share with donors.
Some departments collect all letters at the same time each year. They do this in order to streamline the process and make efficient use of staff time. Others collect undergraduate letters at one time of the year, and graduate student letters at another. Others time their process to coincide with special events.
If you need help determining the best timing for your department, Lindsay Bailey-Weaver in CAS Advancement Services is happy to consult with you.
Best Practices
Back to TopKeys to successful stewardship of student scholarships and fellowships:
- Be up front with your students and fellows: When you tell them they're receiving an award, let them know that they will be invited to thank the donors supporting their award by writing a letter to be shared with them. If possible, include the expected timeline for completing a letter in their award communications.
- Utilize Beneficiary Portal to collect your student thank you letters, and don't be afraid to send reminders to students you haven't heard from.
- Be diligent about sending the student letters you receive on to the donors and stewardees of the funds they're benefitting from. Award letters collected through Beneficiary Portal will automatically be viewable on the donor's My UW Giving portal (unless you've chosen to hide them for some reason), but not all donors use My UW Giving. Plan to print out the letters and mail them to your donors and fund stewardees as well.
- If your department or center chooses not to use Beneficiary Portal to manage your student thank you letter process, please share copies of any letters you collect with the CAS Advancement Services team. We can upload your letters to Beneficiary Portal on the back end, which means those letters will be available to donors to view on their My UW Giving portal.
- After you've sent letters to your donors and stewardees, please file a contact report in the Tandem database.
Student Letter Process & Timeline Example
CAS Advancement Services manages the student letter process for those students who receive scholarships or fellowships administered by the Dean's Office. This was the timeline for our student letter collection process in 2018-2019, but the timing remains the same in 2023-2024.
Please contact the Advancement Services team anytime at casadser@uw.edu with questions or for more information.