Community Scholarships
What
Community Scholarships are a way for local organizations, businesses, and neighbors to raise and direct funds to students’ future college and career training. These assets can increase long-term wealth-building potential for communities that have faced systemic barriers to wealth-building.
By visibly and tangibly demonstrating community-wide support for every child’s future, Community Scholarships reinforce expectations of success throughout a neighborhood and show children that their community supports their dreams.
Community Scholarships are contributions to groups of NYC Scholarship Accounts through a donation to NYC Kids RISE. NYC Kids RISE allocates 100% of the donations received for Community Scholarships into the NYC Scholarship Accounts of the designated group of students.
Why
The Save for College Program is about bringing together—what neighbors, community members, institutions, and systems throughout the city can contribute to equip every child with resources for their future, alongside families and school communities. By enabling local stakeholders (businesses, neighbors, civic organizations, etc.) to contribute financially to groups of students’ NYC Scholarship Accounts in the ways and amounts that make sense for them, Community Scholarships are a tool for demonstrating community-wide support for every child’s future, encouraging families to continue planning and saving for higher education, strengthening social capital, and building generational wealth in neighborhoods.
Community Scholarships are a key lever to build significant wealth and combat the racial wealth gap. Black and Hispanic families own less than 10% and 12% of the wealth, respectively, of white families. If left unaddressed, research suggests the median Black and median Hispanic family in the U.S. will have zero net assets within the next 50 years. While the Save for College Program alone is not the answer to this challenge—which is rooted in policies and practices of structural racism and discrimination—it has the potential to be one piece of an agenda to combat the racial wealth gap by providing a mechanism to drive targeted financial assets into communities of color via investment accounts that have the potential to grow over time.
Interested in launching your own Community Scholarship?
Community Scholarships in action
NYC Kids RISE’s approach to Community Scholarships is driven by the fundamental belief that the institutions in a neighborhood will either reinforce or hinder both the real opportunities for success and the expectations of success for its residents. Community Scholarships bring the institutions within and across neighborhoods together to invest in their children’s success. Since the first Community Scholarship effort in late 2018, communities have come together through various campaigns, including:
- Koeppel Kares Community Scholarship (starting 2023): Starting in 2023, a local auto dealership in Queens is donating $20 for every vehicle sold toward a Community Scholarship for the NYC Scholarship Accounts of students at P.S. 148 in East Elmhurst. The Koeppel Kares Community Scholarship is the first commitment to a recurring Community Scholarship contribution, which demonstrates how local businesses are supporting the success of children in their communities.
- Jackson Heights Mile 2023 Community Scholarship (2023): Queens Distance Runners is helping children in local Queens neighborhoods achieve their college and career dreams through the NYC Kids RISE Save for College Program. In 2023, participants in both the 3rd Annual Jackson Heights Mile and Inaugural Elmhurst Mile races ran to give back to students in their community. A portion of the proceeds for these two races are going toward two new Community Scholarships for local students: the Jackson Heights Mile 2023 Community Scholarship for students at P.S. 149Q and P.S. 398Q, and the Elmhurst Mile 2023 Community Scholarship for students at P.S. 12Q.
- Canarsie and East Flatbush Community Scholarship 2022: In late 2022,1,200 first graders living in the Canarsie and East Flatbush neighborhoods of Brooklyn each received $1,000 in their NYC Scholarship Account as part of the Canarsie and East Flatbush Community Scholarship 2022 funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative and the Brooklyn Community Foundation’s Donor-Advised Funds. This effort was strategically deployed to help combat the racial wealth gap in New York City neighborhoods, where 86% of students are Black—the largest proportion of any geographic school district in New York City. In addition to every first grader who attends the neighborhoods’ public elementary schools, every first grader with an NYC Scholarship Account who resides in NYCHA’s Bayview Houses and Breukelen Houses, both in Canarsie, also received the $1,000 Community Scholarship.
- Community Scholarship powered by MetLife Foundation (2021): MetLife Foundation partnered with NYC Kids RISE for the Community Scholarship powered by MetLife Foundation and invested $70,000 toward the educational futures of more than 1,900 students in some of the neighborhoods most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Employee volunteers also participated in virtual “College and Career” education sessions with third grade students at the participating schools.
- Funding Long Island City’s Future (2020): Long Island City stakeholders and supporters came together in 2020 to demonstrate that their neighborhood is committed to supporting all Long Island City children. In a three-week period, the campaign raised nearly $60,000 and each student in the Save for College Program in five Long Island City schools received another $60 in their NYC Scholarship Account.
- Astoria Houses Community Scholarship Campaign: Investing in the Futures of the Children of the Astoria Houses (2020): Led by President Ms. Claudia Coger, The Astoria Houses Tenants Organization, the non-profit arm of the Astoria Houses Resident Association, launched a Community Scholarship campaign to raise $134,000 to support the college savings plans of its youngest residents. With the successful completion of the campaign in early December 2020, $1000 was raised for each of the 134 children in Astoria Houses with an NYC Scholarship Account. The Astoria Houses Tenant Association’s Community Scholarship is the first ever to be led by a NYCHA resident association and is the largest Community Scholarship, in terms of amount raised for each child, to date. The campaign’s story from the NYCHA Journal can be found here.
- Seamless Community Scholarship (2019): In 2019, Seamless, the food delivery app, enabled its customers to round up their order totals and “Donate the Change” to a Community Scholarship for all participating students in School District 30. In one month, diners contributed more than $300,000, which was split across more than 6,000 students’ NYC Scholarship Accounts.
- Parent-to-Parent Community Scholarship (2019): NYC public school parents who recently sent their kids to college contributed $15,000 toward a Parent-to-Parent Community Scholarship in 2019 for 250 first- and second-grade students at P.S. 92 in Corona.