Use Scholarship Program Takeaways to your Advantage for Next Time

After most scholarship programs end, the scholarship management committee typically will get together to review how the round of the program went. This post-mortem meeting is often the start of the next program, where the lessons learned are incorporated to make changes. Below we’re sharing how to conduct a post mortem, things to consider, a sample agenda for the meeting and more. By the time you finish reading, you should have some good ideas for how to use the last program to make the next one even better.

Evaluating Project Success - Things to Consider

In business, evaluating project success consists of looking at several factors:

• Scope: What you need to bring the project to completion. In terms of scholarship management, this would include things like:

• Ensuring that only qualified candidates applied
• Determining the number of evaluators you need to get the job done in a timely fashion
• Creating and deploying your scholarship application form and more
• Also see how to start a scholarship program

• Schedule: Project timeline in this case would include deadlines for applicants, evaluation, scholarship selection, awards, etc...

• Quality assurance: Quality in scholarship management would involve elements such as:

• Making sure deadlines were met
• Were the application answers of high quality and did they meet your expectations
• Were the sponsors/donors satisfied with the results
• Was the right scholarship management software used to expedite tasks like creating scholarship forms?

• Budget: This goes beyond how much money was awarded. Scholarship management also takes into account paid positions for the program manager, paid evaluators, marketing costs, ad campaigns, etc…

• Customer and/or team satisfaction: Satisfaction would entail looking at feedback from applicants, team members (including evaluators, marketers, volunteers, etc…), donors/sponsors, and more

• Also see Gathering Feedback & Preparing For The Next Application Cycle

A Sample Agenda for the Meeting

Your scholarship management evaluation meeting could look like this:

• Welcome and introduction
• Open with the purpose of the meeting
• Housekeeping
• Who will take notes?
• Who are the representatives who will be speaking?
• How long will the meeting take?
• Specific outcomes that the committee hopes to accomplish
• i.e. Cover all of the elements of the project’s evaluation including scope, schedule, quality assurance, budget, and customer and/or team satisfaction
• Take extra time to address all feedback received to really hone in on how everyone involved felt about the process
• Brainstorming
• Open the floor to everyone for suggestions on how to make the next round of the program better than this one
• Encourage an exchange of ideas
• Vote on changes to implement
• Share dates for the next round of the program including deadlines for:
• Finalization of the form to be created/tweaked in your scholarship application software
• Selection of evaluation team
• Sponsorship drive - call for more donors
• Announcement of the next round
• Call for application submissions
• When all applications must be submitted
• Evaluation timeframe
• Announcement of award recipients
• Deliverance of awards
• Scholarship feedback cycle
• Next scholarship management evaluation meeting
• Closing remarks

While every scholarship management evaluation meeting agenda may look slightly different, hopefully this sample agenda has given you some ideas for what to include in your own meeting.

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FAQs

1. What are the things to consider while evaluating the project’s success in terms of scholarship management?

In terms of scholarship management, the things to consider while evaluating the project’s success are the project scope, schedule, quality assurance, budget, and customer satisfaction.

2. What should be the agenda for our scholarship management evaluation meeting?

The typical agenda for your scholarship management evaluation meeting would include:

• Welcome and introduction.
• Housekeeping (who will take notes?, who will be speaking?, length of the meeting).
• Specific outcomes the committee hopes to accomplish.
• Brainstorming.
• Vote on changes to implement.
• Share dates for the next round of the program.
• Closing remarks.

3. What timelines should I consider including while sharing dates for the next round of my scholarship program?

You would want to share the dates for the next round of the scholarship program by including timelines for:

• Finalization of the form to be created  in your scholarship application software.
• Selection of the evaluation team.
• Sponsorship drive.
• Announcement of the next round
• Call for application submissions.
• Evaluation timeframe.
• Announcement of award recipients.
• Deliverance of awards.
• Scholarship feedback cycle.
• Next scholarship management evaluation meeting.