How to Apply for Scholarships

When you are ready to apply, you can click the Search For Scholarships button below to find scholarships by name, school, and type of scholarship. You can also view the eligibility criteria and see how to apply.

Search for Scholarships

In a new tab or window, set up your login and profile page on the Scholarship Portal.

Note: Use an email you can access long term. Applicants should NOT use student school emails to register, as we send award information post-high school and college.

Watch this video for help creating a scholarship account on our portal.
For questions or technical help, email our Scholarship help team.

Most applications on our scholarship portal open on December 1st!

Deadlines are closer than you think.

FEBRUARY

2.1.2025 Wisconsin Garden Club Federation Scholarship Application

MARCH

3.1.2025 Bonduel High School Scholarship Application

3.1.2025 Brillion High School Scholarship Application

3.1.2025 Community Foundation Universal Scholarship Application

3.1.2025 Quentin and Ermagard Kuenzli Family 4- Year College Scholarship (Non-Traditional Student Universal Scholarship Application)

3.1.2025 Shawano Community High School Scholarship Application

3.9.2025 International Association for Structural Movers Scholarship Application

3.15.2025 Ralph and Clare Rudolph Scholarship for Rockline Industries Application

3.31.2025 Kiel High School Scholarship Application

APRIL

4.1.2025 Ariens Family Foundation Scholarship Application

4.1.2025 BetterLife f/k/a WFLA WI & Upper MI Scholarship Application

4.1.2025 Chilton High School Scholarship Application

4.1.2025 Faith Technologies, Inc. Memorial Scholarship Application

4.1.2025 Guyon Scholarship for Veterans (Non-Traditional Student Universal Scholarship Application)

4.1.2025 Jewelers Mutual Scholarship

4.1.2025 Joyce Bytof Memorial Cancer Survivors Scholarship Application

4.1.2025 Mari’s Fund Scholarship Application

4.1.2025 Les and Dar Stumpf Youth Arts Scholarship

4.1.2025 Rev. Dr. Neil T. Eckstein Scholarship for Grace Lutheran Church (Non-Traditional Student Universal Scholarship Application)

4.1.2025 SECURA All-College Scholarship Application

4.1.2025 Van Hoof Family Scholarship Application

MAY

5.1.2025 Gresham Scholarship Fund Application – High School Award (Gresham Scholarship Application)

5.1.2025 Inspire the Future Scholarship Application

5.1.2025 Isabelle Rowe Nursing Scholarship (Non-Traditional Student Universal Scholarship Application)

5.1.2025 Mike Van Asten Fellows Scholarship Application

5.1.2025 Rhoades Sanford Foundation Scholarship Application

5.1.2025 Wisconsin Bakers Foundation Scholarship Application

5.1.2025 Wisconsin Women’s Alliance Foundation Scholarship (Non-Traditional Student Universal Scholarship Application)

SEPTEMBER

9.14.2025 Gardner Dam Camp Staff Scholarship Application

DECEMBER

12.1.2025 Gold Cross Ambulance Scholarship Application

ONGOING APPLICATION DEADLINES

Bob and Cheri Suttner Scholarship (Non-Traditional Student Universal Scholarship Application)

Darrell Wolf Trades Scholarship (Non-Traditional Student Universal Scholarship Application)

Gresham Scholarship Fund Application – Community Award (Gresham Scholarship Application)

Richard Newcomb & Janice Schreiber-Newcomb Education Scholarship (Non-Traditional Student Universal Scholarship Application)

Small Steps Scholarship (Non-Traditional Student Universal Scholarship Application)

We have more scholarships available through our Community Foundation partners. The links below will take you away from this site to the Appleton Education Foundation’s website and the Women’s Fund for the Fox Valley Region’s website.

Check out our Frequently Asked Questions for scholarship applicants and recipients further down this page.

$0 – Applying for scholarships through the Community Foundation is free. If a scholarship provider ever requires a credit card number to create an account or to submit an application, do some extra research to ensure it isn’t a scam.

Each scholarship offered by the Community Foundation has a Scholarship Profile. The profile is a document that contains details like the eligibility criteria, award amount, payment process, and loss of eligibility. It may also contain background information about the donors. The profile can be accessed through a link on the List of Scholarships for each scholarship. Applicants should review the Scholarship Profiles carefully when they begin looking for scholarship opportunities.

The Community Foundation offers four types of scholarships:

1. Scholarships for High School seniors.
2. Scholarships for current college students and non-traditional students.
3. Corporate scholarships for dependents of employees at different companies.
4. Scholarship aid to K-12 students for art/music lessons.

The Community Foundation’s scholarship webpage indicates how to apply for specific scholarships. Each scholarship listed has a “How to Apply” section indicating where to find the application. Applications will usually be located on the Community Foundation’s Scholarship Portal, at a high school guidance office, or somewhere else.

Note: To register, use an email you can access long term. Applicants should NOT use a school assigned student emails to register, as we communicate with applicants and recipients via email throughout the process.

Reference this Applicant Tutorial resource. This resource contains instructions videos and written instructions to find your way through creating an account, to how to find applications, and how to submit applications.

To find scholarships that homeschooled students may qualify for, select “Homeschooled” from the High School drop-down menu at the top of the List of Scholarships.

There is no limit to how many scholarships someone may apply for, as long as the applicant matches the eligibility criteria. Eligibility criteria for each scholarship is displayed on the Community Foundation’s List of Scholarships.

Deadlines can be found in two places: in the “Application Deadlines for 2025” section further above on this page and on the Scholarship Portal on each application’s summary.

The Community Foundation does not have hard rules about what is considered “enough” financial need. It is true that scholarships that consider financial need will compare the applicants to each other to determine the highest financial need among multiple factors. That being said, those scholarships still consider all the other eligibility criteria. When a scholarship takes financial need into consideration, that does not mean that financial need will be the only determining factor in the selection process.

If an applicant meets the eligibility criteria for a specific scholarship, they should apply, regardless of their financial status.

Many scholarship opportunities offered by the Community Foundation take financial need into consideration. Without filling out FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), you will not have access to your SAR (Student Aid Report).  To be eligible for scholarships that consider financial need, you may need to upload the SAR as part of the application. We strongly encourage all applicants to fill out FAFSA form and have SAR available before filling out your application(s).

Typically, scholarships cover either tuition expenses or other charges related to the Cost of Attendance (COA). This information is included in the Scholarship Profile for each scholarship, in the List of Scholarships.

Universal applications are applications that include multiple scholarships opportunities within a single application. Students only need to complete a Universal application one time to apply for all opportunities listed within that Universe. By filling out and submitting a single Universal application, applicants have a chance to qualify for multiple scholarships – without having to fill out multiple applications. Check out the Applicant Tutorial resource specifically for universal applications.

This means the full scholarship award is paid one time, in one lump sum, typically for the fall semester of freshman year of college. Payment details can be found in the Scholarship Profile, under “Award Amount and Payment Procedure.”

This means the scholarship award is split between more than one semester or school year and is paid periodically. (For example: A $2,000 scholarship award may pay $1,000 during the fall of freshman year and $1,000 during the fall of sophomore year.) The recipient must verify their continued eligibility between each payment. Payment details can be found in the Scholarship Profile, under “Award Amount and Payment Procedure.”

For applications open in the spring, scholarship selection committees recommend recipients between March-May, depending on the scholarship’s application deadline.

• If the scholarship application is through a high school, students will find out in their high school’s award ceremony if they are recipients.
• If the scholarship application is through the Community Foundation’s online Scholarship Portal, the students are typically notified via mail during the spring. Applicants can also check their application’s status through the Applicant Dashboard on the Scholarship Portal, under Active Requests: Undecided, Denied, or Approved.

For scholarships through other entities, or for applications that have fall deadlines, selection committees typically make their decisions within a month of the application deadline.

Here are our most commonly used terms. If you do not find a term on the list below that you are unsure of, please reach out to scholarships@cffoxvalley.org for further help.

• Graduating Seniors vs. Graduates: Graduating seniors are currently high school seniors, on track to graduate high school in the upcoming spring. Graduates include both current, graduating seniors and also students who have graduated from high school previously.
• Post-secondary education: This means education obtained from an institution of higher education that is attended after high school. High school is “secondary” education.
• Undergraduate: An undergraduate is a student pursuing a bachelor’s degree (typically a 4-year degree) at a college or university or a student pursuing a 2-year associate degree program at a college, community college, or vocational/technical school.
• Accredited college: Accreditation is a process of recognition that a school meets or exceeds certain academic standards. The Community Foundation only sends scholarships to schools that are accredited to ensure legitimacy of the receiving organizations. Students can obtain information about a school’s accreditation from the school.
• Field of Study vs. Degree vs. Major: The Community Foundation uses eligibility criteria surrounding these three terms. Let’s use Marketing as an example:
  • Major: Only students who are specifically majoring in Marketing would be eligible.
  • Degree: Students who are majoring or minoring in Marketing, or pursuing a business degree with a Marketing emphasis, would be eligible.
  • Field of Study: Students pursuing degrees in various disciplines and majors could be eligible, such as business or graphic design. As long as the student can demonstrate that their studies relate to the field of Marketing, they could be eligible.
• Traditional students vs. Non-Traditional students: Traditional students are defined as students who have graduated high school and continue to pursue post-secondary education immediately following their high school graduation, not taking a gap year(s). Non-traditional students are students who have either previously graduated college at least 1 year prior, or taken a gap year(s) before/during college, or are returning to pursue post-secondary education later in life.
• Full-time vs. Part-time student status: The Community Foundation generally considers a student taking 12 credits per semester as being a full-time student and 6-11 credits per semester as being a part-time student. This is how most post-secondary institutions define full-time and part-time. However, this can vary based on the school’s credit/point system. Students can review their intended college’s website to find out the credit point system the school uses. Most of the Community Foundation’s scholarships are for students who take 6 or more credits per semester. If your college has a different credit/point system (for example, the school might be on a trimester schedule with 9 credits per trimester being full-time), please reach out to scholarships@cffoxvalley.org to request that we update your application to reflect that you are still a full-time student, even if you are taking fewer than 12 credits. When you reach out, please provide proof of the school’s alternate credit/point system.
• Preference: When the scholarship criteria list includes a preference, it means that, while a certain factor is not required, it could increase an applicant’s likelihood of being chosen as a recipient.

Our website (as most websites do) offers a translator. At the bottom of any page on our website, you can find a Google symbol with a drop-down menu of languages. Select your preferred language from the available choices and our website is automatically translated by using Google translate. This functionality extends to all written text on our website, but does not apply to graphs or attached documents, such as PDFs. (Disclaimer: Google’s translator functionality is not perfect, so some of the information may read differently or incorrectly.)

The recipient’s congratulatory packet (mailed or emailed) will list instructions for their next steps and will include details on the award received. All recipients need to create accounts on the Community Foundation’s Scholarship Portal to accept their awards. This Applicant Tutorial resource is designed to help new users navigate the Portal to locate award information and any assigned follow-up forms. Recipients can view the instructions document here instructions document here.

If your phone number, mailing address, or email address has changed, log into the Community Foundation’s Scholarship Portal and update your profile information.

The Community Foundation sends the scholarship payments directly to the recipient’s school, designated to the recipient’s student account.

Renewable scholarship awards are split between semesters or academic years and are paid periodically. The recipient must verify their continued eligibility between each scholarship payment.

Examples:

• A $2,000 scholarship award for 2 years of college is paid $1,000 for the fall of freshman year, $1,000 for the fall of sophomore year.
• A $1,000 scholarship award for the first year of college is paid $500 for the fall semester and $500 for the spring semester.

Most recipients will claim their award on the Community Foundation’s Scholarship Portal. Please refer to the instructions document here for how to claim your award. In order to complete the Scholarship Acceptance & Verification Form, documents that may be needed, but not limited to, are the following:

• Class/Registration list with credits listed
• Proof of major
• Invoice
• Previous semester/year’s transcript

The Scholarship Acceptance & Verification Form on the Community Foundation’s Scholarship Portal gives recipients the opportunity to defer their scholarship(s) for up to one year. All deferral requests will be reviewed and confirmed by the Scholarship Manager.