The Community Foundation has been closely following updates from the U.S. Department of Education regarding the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. There have been multiple issues with the updates for the 2024-25 school year, including late opening for applicants, delays in producing Submission Summary documentation for applicants who have submitted their FAFSA form, and calculation issues within the form.

Because some of the Community Foundation scholarships consider financial need, many of our scholarship applications collect students’ financial information based on the FAFSA form.

The Community Foundation is committed to supporting students dealing with FAFSA challenges and wants to ensure scholarships based on financial need will be awarded to qualified students.

As the FAFSA situation keeps evolving, the Community Foundation has decided to adjust what financial need information is collected from applicants during the 2024 scholarship cycle in our Community Foundation Universal Scholarship Application. The application has been updated so applicants can successfully submit their applications before the March 1 deadline, regardless of whether they have received their FAFSA Submission Summaries or not. Visit our Scholarship Page to apply.

For scholarships that consider financial need, recipients who have not received their FAFSA Submission Summaries when they submit their scholarship applications will be required to submit their FAFSA Submission Summaries to the Community Foundation during the verification process before scholarship payments go out.

Our scholarships team is happy to answer any questions regarding the updates made to the Community Foundation Universal Scholarship Application this season as a response to the challenges students are facing with FAFSA.

Iida Berg, Scholarship Manager

Through the generosity of people, businesses and organizations passionate about helping students achieve their education dreams, we have more than $1 million in scholarships available for 2023! We award these annually to students from 60 schools, available for high school seniors, college and nontraditional students and K-12 art and music camps and lessons.  Visit our new Scholarship Portal and apply online for scholarships.