Award season is wrapping up. Your recipients have been announced. Funds are set to be disbursed, and come September, your scholars will begin their first quarter of college life.
For many scholarship providers, this stretch of summer feels like “down time.” But it’s actually the perfect moment to pause and build something critical: a post-scholarship engagement plan.
Use this window to map out how you’ll stay connected with the students you just awarded, before their inboxes (and lives) fill up again. A thoughtful engagement strategy will help you build long-term relationships, gather meaningful outcomes data, and strengthen the overall impact and visibility of your program.
At Kaleidoscope, we’ve helped hundreds of scholarship providers scale their programs beyond the award letter. Whether your goals are stronger reporting, better alumni engagement, or long-term brand equity, post-award strategy is where the next level of impact begins.
Why Post-Scholarship Engagement Matters
Once the funds are distributed, many organizations consider their job done. But a strong scholarship follow-up plan offers lasting benefits for both your scholars and your organization.
1. Improved Scholarship Reporting
Maintaining communication after the award allows you to collect outcomes data, testimonials, and longitudinal insights to share with funders, donors, or leadership.
2. Long-Term Scholar Relationships
Scholarships can become pipelines for future partnerships, internships, employee referrals, peer mentorship, or community advocacy.
3. Higher ROI on Scholarship Investment
Engaged scholars are more likely to share your program with others, participate in follow-ups, and contribute to your ongoing success stories.
What to Include in Your Scholar Engagement Plan
Design your engagement plan around intentional touchpoints that fit your program size, goals, and scholar needs. A strong plan will include:
Automated Touchpoints
Set up a cadence of emails or check-ins at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months post-award. These can include:
- Surveys
- Progress updates
- Invitations to virtual events or networking
With tools like Kaleidoscope’s Scholar Relationship Management (SRM) system, you can automate these communications at scale.
Scholar Feedback Collection
Ask for feedback at multiple points:
- Post-award application experience
- Program satisfaction
- Suggestions for future cycles
This helps refine future programs and makes scholars feel heard.
Alumni or Scholar Community
A simple virtual community (Slack, LinkedIn, or Zoom meetups) helps create peer connections and extend your program’s influence.
Consider launching:
- A closed LinkedIn alumni group
- A quarterly virtual meetup
- A peer mentorship initiative
Story Collection and Consent
With the scholar’s permission, collect short testimonials, photos, or video clips to feature in:
- Annual reports
- Social media campaigns
- Donor updates
These stories bring your scholarship program to life and enhance your brand’s authenticity.
Tools to Help Scale Scholar Follow-Up
You don’t need to manage your scholar engagement plan in a spreadsheet or a series of calendar reminders. With a platform like Kaleidoscope, you can:
- Track outcomes at the scholar level across years
- Automate engagement emails and surveys
- Manage alumni relationships as part of your core program data
- Report program impact in a format that donors, executives, or boards will value
Your team stays lean, but your program feels high-touch, at scale.
📅 A Sample Post-Award Engagement Timeline
| Timeframe | Engagement Action |
| 1 month post-award | Welcome email + scholar spotlight form |
| 3 months | Check-in survey + invite to alumni group |
| 6 months | Optional testimonial request or update form |
| 9 months | Virtual event or networking call |
| 12 months | Outcomes survey + thank-you message |
This timeline can be repeated or customized based on your program length and goals.
🔍 Frequently Asked Questions
A post-scholarship engagement plan is a strategy for maintaining communication and support with scholarship recipients after they’ve received funding. It often includes surveys, updates, alumni engagement, and outcome tracking.
It enables better reporting, helps measure long-term outcomes, and creates opportunities to build stronger relationships with scholars that reinforce your program’s mission and brand.
Scholar Relationship Management platforms (like Kaleidoscope), survey tools, email automation software, and alumni groups on platforms like LinkedIn or Slack.
Scholarships Should Start a Relationship, Not End One
When you invest in students, you’re investing in potential. A well-designed post-scholarship engagement strategy helps you nurture that potential and proves the long-term value of your program.
Whether you’re building brand equity, measuring program success, or creating a lifelong community of scholars, the most impactful work often happens after the award letter is sent.
✨ Ready to Level Up Your Scholar Engagement?
Kaleidoscope’s built-in SRM tools help scholarship providers centralize communications, automate engagement, and track real outcomes, all without adding manual overhead.
Let’s talk about your engagement goals.
Resources for Sponsors
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more