Can a community foundation make scholarship grants to individuals?
Generally yes, but a community foundation wishing to embark on a scholarship program should first determine that its governing instruments authorize the community foundation to make grants to individuals for educational purposes. In some cases a governing instrument will specify that grants may be made only to “organizations,” and the community foundation will have to weigh whether it wants to amend the documents to allow grants to individuals. If changing the documents is not desirable, the foundation may still make grants for scholarship purposes to educational institutions and give the institutions the discretion to select the individual scholarship recipients. No community foundation should embark on a scholarship program without consulting expert legal counsel.
