When an organization has been operating for a long time, it's worthwhile to give the processes and programs that have developed a second look. That's what Kids' Chance of America (KCOA) found working with one of our largest affiliates, The Pinnacol Foundation in Colorado.

The Pinnacol Foundation created a scholarship program for the children of workers who are seriously injured or killed on the job in Colorado in 2000. In the 21 years since their launch, they have awarded over $6M in scholarships to nearly 650 students. In the 2020-2021 academic year, they awarded 95 student scholarship awards, totaling over $452,820.

Mara Wheeler, Corporate Citizenship Administrator and Pinnacol Foundation Director, found that it was time to revisit the application and award process. That's a big task to take on alone, so she enlisted the help of KCOA Membership Director, Cheryl Doucette, and Kim Stezala, a scholarship consultant with Design Group International. Together, they took a deep dive into The Pinnacol Foundation's scoring and awards process.

“This is a perfect example of the ability KCOA support staff has to help state organizations 'where they are' with specifically 'what they need,'” Cheryl said. “I really enjoyed working on this project with Mara and Kim. It was so rewarding to take an overly complicated system and work together to streamline it. This work is guaranteed to help students for years to come”.

A Thorough Review

Kim and Cheryl walked Mara through an objective process to review The Pinnacol Foundation's scholarship scoring. “With rare exception, it’s always good to step back and revisit your scholarship process occasionally,” Kim said. “To be clear, this organization already had a good process, it was just refining it more and aligning it better with the board’s intentions. To pause and carefully consider: what’s really relevant and what can be let go?”

During this process, the team discovered two major issues: the scholarship application process was too complicated and took too long to complete, and the scholarship was too academically-based, rather than needs-based.

Tiny Changes for Big Impact

“Being able to talk through the process with Cheryl and Kim, telling them what the current process was and what my end goal was, helped me focus on possible solutions and gave me a renewed sense of energy to tackle this big change,” said Mara.

Working side-by-side to make sure Mara was happy with the outcome, they came up with a more efficient, streamlined scoring process. They also made small changes to the scoring rubric, so the scholarship became more needs-based than academic.

They also decided to remove volunteer work as a selection criteria. “That can be a challenge sometimes for vulnerable students to accomplish,” said Kim.

With these changes in place, the entire process was improved. “Tiny changes can have a big impact,” Kim said.

Working Together

The team prepared a proposal for the board with the suggested changes. Cheryl and Kim accompanied Mara to the meeting. The board was incredibly happy with the recommendations.

“I can't thank Cheryl and Kim enough for their time and effort on this project,” Mara said. “They made my life easier by providing a more mainstream and efficient process for scoring and awarding, making it more of an objective approach. They were so much fun and easy to work with. I really enjoyed talking this through with them and getting some great feedback on best practices.”

Kim said, “For me, the best part was working with an organization that was ready and willing to make changes based on an objective process. Their commitment and seriousness made it fruitful for everyone involved – including future scholarship applicants.”

Reviewing your scholarship processes and continually refining them is an important part of raising More Money for More Kids. KCOA Executive Director Vicki Burkhart says, “With support from Kids' Chance, The Pinnacol Foundation did the hard work of making changes and improvements, creating a scholarship process that is more accessible to more kids. We're inspired by their results and hope more state organizations will follow their lead to create the best possible scholarship application and awarding processes. We're here to help them do it.”