Through a network of 14 campuses, the Nova Scotia Community College provides Nova Scotians with inclusive and flexible access to education and specialized, industry-driven training essential for today and tomorrow’s workforce. To improve the student experience and more effectively manage its $3.5 million scholarship funds, NSCC turned to Blackbaud Award Management.

NSCC uses Blackbaud’s scholarship management software to promote and distribute funds and collect thank-you testimonials from students to help steward donors. “We saw a huge increase in the number of students using the software because it’s so easy to use compared to what we had been using,” said Matt Currie, manager of student awards and financial aid. “As a result, each year we’ve had fewer unclaimed awards and this past scholarship cycle had close to zero. We went from around 80% to 95% fund utilization because of Blackbaud Award Management.”

Colleges can automatically use the most relevant student population data in their software and match funds to students to meet institutional commitments. Using the software’s functionality, NSCC now proactively shares with donors what award criteria will better fit the student population. “Because we had more student users adopting the software, it also meant our applicant pool had equally significantly grown,” said Currie. “Without Blackbaud Award Management, it would have made it more challenging to determine the best award criteria to suggest to donors.”

Maximizing Impact with Essential Software

NSCC awards approximately 2,000 awards annually. The college leverages the qualification groups capability in Blackbaud Award Management alongside the preference functionality to provide an enhanced experience for both administrators and donors. The qualification groups capability allows administrators to see how qualified applicants are for award opportunities. This lets them modify qualifications or know if the award is too restrictive for awarding. The preference functionality allows them to find the most ideal qualifying candidates within the applicant pool.

“We now recommend that donors also add preferences with their criteria because we know that with Blackbaud Award Management, we’ll be able to easily identify an individual who meets the preferred criteria while also allowing others to apply,” said Currie. “We’re satisfying what the donors want while also minimizing administrative burdens, like rejecting the criteria request or extending the award deadline, which has been key in reducing the number of unclaimed awards as well.”

Their previous scholarship management software lacked the extensive capabilities offered by Blackbaud Award Management, which streamlined the application review process and enabled anonymous reviewing in an effort to eliminate concerns of bias in the evaluation of applications.

Bringing Colleagues and Solutions Together

The NSCC Foundation, the philanthropic arm of NSCC, also uses Blackbaud Award Management to see award progress and student recipient data. Before an award is processed, students willing to share their data with donors must respond to a few questions and are given the opportunity to provide a photo of themselves if they wish. The foundation can use the software to provide that information to donors.

“Having the foundation readily able to self-serve through Blackbaud Award Management has been a huge timesaver for us as well as them,” said Currie. “It cuts down on the amount of time previously spent pulling information, freeing up our staff time to do more purposeful work.”

Having shared access to Blackbaud Award Management also allowed Currie and the NSCC Foundation to create better synergy. The two departments gained a better understanding of the pressures and each other’s roles because their work is more transparent. “We’re seeing less awards that are restrictive, whereas that was more often the case before Blackbaud Award Management.”

NSCC already has Blackbaud Award Management integrated with its student information system, PeopleSoft. The college and the foundation rely on Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® for fundraising and relationship management, and Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT® for fund accounting, and they will explore the possibility of integrating the software solutions to save reconciliation time, potentially cutting down on audit issues.

“With Blackbaud software, we will continue to grow our processes as it has already provided us a lot of relief from previous challenges,” said Currie. “We also really appreciate that Blackbaud Award Management resonates so well with our students.”