College-bound? Your scholarship hunt just got easier with searchable Pittsburgh Foundation site

There are more scholarships this year than ever before available through The Pittsburgh Foundation — $2.6 million worth — and searching for the right ones is more painless than ever.

“We wanted to find an easy way for folks to go in and find scholarships specific to them,” says Yvonne Maher, the Foundation’s vice president of development and donor services.

Graduating high schoolers and current college or grad school students can search the large variety of offerings at the Foundation, which last year gave scholarships worth $1.7 million to 542 people in Allegheny County (representing 222 different scholarship funds), and another $117,000 to 102 students in Westmoreland County via the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County.

Students are able to search by current high school or future college and field of study. And new scholarships become available all the time, says Maher, often to celebrate a person, place or occupation dear to the donor’s heart. The Foundation works to establish standard criteria for these scholarships, where possible, such as GPA or the federal assessment of financial need (FAFSA), and helps donors oversee the application and selection process.

So get started searching now — most of the scholarships have a March or April deadline. As Maher notes, “Every scholarship is unique.”

Do Good:

• Ensure your future: Try the scholarship search site early and often.

• Ensure someone else’s future: Set up a scholarship fund to memorialize a memory – and create new ones.

• Donate online: Find the best nonprofit to help in a variety of great causes.

Writer: Marty Levine

Source: Yvonne Maher, The Pittsburgh Foundation