How to Establish or Give to a Scholarship
Cal Poly invites you to enhance the mission that is at the heart of our educational enterprise: supporting students.
The type of support you choose can be designed to fit your intentions, financial resources and funding timetable. Scholarships and awards can be established in the following ways:
Annual Scholarships
- Provide support to students for one academic year
- Allow a donor to make an immediate impact in the lives of our students
- Can be renewed each year by the donor, or through a gift sufficient enough to cover several years
- Annual student support is temporary and many times donors will ultimately create an endowment to ensure that their scholarship is perpetuated - Minimum donation for a named annual scholarship is $300
Endowed Scholarships
- Provide a consistent flow of support to students and allows the University to plan into the future
- Permanent fund meaning that the original asset is held in perpetuity and only a portion of the earnings from the fund is distributed to students on an annual basis
- Endowment distributes 4.25% of the three-year rolling average in the fund
- Minimum donation for a named scholarship endowment is $10,000; minimum donation for a named award endowment is $3,000
To learn more about Cal Poly's endowment investment policy click here, or visit our Planned & Major Gifts website.
If you are interested in establishing a scholarship, internship, or award, please click here to download an inquiry form (pdf format) to help you determine eligibility criteria.
A note about eligibility criteria factors:
Scholarship, award, or internship criteria may be determined in accordance with the donor's request except that race, religion, gender, ethnicity or age cannot be factors in selecting a recipient (refer to the University catalog section Policies on the Rights of Individuals for more information). Such eligibility factors as class level, major field of study, financial need, or academic excellence are examples of acceptable criteria.
Gifts to the Cal Poly General Scholarship fund of any amount are always appreciated. Checks may be made payable to Cal Poly and mailed to:
Cal Poly
Scholarship Program
Heron Hall
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407-0444