How do I offer scholarship spots through the ActivityHero Scholarship Program?

Families often ask about scholarships or financial aid, especially for summer camp. The ActivityHero Scholarship Program lets families submit one application per child and if qualified, they will be offered a spot for a reduced price at a participating camp or class. See the announcement of the ActivityHero scholarship program to learn why we believe it is important for all children to be able to attend camp.

Family Eligibility

ActivityHero's scholarship application includes questions about household income, number of household members, free or reduced lunch eligibility, and other financial considerations. The applicant must provide income verification by submitting a copy of their free/reduced lunch qualification letter, recent tax returns, pay stubs or unemployment documentation. A sliding scale is used to determine the family's participation fee.

How to Offer Scholarship Spots

Your program can participate in the ActivityHero Scholarship Program by entering the number of scholarship spots you want to offer for each session on your ActivityHero Dashboard. (If you have your own scholarship program, see the next section)

Go to Activities & Sessions > Sessions & Spots Manager, then look for the field "ActivityHero Scholarship Spots."

After entering the number of ActivityHero Scholarship Spots, you will be asked to enter the lowest scholarship price required to accommodate the participant for the session. The recommended range for scholarship prices will be shown. Entering a lower price will help more children be able to attend.

Note: This field is where you enter the minimum amount that you need to accommodate a scholarship child, not the discount amount you are offering.

This information will be used by ActivityHero's team to match scholarship applicants with your program. The registrations will appear in your Registration Reports just like any other registration. To offer the family the scholarship price, a promo code discount is created for one-time use at the available session.

When contributing funds are used to pay for the child's registration fee, you will see a payment from "ActivityHero Scholarship" in your registration report.

For example, this camp (normally $295) offered a lowest scholarship price of $70 and a promo code was created for $225. The family could only afford to pay $20, so a $50 ActivityHero scholarship was given to the family. The camp received two payments, $20 from the family and $50 from ActivityHero.

ActivityHero marketing and registration fees will be deducted from scholarship registrations, but only on the amount you receive for the completed registration.

As families register for scholarship spots, we will reduce the number of scholarship spots available. If you no longer have scholarship spots for the camp session, make the ActivityHero Scholarship Spots field blank.

How do families see what sessions have scholarships?

Families can see which sessions have scholarships by viewing the activity schedule. A "Scholarship Available" link if there are scholarship spots being offered for that session. Families can apply through the scholarship application.

If you have any further questions about the scholarship program, contact scholarships@activityhero.com.

How to Price Scholarships

Participating camps and classes can offer scholarship spots for specific sessions and determine the lowest fee you need to accommodate that scholarship child. For camps, we recommend the lowest price be at least $20 and no greater than 50% of your normal fee. Many applicants are qualified for free or reduced lunch at school and can only afford $20 per week. When your scholarship price is more than the family can afford to pay, we bridge the gap using ActivityHero's scholarship fund, where supporting families have made generous cash contributions to help more children attend camp.

How to manage your own scholarship program using ActivityHero

Programs that want to manage their own scholarship or financial aid program will typically have one Activity to collect full price registrations and a separate Activity to collect scholarship applications. By using a separate Activity, they can have a separate scholarship registration form that includes income and other questions as needed.

Families who apply for a scholarship can be viewed in the Registration Reports. When applicants are approved by their staff, they can move the applicants into the desired session to have a consolidated list of participants. The Invoice feature can be used to ask the applicants to pay a reduced fee for the session.

Contact support@activityhero.com to learn more about managing your own scholarship program.