JOIN US
The world students are entering is changing in ways we can’t predict. But education remains the most reliable path to a life of opportunity.
For over 100 years, The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis has stood by students who need us most. Our campaign invites you to invest in that certainty — building the lasting resources and the flexibility we’ll need to keep doing this work, no matter what comes next.
Join us in future-proofing the next generation of community leaders.
THE STAKES
A generation is being asked to bet on a future no one can see. And the cost of getting there keeps moving further out of reach.
The cost of a four-year education often exceeds what Scholarship Foundation students and their families are able to afford. Even after every other source of aid is counted, our students still face a significant gap between the amount they and their family can contribute and what it takes to complete a degree.
The world on the other side of that degree keeps shifting, too. Whole categories of work are being rewritten by AI. Federal support for higher education is unstable. The ground under this generation is moving faster than they can plan around.
The Scholarship Foundation must build an endowment that will fill students’ financial gaps through graduation regardless of fluctuations outside their control.
These are the stakes for our next generation of community leaders.
THE FUNDING GAP
$34,621
Average annual cost of attendance for bachelor's degree-seeking Foundation students in 2025
OUR MODEL
We’ve been opening doors to higher education for over 100 years. We know what works.
The Scholarship Foundation was founded in 1920 on a simple conviction: an educated society is essential to a healthy democracy. A century later, that conviction still drives us.
When students are awarded scholarship grants or interest-free loans from the Foundation, the commitment is not to a single year of funding, nor to a single method of support. They are funded through degree completion, with personalized guidance at every juncture — mental health therapy, financial aid counseling, path-to-degree planning, and more.
Three practices, working together. It is why our students are successful.
FILL THE FUNDING GAP
The Foundation funds students whose financial barriers are highest. Our scholarship grants and interest-free loans close the gap between total college cost and every other source of aid. Our students borrow from no one but us.
SUPPORT & ADVISE
Funding alone is not enough. Our advisors stay close from the first Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to the final semester, helping students navigate the moments that might otherwise derail a college career.
ADVOCATE FOR ACCESS & AFFORDABILITY
Education benefits the individual. It also benefits the entire community. We work alongside students to shape policy at the institutional, state, and federal levels, so the system itself gets better for the next class.
FEDERAL FINANCIAL AID FOR LOW-INCOME STUDENTS HAS BEEN ERODING FOR 40 YEARS.
THE PROOF
1,159
students funded in the last five years studying everything from nursing to engineering to social work. Most attend colleges in Missouri and Illinois.
A decade ago, two-thirds of every dollar we awarded was in the form of an interest-free loan. Today, more than four-fifths is a grant. Our students borrow less now than they did ten years ago, even as we serve more of them.
1 in 7
donors to SFSTL are
former Foundation
students
"Being a Foundation student afforded me the opportunity to attend university without financial stress. Now that I am starting my career, I want to have a hand in helping future generations grow."
Dimon Philips
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Southeast Missouri State University, Class of 2021
Equifax Finance Scholar
"I am more than grateful for my scholarship, and I am now able to give back to the world in my profession as a registered nurse."
ShaNyah Bursey
Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Eastern Illinois University, Class of 2025
BJC Scholar
"I could not have gotten to where I am without the support of The Scholarship Foundation. I am forever grateful for the stress they lifted off my shoulders and for their commitment to my success."
Brianna Voss
Bachelor of Science in Biology, University of Missouri - Kansas City, Class of 2024
Doctor of Chiropractic Candidate, Logan University, Class of 2028
Interest-Free Loan Scholar
"People would say, ‘You’ll figure it out. You’re strong. You’re resilient.’ And I am. But strong people need support, too. I found what I needed in my Foundation community."
Tori Bezzole-Hershey
Office Administrator, Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, University of Missouri - Columbia, Class of 2026
New Era Scholar
MOST LOW-INCOME STUDENTS NEVER FINISH COLLEGE.
OURS DO AT OVER 4X THE NATIONAL AVERAGE.
86%
of our students come from low-income households.
Nationally, 16% of low-income students complete a bachelor’s degree within six years. Among SFSTL students, that rate is 70%.
The Scholarship Foundation played a major part in my success. The interest-free loans lessened the stress I felt every time a tuition payment came due, so I could focus on my degree. Now I’m honored to serve on the board to make sure the Foundation reaches as many worthy students as possible.
John milonas
Vice-President of Advancement of the board of The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Purdue University, Class of 1988
Interest-Free Loan Scholar
THE PLAN
The Future-Proof Campaign is built on two key pillars and a commitment to the annual support that keeps the Foundation running every day.
Future-Proofing Forever
Grows the Foundation’s endowment from $7.6M to over $30M, building a deeper and more reliable base of funding for the long term.
Investments allow us to:
Lock in support for students in perpetuity, regardless of what happens to federal funding or markets.
Raise the average scholarship grant 20% per student, without reducing the number of students served.
Assure the holistic services that get students through to a degree: advising, mental health support, and emergency funding.
Future-proofing now
A flexible fund that lets the Foundation move quickly when the next opportunity, or the next disruption, arrives.
Investments allow us to:
Fund multi-year scholarships for students.
Seed new partnerships and programs that take years to prove out.
Respond to emerging needs without waiting for the next funding cycle.
Sustained Annual Support
Essential funding that fuels everything the Foundation does with students and in the community.
The Foundation runs on the steady generosity of friends who give every year — roughly $2.2 million in operating support that keeps the doors open and the work moving.
I’ve always known how to find what I need to move forward and reach my goals. The Foundation helped me bridge the gap, covering costs of school, helping me rebuild after a flood took our home, even getting me to Ireland to study abroad.
Mia foote
Bachelor of Social Work
University of Missouri - St. Louis, Class of 2025
New Era & Interest-Free Loan Scholar
WAYS TO GIVE
Your gift is a promise to the next 100 years of students.
Every gift to Future-Proof is a door opening to a student — a student with a set of hopes no one else has envisioned in quite the same way. Your gift is the Foundation’s promise to that student, and to every student who comes next.
Make a multi-year pledge.
Give cash or appreciated stock.
Recommend
a gift from your donor-
advised fund.
Include the Foundation in your estate plans.
Thank you.
My time in the Fellowship showed me how quickly policy can change, requiring my co-Fellows and I to be both academic scholars and firsthand students of the systems we live and work in. That dual perspective grounds me in my professional work today, where I use those advocacy skills daily and teach others how minutely policy governs our communities.
Sara rutherford
Bachelor of Science in International Business
Saint Louis University, Class of 2021
Master of Business Administration
Saint Louis University, Class of 2023
Juris Doctor
Saint Louis University School of Law, Class of 2024
Equifax Finance & Interest-Free Loan Scholar