Scholarship FAQ

These questions are from IRS 501(c)(3) application form and the answers are provided for reference.

1:   Describe the types of educational grants you provide to individuals, such as scholarships, fellowships, loans, etc.

2:   Describe the purpose and amount of your scholarships, fellowships, and other educational grants and loans that you award.

3. Describe the specific criteria you use to determine who is eligible for your program. (For example, eligibility selection criteria could consist of graduating high school students from a particular high school who will attend college, writers of scholarly works about American history, etc.)

4. Describe the specific criteria you use to select recipients. (For example, specific selection criteria could consist of prior academic performance, financial need, etc.)

5. Describe how you determine the number of grants that will be made annually.

6. Describe how you determine the amount of each of your grants.

7. Describe any requirement or condition that you impose on recipients to obtain, maintain, or qualify for renewal of a grant. (For example, specific requirements or conditions could consist of attendance at a four-year college, maintaining a certain grade point average, teaching in public school after graduation from college, etc.)

8. Describe your procedures for supervising the scholarships, fellowships, educational loans, or other educational grants.

9.  Describe whether you obtain reports and grade transcripts from recipients, or you pay grants directly to a school under an arrangement whereby the school will apply the grant funds only for enrolled students who are in good standing. Also, describe your procedures for taking action if the terms of the award are violated.

10. Who is on the selection committee for the awards made under your program, including names of current committee members, criteria for committee membership, and the method of replacing committee members?

1:   Describe the types of educational grants you provide to individuals, such as scholarships, fellowships, loans, etc.

 The type of education grants Angel Pray provide to individual is scholarship.

 2:   Describe the purpose and amount of your scholarships, fellowships, and other educational grants and loans that you award.

 The purpose for scholarships is to provide the limit financial assistance to the children students with their tuition or living expense through academic semesters.  The current scholarship programs are for Katrina children and the poor students in China.  The amounts award to individual depends on the living standard of the country and regions.  The current arrangement is as followings:

 Katrina Students (elementary and middle schools students):    $400/per student per year

Students in China (elementary and middle schools students):   $50/per student per year

Students in China (high school students):  $100/per student per year

 3. Describe the specific criteria you use to determine who is eligible for your program. (For example, eligibility selection criteria could consist of graduating high school students from a particular high school who will attend college, writers of scholarly works about American history, etc.)

 The criteria for the students who are eligible for Angel Pray scholarship is the family income versus family expense.  The annual average income per family members is lower than $2000 in United States and $500 in China.  The age of the students is under 18 years old and they must attend the schools to receive the scholarship.  There is no limitation on the specific school.  Any students meet the minimum requirement can apply for scholarship.

 4. Describe the specific criteria you use to select recipients. (For example, specific selection criteria could consist of prior academic performance, financial need, etc.)

 The specific criteria of scholarship are need based instead of merit base.  There are no other criteria.  But the prior academic performance will be considered if the student applies for the next term scholarship if he/she is not the first time application.

 5. Describe how you determine the number of grants that will be made annually.

 The number of the grants based on the fund availability in the certain projects.  The donors have right to select the students from the database.  They also can specify their donations on certain region scholarship.  For example, the number of the grants for Katrina children will be based on the fund raise in Katrina project.  If the available fund is $4000, there will be 10 Katrina students can be granted scholarship because of $400/per students.  For scholarship in China will be calculated at the same method.

6. Describe how you determine the amount of each of your grants.

 Since Angel Pray is a new organization, we don’t expect a large amount of donations. Therefore, our current scholarship is to provide the limit finance assistant to the student for their part of tuition or living expense.  We are not able to cover all the tuition and living expense.  We pre-set the fixed amount for the award at the different education levels high school, middle school and elementary school). 

 Basically, for Katrina children, we will provide the assistant for their school supplies. For students in China, we will provide the assistant for their monthly food expense. 

 7. Describe any requirement or condition that you impose on recipients to obtain, maintain, or qualify for renewal of a grant. (For example, specific requirements or conditions could consist of attendance at a four-year college, maintaining a certain grade point average, teaching in public school after graduation from college, etc.)

 The requirement or condition that we impose on recipients to maintain or qualify for renewal of a grant is there is improvement for the recipients, which can be obtained from the grade record, the award evidence and the comments from their school supervisor.  The other condition to maintain the grants is that the financial background of the recipients is the same or worse than previous time period and he/she does not receive the other grants from other source.  If the recipients fail to tell the truth and or fail to show the improvement evidence, they do not qualify for the renewal of a grant.

 8. Describe your procedures for supervising the scholarships, fellowships, educational loans, or other educational grants.

 The procedure for supervising the scholarship is the following steps: 

• We assign a supervisor representing Angel Pray at the local region where we issue the scholarship.  This supervisor is a reliable person who has a good heart to help charity. 
• Supervisor collects the application forms and checks the complete forms and signatures.  Supervisor is also responsible to contact with the school supervisor to verify the content of the applications.  The school supervisor has to approve the application before submit to Angel Pray.
• Angel Pray evaluation committee will sort the applications on students’ need base.  The details information and application forms are listed on the webpage for donor to choose.  If donors choose one to one sponsor program, the students are selected by donors are the recipients for scholarship.  If the donors prefer to donate to programs instead of one to one program, Angel Pray committee will determine the recipients based on the fund available and the annual income/person as well as the other special conditions of the students.
• The scholarship will be issued at the beginning of each academic semester.  The school is required to provide the formal meeting including the school principle, Angel Pray supervisor, and the scholarship recipients and their family members if they are available.  The video and photos and the voice recorded are required to submit to Angel Pray.  Each student will sign on the recipients receipt to receive the scholarship under the supervision.  The receipt will be submitted to Angel Pray for record.  Angel Pray supervisor will report the meeting to Angel Pray by phone or other writing method. 

 9.  Describe whether you obtain reports and grade transcripts from recipients, or you pay grants directly to a school under an arrangement whereby the school will apply the grant funds only for enrolled students who are in good standing. Also, describe your procedures for taking action if the terms of the award are violated.

 Angel Pray will request an annual student report from the recipients at the end of academic semester for renewal purpose.  The copy of the grade transcripts are also preferred but not required with the report.

 Angel Pray will send grants directly to a school under an arrangement whereby the school will apply the grants funds only for enrolled students.  If any recipient is not able to enroll the school, the school is required to provide the details reason from the students.  The necessary help might be available if the student’s drop off is because of financial difficulty instead of moving or other reasons.  If the fund is withdrawal because of the un-enrollment of the student, the new recipient will be determined by Angel Pray committee.

 For the following term, the award is violated:

• The recipient misuses the fund for entertainment purpose or improper expense such as expensive shopping, computer games etc.
• The recipient failed to tell the truth about the family finance background. 
• The recipient failed to report the other aid she/he received.
• The school changes the recipient without reporting to Angel Pray supervisor.
• The school issues the scholarship without supervisor’s appearance.
• The school issues the scholarship without the original recipients’ signatures.
• The school issues the different amount of the scholarship as Angel Pray arranged.

 The procedure for taking action if the terms of the award are violated:

• Angel Pray supervisor investigate the fact and the terms of violation and reported to the Angel Pray evaluation committee.
• Angel Pray committee sets up the directly contact with the schools or the recipients for confirmation the causes.
• Angel Pray committee record the terms and organizing the meeting to discuss the violation level (acceptable mistake with warning or serious violation with punishment)
• If the violated recipient is determined as the unforgivable violation, the fund for the next semester will be stopped and the recipient will no longer qualify for renewal.
• If the violated recipient is determined as forgivable violation, a writing warning will be issue to the recipient.  The recipient has to write an agreement with Angel Pray to promise the correction of the action for the continuous aid.
• If the school is determined to make the serious violation, the school will be banded for future scholarship application for one year, or two years time period depending on the decision of the evaluation committee..  All the scholarship will be stopped immediately.
• If the school is determined to make the forgivable mistake, and show the sincere to correct the action, a writing agreement between the school and Angel Pray will be recorded and the further supervision will be conducted.

 10. Who is on the selection committee for the awards made under your program, including names of current committee members, criteria for committee membership, and the method of replacing committee members?

 In Angel Pray, the evaluation committee for the awards consists three members:  Xiaohong Huang (Angelene), Mike Joy and Min Zhang (Mindy).

 Criteria for committee membership are the board director position and the commitment to the children.  The members are required to spend more time on sorting, confirming and managing the student application information.  The replacing committee member is determined by the votes.