Scholarships - offering and managing at the unit level?

[321EOD]

Does anyone in a composite or cadet squadron run a unit scholarship program?

We have been contemplating it for a while but unsure where to start.

Objective:
Use funds raised/donated to provide partial/full scholarships for CAP related activities:

• $xx towards Encampment fee
  full ride for Encampment
  ditto for NCSAs
  $xx towards purchasing ES gear for a keen ES cadet
  $xx towards uniform purchases
  $xx to pay for a cadet to attend an activity he/she may not be able to afford

Challenges:
How to determine the eligibility requirements (espceially hardship related ones)
How to decide who gets a scholarship
How to account for the funds

If anyone has expericene with this I'd love to hear from them!

[JC004]

Just make sure to run it by finance/legal first.  Especially if you're buying uniforms and gear.

[Fifinella]

In a not very large squadron, we had several SM's offer Encampment scholarships.  (The scholarships were for Encampment first years only.)  The donors selected the recipients from applicants.  IIRC, the applicants met a panel, similar to a promotion review.  The donors sat on the panel along w the DCC.  Don't recall if cadet staff was part of the panel or not.  Most years the donors selected 1 or 2 cadets to fully fund, but one year they felt there were several applicants they wanted to support, so they offered partial scholarships to a greater number of cadets, instead of full scholarships to only 1 or 2.  The DCC and Sq/CC were always kept informed of the decisions, and I suppose had veto authority, although it was never a factor. 

Currently, squadron funds are used to help off-set cadet costs for WG conferences, etc.  The squadron subsidizes the registration fee (pays $20/head or so), and writes a check to WG.  The cadets are responsible for the remainder of the fee.