Tri-County Scholarship Fund

Tri-County Scholarship Fund aims to help as many young people as possible from low-income families gain a PRIVATE SCHOOL K-12th education that empowers them to build the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to permanently leave poverty behind.

Tri-County’s goal to achieve this aim is to provide as many partial, needs-based scholarships as possible to the thousands of low-income families and their K-12th grade children who deeply desire to acquire a high-quality, values centered education at local, cost-efficient, safe PRIVATE SCHOOLS but who can’t afford the total tuition.

The strategies Tri-County employs to ensure this aim and goal are achieved are as follows.

A. inform many thousands of low-income families of Tri-County’s scholarships for K-12th grade students that will enable them to attend local private schools;

B. Have a third party, independent source qualify all families who apply in order to rank them by income, with the lowest income families ranked the highest;

C. Award as many scholarships as possible to K-12th grade students from qualified, low-income families - $2,000 to each K-8th grade scholarship recipient, $4,000 to each 9-12th grade scholarship recipient, and $5,000 Freedom scholarships to select high school students who demonstrate strong academic skills as well as financial need;

D. Ensure all scholarship recipients meet all requirements to maintain their scholarships during the academic year;

E. Strive to continue awarding scholarships to qualified students each year until they graduate from their chosen private schools;

F. Ensure scholarship recipients receive the guidance they need to establish a viable plan for college, other advanced training, and/or career goals;

G. Provide scholarship recipients and Tri-County alumni access to opportunities that expose them to fields of study, internships and/or work opportunities that help students choose and/or further their careers.

Tri-County Scholarship Fund has multiple capabilities to achieve this goal.

A. Tri-County is capable of annually raising over $1 million for scholarships.

B. Over 1,000 individuals, foundations, corporations and other businesses make donations in support of Tri-County scholarships.

C. Tri-County maintains a very small staff – 3 people – and is advised by a board of 50 trustees who represent a wide cross-section of New Jersey and New York organizations in finance, banking, law, real estate, accounting and many other fields.

D. 100% of trustees make significant donations.

E. Tri-County organizes several fundraising events over each year, the largest of which is a dinner attended by over 700 supporters.

F. Tri-County works in close collaboration with 38 private schools in northern New Jersey.

G. Tri-County maintains an aggressive outreach and communication effort to grow relationships with current supporters as well as engage new supporters.

H. Tri-County strives to optimize every opportunity to enable supporters to discover a way they feel comfortable helping Tri-County students succeed.

I. Tri-County ensures supporters remain focused on the purpose of Tri-County’s existence, which is the success of the scholarship recipients, not the organization.

Tri-County Scholarship Fund has achieved several accomplishments.

A. Since its founding in 1981, Tri-County has awarded over 32,000 scholarships to low-income students valued at over $28 million.

B. Tri-County recently raised over $1 million at our main fund-raising dinner for the first time

C. Tri-County recently raised over $1.5 million from all fund-raising events for the first time

D. Tri-County recently received a separate $1 million gift for scholarships from a new foundation

E. Tri-County recently had a building donated, valued at over $750,000, which is now our headquarters.

F. The board of trustees has achieved greater diversity, with representation of each of the ethnicities and backgrounds of the students receiving scholarships

G. 100% of Tri-County trustees give generously of their resources as well as time

H. The number and depth of involvement of volunteers has increased

I. Many new, mutually beneficial partnerships been established with businesses who can help Tri-County students and alumni learn about various professions, acquire internships, and/or employment.

Next on our agenda is to:

A. Increase the number of scholarships awarded to over 2,000 qualified students who are currently on our waiting list.

B. Develop the next phase of our student/alumni internship and employment opportunities program in close collaboration several local corporations/businesses.

C. Grow public awareness and the value of the Tri-County Scholarship Fund.

D. Grow the number of Tri-County supporters.