Hispanic Scholarship Fund

HSF’s primary objective is to “empower Latino families with the knowledge and resources needed to successfully complete a higher education.” HSF’s strategies and programs accomplish this goal through two primary avenues: scholarships and Support Services.

Since our founding in 1975, HSF has awarded over $675 million in scholarships. In the 2021-22 academic year, more than 124,000 students submitted an HSF Scholarship application. HSF selected 10,000 of those applicants for the designation of HSF Scholar, and is currently in the process of disbursing scholarships to as many Scholars as possible. HSF ’s proprietary technology platform, HSF 4.0, makes it possible for us to recruit, select, award, and provide Support Services to the nation’s top Latino Scholars with a high degree of efficiency, ensuring maximum impact of every scholarship dollar. HSF also leverages its technology platform to administer more than two dozen endowed and tenant scholarship programs, including The Gates Scholarship, funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Wells Fargo Academic Leaders Fellowship Program.

HSF also provides Support Services to thousands of students, families, HSF Scholars, and HSF Alumni across the nation. For middle and high school students and their families, HSF provides Student and Parent Programs, including College Camp, College 101, College Prep Saturday, the Youth Leadership Institute, and the Young Leaders Summit. At these programs, HSF provides information and resources needed to plan, prepare, and pay for college. For Scholars and Alumni, HSF Scholar Support Services—including MentorMatch, Career Coaching, Industry Conferences, Leadership Conferences, and Career Services—offer mentorship, leadership development, career services, knowledge building, and wellness training. The same technology platform that makes it possible for HSF to administer highly effective scholarship programs, also underlies HSF Support Services, making it possible for us to identify and recruit Scholars for Industry and Leadership Conferences; connect Scholars with mentors, career coaches, and other professional opportunities; and provide a wealth of resources and information for students and families as they walk through the college application process. HSF 4.0 now includes the Hispanic Career Pathways Initiative (HCPI). HCPI offers a multi-tiered approach to providing career discernment and career development programs directly to hundreds of thousands of college students nationwide.

In order to achieve our major goals, our top strategic priority is to use state-of-the-art, web-based technology to expand our scholarships, services, programs, and community outreach. We call this strategy, HSF 4.0. We believe, and are proving every day, that technology is the key.

HSF 4.0 is allowing us to improve every aspect of our organization, from how we review scholarship applications, run the organization, and execute our programs, to how we provide content to the millions of families and students who need our support. It directly helps us select scholarship winners, match award dollars to students, match mentors to students, pair students with internships and career opportunities, and track how the students who come through our gateway.

Our capabilities include:

•Communication, recruitment, and marketing, including a network spanning thousands of partners, Alumni, and volunteers, which enable us to reach millions, nationwide
•Integrated technology tools and application expertise, including best-in-class mobile/web technology, which provides college readiness, access, and support services, in-person and virtually, to thousands of students, scholarship recipients, and families, at every step
•Efficient scholarship administration, enhanced by superior technology and grants compliance practices, enabling us to carry out scholarship programs with low administrative costs
•Expertise in executing dozens of small and large programs and events, including multi-day conferences and workshops, to meet the needs of varying constituencies across different venues

Since our founding 46 years ago, our commitment to stewardship, transparency, fiscal responsibility, and impact, has enabled us to award over $650 million in scholarships. We also provide support services to help Scholars attend top colleges, do well in their course work, graduate, enter professions, excel, help lead our nation going forward, and mentor future generations.

One key instrument to our sustainability is HSF's Career Services program, including its model for providing Scholars with access to professional opportunities with our corporate partners. This mutually beneficial pipeline of outstanding young talent places living paradigms of HSF's value in top US companies and organizations. This yields consistently recurring and increasing funding commitments and flourishing partnerships among our corporate and institutional funders, while also providing HSF Scholars with some of the most attractive career opportunities in the nation.

HSF also relies on its network of Alumni and Advisory Council members, and on its Board of Directors. In keeping with HSF’s model of “paying it forward,” our extensive community of Alumni serves as HSF donors, volunteers, mentors, and program ambassadors. Meanwhile, HSF’s 515 Advisory Council members, many of whom are HSF Alumni, are entrepreneurs, representatives of HSF corporate partners, and community leaders, as well as representatives from higher education, school districts, other like-minded nonprofits, and community-based organizations. They volunteer their time to HSF Support Services, make significant financial contributions, and serve as local-market advisors and ambassadors in 40 major markets throughout the country. The Board of Directors similarly supports HSF as brand ambassadors, financial supporters, and networking associates, helping expand HSF's reach and propelling the ongoing fulfillment of our mission.