theWashBoard.org matches students with scholarships

Last year, the Greater Issaquah Chamber of Commerce wanted to award two $2,000 scholarships to Issaquah students who showed motivation and improvement in their school work — a "second chance" for a college-bound senior.

But the chamber could find only one well-qualified student, according to the Seattle Foundation, which administers the Issaquah scholarship. No recipient could be found for the other scholarship, and the $2,000 languished, unspent.

A new website run by a public/private partnership of nonprofits and the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) aims to help Washington scholarship-givers and scholarship-seekers find one another. The service is free.

The scholarship clearinghouse, theWashBoard.org, works like an online-matchmaking service such as eHarmony, said Mary Beth Lambert, spokeswoman for the Washington Scholarship Coalition. But instead of finding you a date, it finds you money for college.

The site is funded in part with $100,000 from the HECB, which also hosts the site and provides one full-time staffer to work with students and scholarship providers. It's also funded by nonprofits, including the Seattle Foundation, the College Success Foundation and the Northwest Education Loan Association. The total budget for planning and development was $1 million, Lambert said.

The site only lists scholarships for which Washington students are eligible.

Although scholarship season doesn't start in earnest until December, the partnership is encouraging students to log on and set up their profile now, so they can begin scanning through the scholarships and marking ones that interest them. Once students have identified good fits, theWashBoard.org sends e-mail reminders as the application deadline draws near.

The website is for more than just high-school seniors, Lambert said. Scholarships are also available for students already enrolled in college. Middle-school students can use it to begin scouting for opportunities. And adults who have returned to school will find scholarship money as well.

Jeffrey Hill, a 42-year-old Grays Harbor resident, used theWashBoard.org to find two $1,000 scholarships to help pay for a two-year associate degree at Grays Harbor Community College. Hill is studying accounting.

"It's like one-stop shopping," said Hill, who had already received two scholarships for going back to school after he was laid off from a lumber mill. Hill found two more scholarships he'd never heard of before on the website — one from the Grays Harbor Community Association, and another from the nonprofit Northwest Education Loan Association.

Lambert said students on the hunt for college money are often inundated by marketers — including scam artists — who purport to find hidden scholarship money for a fee. At the same time, legitimate scholarships get left on the table because the organization offering the money doesn't have a budget to advertise, and the most qualified students don't apply.

Students should be wary of any organization that charges a fee to find "hidden" scholarships, Lambert said.

The Washington Scholarship Organization is especially interested in using theWashBoard.org to reach low-income students and those who are the first in their family to go to school. While top-ranked high-school students usually find scholarship money with little difficulty, middle-of-the-road students often don't get any money, even though it's available, Lambert said.

The Washington Scholarship Association only allows registered nonprofits to list scholarships on the site, and interviews the nonprofit to make sure the scholarship is legitimate, Lambert said.

Since the site launched in January, 31,000 students have signed up for the service, and 130 scholarship providers have entered scholarships into the program's database, she said. The organization estimates there are 430,000 students currently enrolled in two- or four-year colleges, or about to graduate from high school, in this state.

Gabe Aeschliman, philanthropic-services associate with the Seattle Foundation, said the system seems to be working already. Although the Greater Issaquah Chamber could only find one award-winner for its scholarship in 2009, it found recipients for both awards in 2010.

Katherine Long: 206-464-2219 or klong@seattletimes.com