Case Study: Nova Scotia Community College increases scholarship fund utilization to 95% and streamlines awards with Blackbaud Award Management

Nova Scotia Community College - Customer Case Study

Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), which serves learners across 14 campuses, needed a better way to manage roughly $3.5 million in scholarship funds and improve the student experience. Facing low applicant engagement and many unclaimed awards—fund utilization was around 80%—the college sought a solution to match more students with scholarships while ensuring donor criteria were met.

NSCC implemented Blackbaud Award Management™ (integrated with PeopleSoft) and leveraged qualification groups and preference functionality, while the NSCC Foundation self-serves donor reporting. The software drove a much larger applicant pool, streamlined anonymous reviews, reduced administrative burden, and raised fund utilization from about 80% to 95% (with close to zero unclaimed awards), saving staff time and improving donor stewardship; NSCC also uses Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT® and is exploring further integrations.

Nova Scotia Community College

Matt Currie

Manager of Student Awards and Financial Aid