Revised: December 15, 2023

PURPOSE

Newcombe Scholarships for Students with Disabilities support completion of degrees by students with disabilities who need financial assistance. The Newcombe Foundation provides scholarships in partnership with selected colleges and universities that welcome and enroll students with disabilities and are committed to their success.

The Foundation also helps its institutional partners build endowments that provide long-term capacity to sustain a Newcombe Scholarships program.

It is Foundation policy that institutions be funded under only one Scholarship Program at a time.

CURRENT USE SCHOLARSHIP GRANTS

Institutional Eligibility

Universities and colleges that enroll a substantial number of students with disabilities and provide supportive academic and counseling services for them may apply to the Newcombe Foundation for Current Use grants. Scholarships will be distributed in the academic year immediately following the grant award. As appropriate to the institution, the application may be submitted by the institution’s authorized fundraising foundation. The Foundation prefers grants in this Program be made to institutions in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Matching Funds

The Newcombe Foundation strongly suggests that funded institutions supplement Current Use Newcombe Scholarship grant funds with an equal amount of matching funds from institutional or other sources.

Administration

Each funded institution, through a designated office that provides services to students with disabilities, is responsible for selecting Newcombe Scholarship recipients, administering scholarship funds and reporting to the Foundation.

All costs of administering Newcombe Scholarships, including fundraising costs, must be borne by the funded institution.

A complete Year-End is required in June. Report forms and guidelines are provided well in advance of deadlines.

The Foundation welcomes and responds individually to acknowledgment letters from scholarship recipients.

Eligible Expenses

Newcombe Scholarships for Students with Disabilities funds may be awarded in either or both of two complementary forms:

Newcombe Tuition Scholarships should provide less than the full cost of attendance for eligible students. Scholarship funds should be credited to the student’s financial aid account and used for expenses associated with “cost of attendance,” specifically including tuition, education-related fees, academic textbooks, childcare, and other categories normally considered in the financial need analysis for all students.

Newcombe Support Scholarships should help students address disability-related needs that lie beyond the institution’s accommodation mandates and are not covered by public disability agencies or other financial resources. The Foundation’s goal is to provide targeted grants to individual students that will have a significant impact on the student’s progress toward degree completion and realization of career goals. Such awards should provide less than the full cost of the item or service being provided. Authorized categories include:

Assistive Technology. Support for institutional or student purchase of personal computing or communications hardware and software or other devices needed to address a student’s documented need related to vision, hearing, mobility or learning disability. Unless the Newcombe Foundation staff grants specific approval, no more than half the cost of major items ($1,000 or more) should be covered by Newcombe funds.

Assistive Tutoring. Support for student purchase of assistive tutoring in particular subject areas where the student’s disability suggests a likelihood of significant benefit from services beyond those provided within the institution’s mandate.

Internships. Support for student education-related expenses for off-campus internship or work experience that is part of the student’s course of study and enhances qualifications for future employment (not to include payment or remuneration for the work of the internship). On-campus internships may qualify if required due to student circumstances.

Other Disability-Related Expenses. Support for other documented disability-related expenses that will have a significant impact on the student’s progress toward degree completion and realization of career goals but are not covered by public disability agencies, the institution, or other financial resources. Questions about the appropriateness of expenditures in this category should be referred to the Foundation’s staff. Examples of approved expenses include:

Special medical or psychological services related to the student’s disability.

Services and assessments required to update disability documentation (e.g., to qualify for accommodation on a Praxis or GRE exam).

Disability-related assistance to conduct particular academic study or research activities.

Special housing or transportation costs related to disability.

Scholarship Eligibility Standards

Newcombe Scholarships should aid academically capable students enrolled in a degree-granting program with serious career goals. The clarity and attainability of the student’s career goals and the student’s commitment to them are factors that should be considered.

Newcombe Tuition Scholarships for Students with Disabilities must be need-based. The use of standardized financial aid determination criteria (not necessarily the FAFSA or CSS) to establish basic economic circumstances is required, together with other information about the student’s life circumstances that should be given special consideration. Preference should be given to applicants who have exhausted other sources of funding.

Newcombe Support Scholarships for Students With Disabilities should also be need-based, unless that conflicts with institutional policy. Awards should be provided to candidates who request funding for disability-related costs that are not covered by public disability agencies, the institution, or other financial resources.

Candidates for each category of scholarships may be enrolled part time or full time. Among otherwise qualified candidates, preference for superior academic performance is encouraged. All candidates and recipients must maintain a grade point average of 2.5 or higher. Full-time employees of the institution are not eligible.

Scholarship Selection

The Foundation recommends that a committee of three or more members choose Newcombe Scholarship recipients, and that the committee include financial aid representation, one or more faculty members, and staff representing the designated service office. Experience suggests that use of such a committee enhances awareness on campus of the scholarship program and of the capabilities and special needs of students with disabilities.

The Scholarship Committee is encouraged to consider the specific needs of students in determining the size, range, and number of awards.

Foundation Payments

The Newcombe Foundation pays Current Use Grants in two installments, in July and in December or January of each academic year.

ENDOWMENT CHALLENGE GRANTS

Institutional Eligibility

The Foundation prefers that institutions applying for a Current Use Scholarship Grant also request an Endowment Challenge Grant to establish or augment the institution’s Newcombe-endowed Scholarship Fund(s).

Matching Funds

The Foundation requires that grantee institutions supplement the Foundation’s Endowment Challenge Grant funds with matching funds from the institution or other sources.

Endowment Management

Endowment Challenge Grant funds and matching funds should be deposited in a segregated account within the institution’s endowment. Each Newcombe-endowed Scholarship Fund should be managed to allow the corpus to grow, so that scholarship benefits will be preserved for a long period of time.

All appreciation (or depreciation) of the Fund due to investments and all retained income should be attributed to the account. The Foundation strongly prefers that all costs of endowment management be borne by the funded institution. The Foundation must be notified if the institution or its foundation assesses any fee against its Newcombe-endowed Scholarship Fund for any purpose.

Fund Size

The Newcombe Foundation recognizes and endorses institutional policies that require an endowed fund to reach a certain size before income may be awarded. Funded institutions may retain fund income until the amount is sufficient for scholarships to be granted.

Retention of Some Income

The Newcombe Foundation also endorses institutional policies that limit the annual percentage of payout from endowments to less than total return, so that growth of principal may preserve the long-term efficacy of funds in fulfilling the purpose of donors.

Continuity of Student Benefit

The above notwithstanding, the Newcombe Foundation recognizes that student needs do not diminish during periods in which the institution’s endowed funds experience negative return. The Foundation encourages institutional policies that retain reasonable continuity of student benefit, including during times when the value of the endowed fund dips below the amount originally invested (i.e., when the fund is “under water”).

Foundation Payments

The Newcombe Foundation matches funds that are raised and deposited into the Newcombe-endowed fund, up to and including the amount of the Endowment Challenge portion of the Newcombe grant. Institutional matching funds must be deposited within the academic year for which the grant is awarded. The Newcombe Foundation will process payment of all challenge grants in the middle and the end of the academic year, after receiving verification that the matching funds have been deposited into the Newcombe-endowed fund.

Intended Recipients, Selection Process, and Criteria for Selection

The Newcombe Foundation requires that income received from Newcombe-endowed funds be administered in the same way and for the same purposes as Current Use Scholarship Grants with respect to eligible expenses, selection process and selection criteria (see II. Above).

Fund Name

The endowed funds created by the Foundation’s matching challenge grants should be named for Mrs. Newcombe, i.e., The Charlotte W. Newcombe Scholarship Fund or the Newcombe Endowed Scholarship Fund. If special circumstances exist that require some other nomenclature, the Newcombe Foundation should be contacted for approval.

CHANGED CONDITIONS