Build a Donor-Advised Scholarship That Holds Up
Support a student you care about through clear criteria and a compliant process, without running the back office.
Built for one donor who wants to give with clarity
An Education Opportunity Fund (EOF) is a donor-advised scholarship program you create and guide. It’s designed for personal education giving, without forming a new 501(c)(3) just to run a scholarship — an approach called fiscal sponsorship.
It’s a strong fit for donors, families, business owners, and community leaders who want their giving to reflect specific values and support qualifying students, including people they may know.
You’re the fund’s primary donor and advisor. You help define the purpose and eligibility criteria, then recommend recipients who match those standards
You’re the fund’s primary donor and advisor. You help define the purpose and eligibility criteria, then recommend recipients who match those standards
You set the scholarship’s purpose and criteria, then recommend qualified recipients. You have real input, but you don’t make the final award decision. That safeguard keeps the process fair and consistent.
Good intentions get complicated without guardrails
Education giving is high-trust by nature, and that’s exactly why loose scholarship setups can create problems, especially when the recipient is someone close to the donor.
Traditional donor-advised funds can feel limiting, while informal scholarship giving raises hard questions fast:
Who verifies eligibility?
What’s the standard for awards?
How do you avoid favoritism, or even the appearance of it?
Our EOF solves that gap. It lets the giving stay personal in purpose, while the process stays structured enough to stand up to scrutiny.
How an education opportunity fund works
With BrightLeaf Giving, you create the fund and set the criteria. Then you recommend qualified recipients, while the program follows a consistent administration process under nonprofit oversight.
01
Create the fund
Name the scholarship, define its purpose, and outline eligibility criteria that guide your recommendation
02
Recommend qualified recipients
You submit recommendations for recipients who meet the published criteria. You keep a real voice in the process
03
Awards are issued & reported clearly
Funds are distributed through a structured process, so recipients are supported through a process that stays consistent and fair
Watch this video to see how our EOFs work!
Where this fund works best
EOFs are ideal when you want to support education in a way that’s both personal and repeatable.
Use it to support qualified private individuals (including people you may know) as long as they meet the predefined criteria, and, when appropriate, to support eligible nonprofit education programs or initiatives aligned with the fund’s purpose.
Stewardship you can rely on
Your EOF is hosted in partnership with the Yeshiva Giving Fund, which has final discretion over awards, so the scholarship stays consistent with the fund’s criteria.
BrightLeaf Giving handles the operational heavy lifting: setup, administration, donor acknowledgments, recordkeeping, reporting support, and a responsible award workflow. You don’t have to run the back office.
Pricing stays straightforward: a base rate of 4.5% on incoming donations that steps down as your fund grows (see tier rates below). When awards are delivered through Crowded, our disbursement partner, a 1% third-party disbursement fee applies. Crowded also adds safeguards around how awarded funds are accessed and used.
Platform Rate & Volume Tiers
Our base rate is 4.5% on incoming donations, and it steps down as your fund grows. Referrals reduce it further.
Under $100,000
4.5%
$100,000 – $199,999
3.75%
$200,000 – $499,999
3.25%
$500,000+
2.75%
Refer another EOF, lower your rate
Every EOF you refer that gets approved reduces your platform rate by another 0.5%. Referrals stack with the volume tier you’re already on.
Ready to Start Your Scholarship Fund?
Create an Education Opportunity Fund with a clear process, defined criteria, and professional administration, so you can focus on impact.
Not sure if an Education Opportunity Fund is the right fit?
An Education Opportunity Fund is built for ongoing scholarship support. A few alternatives if that’s not quite what you’re trying to do:
For a one-time scholarship campaign: run a Social Impact Campaign for one-time scholarship campaigns.
For general cause-based giving: open a Community Support Fund for general cause-based giving.
If you’d rather form your own 501(c)(3): see the math on fiscal sponsorship vs starting your own nonprofit, or have BrightLeaf form a standalone scholarship organization for you.
Not sure which fits? Take the free 3-minute readiness check.
Start Your
Education Opportunity Fund
Third-Party Fees
All third-party fees are separate from our platform fee.
Donation Processing
ACH
Free
Bank transfer
DAF
3%
Donor-advised fund grants
Yeshiva Giving Fund
1%
Fiscal sponsor fee
Disbursement
Crowded
1%
Disbursement partner