Back to school: Expanding support for education

By Trish Reimer, Grants and Scholarship Manager   

August is here which means it’s time for back-to-school! If education is on your mind, you’re in good company. 

In 2024, charitable giving to education rose to more than $58 billion. If related causes are close to your heart, the dedicated team at Lincoln Community Foundation can help you explore a variety of purposeful ways to make a difference now and in the future.  

Direct your gift to student success 
Selecting a nonprofit, such as a school foundation, as a recipient of a designated fund can also leave a lasting impact. Many school districts have supporting foundations that benefit students from early childhood through high school graduation. School foundations or other youth-centered nonprofits fund enrichment programs, scholarships or even provide emergency assistance that helps low-income students and their families. 

Find your education “niche” 
By establishing a field-of-interest fund at LCF, you can work with our team to identify specific parameters that you’d like to fund. Charitable funding that enhances children and youth development creates ripple effects across classrooms and generations of learners. 

For example, you may be interested in supporting programs that offer tutoring and mentorship. You may choose to support nonprofits who provide enrichment education in music, art, theater or STEM opportunities. Or, you may decide to direct your charitable dollars to quality early childhood programs, which research shows can have a profound and lasting positive impact on a child’s future. Together, we can identify an area of focus that aligns with your goals. 

Scholarships – a traditional approach 
Of course, a scholarship fund is a familiar and traditional philanthropic tool.  The Lincoln Community Foundation currently manages more than 90 scholarship funds and awarded more than $606,000 to 299 recipients in 2025.   

Most recently, the establishment of the LCF Student Success Scholarship has provided a vehicle that allows like-minded donors to pool their resources to provide flexible, meaningful, renewable scholarship awards that lead to degree completion. 

For example, donors Carol van Rossum and her late husband, Chuck, made a thoughtful decision to use their named scholarship fund and participate in the new Student Success Scholarship program. The van Rossum Scholarship fund, along with seven other scholarship funds, partnered to disburse significant awards in 2024, providing five students with amounts up to $5,000 per student – with an opportunity to renew the award for up to four years ($20,000 total).  You can read Chuck and Carol’s story here. 

LCF is happy to facilitate a dialogue with you to structure your funding – whether through a scholarship fund or other types of support – to fill gaps in student need. As students head back to school and education is top of mind, we are here to make sure your giving is effective, strategic and in line with your philanthropic goals.

Questions? We’re here to help! Reach out at 402-474-2345 or trishr@lcf.org.