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Financial Aid

Families apply for help paying for an event, your team reviews each application and approved aid comes out of a fund and lowers the family's balance.

How it fits together​

  1. Funds hold the money, like "General Scholarship Fund". You create them once.
  2. Each event turns on Financial Aid and sets aside money from one or more funds.
  3. Families apply with a link.
  4. You review on the Financial Aid board and approve an amount from a fund.

Create a fund​

  1. Go to Sign Ups > Settings > Financial Aid.
  2. Click Add fund.
  3. Enter the Fund Name, Yearly Budget and Year, and pick a Color. Double-check the year.
  4. Click Create Fund.

The fund belongs to the ministry you're in. You can change the budget later with the pencil. The name and color can't be changed.

The trash icon deletes a fund straight away, with no confirmation.

Each fund shows its Budget, how much is Allocated to events, how much is Used and what's Available. Donations made with Donate to a fund add to the budget.

Turn on Financial Aid for an event​

  1. Pick the event, go to Settings > Features and turn on Financial Aid.
  2. Open the event's Financial Aid section in the rail and set up:
    • Fund Allocations: how much of each fund this event can use.
    • Public Form Name and Public Form Description.
    • Require Registration Before Applying: on means families look up their registered child first. Off means anyone can apply and you link them to a registrant later.
    • Application Deadline (optional).
    • Stages: the columns on your review board. Applied, Approved and Denied are always there. Add your own, like "Waiting on paperwork".
    • Application Questions: anything else you want to ask.
  3. Click Save Changes.

Stages and questions save as soon as you change them.

How families apply​

Share the Public Application Link from the event's Financial Aid settings. Families can also get there from:

  • the Financial Aid button on their Family Portal
  • the {{financial_aid_link}} variable in an email

With Require Registration Before Applying on, parents enter their child's name and birthday, see what they owe and say how much they can afford. The difference is their aid request.

A family can apply once per event and can't edit the application after sending it.

Review applications​

Go to Sign Ups > Financial Aid. Each column is a stage, and each card is a family.

To add an application yourself, click New, pick the family and enter the amount requested.

To decide on an application:

  1. Click the card.
  2. If it says Unlinked application, click Link Registrant and pick the right child first.
  3. Under Award, enter the Award amount (it can't be more than the current balance) and pick the Fund.
  4. Check Balance after award.
  5. Click Approve & Apply, or Deny.

Approving adds a Financial Aid payment to each linked registrant (split evenly) and moves the card to Approved. You'll see a warning if the fund is over, but it won't stop you.

Changing your mind​

Moving a card out of Approved or deleting an application doesn't remove the aid that was applied. To undo aid:

  1. Open each registrant and go to Finances.
  2. Click the Financial Aid payment and choose Delete.

Don't approve the same application twice. That adds the aid again.

Common questions​

I approved aid but the balance didn't change. The application wasn't linked to a registrant when you approved it, so no aid was added. Open the registrant, go to Finances > Record, pick Financial Aid and enter the amount and fund.

A fund shows "over". More has been awarded than was set aside for this event. Add more under Fund Allocations, or use another fund.

Financial Aid isn't in the sidebar. It follows the selected event. Pick an event that has Financial Aid turned on.

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