It's a nice idea, but how will it be administered? What will it cost to request $2.00 from each alum? How will the funds be collected? It may be too costly in terms of time and money to raise $1,000 in $2.00 increments. What about asking each reunion class to contribute to the scholarship fund? This could be done via lump sum donation from the class or, as part of the reunion mailing, asking each alum to contribute $5.00 to the fund.
Who would administer it is unknown at this point and the school has been sent an email with several questions that will help to determine what would need to be done or if donation made on line could be sent directly to the school itself. That would need to be answered as the second step of this process once it's been determined if in fact a scholarship will be offered, which at this point based on Alumni feedback appears that it will be.
The Hingham Institution for Savings was contacted yesterday and they said a trust would need to be set up and a EIN # obtained to open a Alumni Scholarship bank account. We might also want to consider a Bank of America account - if only for the reason that an Alumni could then make a direct deposit at any branch in the country. Personally I hate BOA because of their fee structures but the ability to contribute directly might make this the best option for all.
Where there is a will there is a way - this current discussion is just to determine if the Alumni as a group are willing to do a scholarship.
As far as cost is concerned the donations could be made via pay pal online using credit cards or echecks or by mail in checks. A Pay Pal donation would cost 2.9% in processing fees + .30 per transaction so a $2.00 donation would net out $1.64. Assuming all 632 currently registered Alumni contribute a $2.00 donation this would in fact meet the goal of a $1,000 scholarship with $50 left over for banking fees.
Let's use this discussion to see if any Alumni's are attorney's who would like to help establish an Alumni Trust (a spousal Attorney would work also). If you're an Attorney or your spouse is an Attorney and you can help establish a Hingham High Alumni Trust then please email the webmaster at
webmaster@hignhamhighalumni.orgBefore anything is done or accomplish a second Alumni discussion and vote will be created to see who would like to work on these questions and logistics. It most likely should be Alumni who live in the Hingham Area I would think. What does everyone else think about this ?
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