Enhancing Scholarship Management for ELC
The Executive Leadership Council Scholarship Program
The RQ Platform’s Scholarship solution created a centralized hub for managing the ELC scholarship programs, streamlining both undergraduate and graduate applications across 16+ programs.
Automating manual administrative tasks, ensuring efficient review across different phases, and introduced features like RQ SmartTracker™, eligibility filtering, custom widgets, and email scheduler.
82%
Increase in Total Applications (Draft & Final)
65%
Increase in number of Final Scholarship Applications
50%
Hours of manual work saved
Introduction
Industry: STEM
Location: United States
The Executive Leadership Council (ELC) is the preeminent membership organization committed to increasing the number of global Black executives in C-Suites, on corporate boards, and in global enterprises. The ELC opens channels of opportunity for the development of Black executives to positively impact business and our communities.
Objective
The objective is to streamline application management across 16+ undergraduate and graduate programs, reduce administrative overhead, enhance the user experience, increase application volume, and boost program efficiency.
Challenges
The lack of a centralized hub led to a fragmented scholarship process, with eligibility complexities and traffic spikes complicating management. Frequent communication and manual data handling hindered efficiency, while limited alumni engagement impacted long-term program success.
Lack of a Centralized Hub
The absence of a centralized hub for managing scholarships led to a disjointed application and review process. This created the need for frequent administrative follow-ups and increased the risk of errors within applications.
Eligibility Criteria Complexity
Verifying eligibility criteria for each application added layers of complexity to the process, demanding meticulous attention to detail.
High Traffic Towards End Date
Towards the final application date, traffic spiked significantly, making it difficult to allocate new applications to the four different review phases effectively.
Iterative Communication
Communication throughout the stages of application, review, acceptance, and fund disbursement involved frequent exchanges, creating challenges with iterative and inefficient communication.
Data Management and Analysis Hurdles
The manual approach to handling scholarship programs hindered efficient data collection and analysis, limiting the organization’s ability to track crucial metrics and assess program success.
Inefficient Scholar Progress Tracking
Monitoring scholar progress required manual tracking of multiple documents, including semester reports, transcripts, and other essential forms. This time-consuming process led to delays and increased administrative workload, making it difficult to maintain real-time oversight of scholar achievements.
Alumni Engagement Challenge
Post-program completion, the absence of a structured alumni connection system limited visibility. Hindering the establishment of a robust alumni network impacting collaboration, showcasing of success stories and video testimonials.
Solution
The RQ Platform streamlined scholarship management with automated eligibility checks, follow-up tracking, and multi-phase review processes. It enhanced communication with an email scheduler, and provided in-depth applicant insights through reporting tools
Centralized Hub for Program Management
A centralized hub enabled ELC to manage all 16+ scholarship programs in one place, streamlining the application, review, and follow-up processes.
Streamlined Eligibility Checks
With automated eligibility checks built into the application, Applicants could not proceed with the completion if they didn’t meet the set criteria, ensuring that only relevant and eligible candidates could progress.
Follow-Up Tracking with RQ SmartTracker™
With the RQ SmartTracker™ module, selected scholars could easily submit follow-up documents, simplifying semester progress reviews for administrators. Automated notifications upon submission ensured timely oversight, removing the need for manual tracking.
Easy, Multi-Phase Review Process
The Customer Success team took the initiative to manage this by manually allocating applications across review phases. Moving forward, the team will implement an automated system to handle high traffic periods, ensuring a smooth allocation process without manual intervention.
Automated Email Scheduler
Automated reminder emails were pre-scheduled to recommenders and applicants, improving communication and deadline adherence, and reducing overhead of administrators.
Integrated Reporting Tools
The integrated reporting tools in RQ Platform allowed ELC to dive deeper into demographics, locations, age groups, and the number of draft and final applications. This detailed breakdown provided invaluable insights, enabling a thorough understanding of applicant characteristics and application stages within their Scholarship programs.
Alumni Directory
Utilized RQ alumni directory to effortlessly track scholars, offering a streamlined platform for them to update contact information, share career milestones, gather success stories, and video testimonials.
Results
RQ Platform’s scholarship software transformed ELC’s scholarship management by streamlining processes and automating key tasks. This significantly enhanced program efficiency, reduced administrative burdens, and enabled better engagement, more completed applications, and smoother overall program execution.
50% Decrease in Administrative Time
By automating repetitive tasks like application tracking, reviewer assignments, and communication workflows, program administrators saved significant time, allowing them to focus on strategic planning and improving participant experiences.
82% increase in Total Scholarship Applications
Streamlined application processes, and user-friendly interfaces, drove higher engagement and significantly boosted the total number of applications submitted.
65% increase in Final Applications
Clearer submission guidelines, automated reminders, and enhanced application tracking tools resulted in more candidates successfully completing and submitting their final applications.
20% increase in Program Efficiency
Enhanced reporting, centralized data management, and real-time analytics improved operational workflows, reducing delays and ensuring smoother execution of the program from start to finish.
