The Stefan Batory Foundation

Equal Opportunities Program

Local Scholarship Funds

Polski | English

contact: Ewa Kulik-Bielinska, Alina Wasilewska
e-mail: szanse@batory.org.pl
phone: (48 22) 536 02 59

Partner organizations

The program is funded by individual donors from Poland and abroad, including Polish taxpayers who donate each year 1% of their income tax.

The aim of Equal Opportunities - Local Scholarship Funds program run by the Foundation since 2000 is to develop a local scholarship system for primary and secondary school students based on local community activity and resources. In this way we would like to contribute to equalize the educational opportunities of children from urban and rural areas and help talented youth from low-income families continue their secondary education.

The Foundation offers local organizations willing to run scholarship programs technical assistance in establishing and operating scholarship funds, building local coalitions, fund raising and funds’ management. Once a year, the organizations receive matching grants to supplement monies they have raised locally from local businesses, individual donors, and local governments.

The scholarship funds operate on a basis of their own eligibility criteria developed by committees comprised of representatives of local community: non-governmental organisations, educational institutions, local governments, business circles and media. Scholarship grants approved and provided by these committees amount to EUR 25-60 per month. The students use them to buy handbooks and other learning aids, commute to school, pay for dormitory and extracurricular training, etc. The scholarship grant decisions usually depend on the candidates’ favourable grade performance, family income, involvement in work benefiting the local community, or other extracurricular achievements.

In 2007 the project involved 36 organizations in 16 provinces of Poland including two supported by Nestle Company Poland. The monies they raised in local communities (235 946 EUR) supplemented by 175 177 EUR in grants provided by the Stefan Batory Foundation from donations by individual donors and Nestle Company’s annual gift helped to fund 1287 monthly scholarships in the school year 2007/2008. Given the number of scholarship grants, the Equal Opportunity-Local Scholarship Funds program ranks third as a runner-up to the scholarship programs sponsored by the Agricultural Property Agency, by the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Education and Sport.

In 2008 several new organizations were invited to join the program and provide scholarship grants for children and youth from their locality. They will be helped in this task by Nidzica Community Foundation which will provide training and consultations for the whole network of local scholarship funds. All organizations submit grant applications by March 31. Grants for the year 2008/2009 will be distributed by September 2008.