The Scholarship and Interest-Free Educational Loan Program
Obtaining a college education is expensive, and the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts strives to provide some financial assistance to students living in Franklin, Hampden or Hampshire counties to help them achieve their goal of graduating from college. We have over 160 different scholarship funds and two loan funds available through our program, and give away over 1,000 individual awards. This equates to approximately $1.4 million in scholarships and $600,000 in interest-free educational loans.
See our Scholarship and Loan Program FAQ for more information.
After careful consideration, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts has decided to delay the next application round for our student loan program to review and evaluate strategies meant to ensure access and affordability to post-secondary education. As the cost of education has skyrocketed, student loan debt has more than doubled over the last 20 years. We plan to gather input across our three counties to reflect on our current practices and, if necessary, find new methods to support the best possible outcomes for students.
For current loan recipients, the repayment process has not been impacted by this decision and repayments continue. If you have any additional questions, please email scholar@communityfoundation.org.
Scholarships and interest-free educational loans are provided for one academic year and are not automatically renewed each year. You can reapply to our program every year you are going to attend college, and the application you submit that year will be considered for all scholarships and loans for which you are eligible.
If you are interested in establishing a new scholarship fund, please visit our START A FUND page.