philanthropyOz Blog

Scholarship Fund: Supporting Professional Education in the Not-For-Profit Sector

Press release from Advanced Solutions International:

Saints, White Lions and Kiwis Among Scholarship Winners
ASI SMART Company Scholarship Fund

Interest in the ASI SMART Company Scholarship Fund continues to grow with 26 individuals applying for $30,000 of funding in the March round.

Recipients from this round of funding include individuals from: Wellington Free Ambulance, youth services provider Whitelion, Orana Family Services, AIDS Council of New South Wales: Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and St John Ambulance. They will share $7000 in funding for training in fundraising, project management and paramedic skills.

Now in its second year the ASI SMART Company Scholarship Fund supports individuals to undertake study directly relevant to their work in the NFP sector across Australia and New Zealand. ASI works with more than 400 Australasian fundraising organisations and associations providing software solutions and support via its leading product iMIS.

“The word is clearly out,” says ASI managing director and fund chair Paul Ramsbottom. “No catches, no torturous application forms and a chance to gain real skills to make the sector smarter.” Recognising the sector’s interest, ASI increased funding to $25,000 for 2007.

Paul was inspired to establish the fund after attending a fundraising course as a sponsor some years ago. Upon seeing how relatively small dollar amounts make major impacts he decided to establish his fund to “help people learn how to fish for themselves”.

$18,000 in funding remains for upcoming rounds the next of which will be announced in June.

Details at: www.advsol.com/ap/scholarship.

About ASI: Advanced Solutions International (Asia-Pacific) - ASI - has more than 35 staff and over 400 clients from the not-for-profit, charity and association sectors including: Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, The Cancer Council Victoria and the Australian Medical Association. They use ASI products such as iMIS to manage membership communications, fundraising, events, payments and website content.