Economy Affects SFCC Foundation's Scholarship Efforts

The South Florida Community College Foundation awarded about $525,000 in scholarships last year, but that amount will likely drop a little this year due to the slow economy.

SFCC Foundation Executive Director Donald Appelquist said funding scholarships is the most important thing the foundation does.

"Certainly this economic situation has impacted us," he said.

Earnings from the scholarship endowments pay for about 80 percent of the scholarships the foundation awards each year.

The other 20 percent is funded through annual gifts that are given directly to students in the year the college receives the donation.

"The total amount of gifts that we have received in the last six or seven months has in fact been impacted by the economic situation," Appelquist said. "People are simply not as able as they were in the past to make charitable contributions."

Despite the economy, the foundation's conservative investing did not affect this year's scholarships funded through the endowments.

The foundation typically spends about 85 percent of its endowments' investment earnings on scholarships and reinvests the remaining 15 percent.

"I think our otherwise conservative investment policy saved us from losing even more money than we might," he said. "This is that kind of terrible rainy day when we are going to have to go back in and tap in to those unspent earnings from previous years."

The loss of about 21 percent is not too great compared to the Dow Jones being down abut 40 percent, Appelquist said.

However, if things don't improve in a year and the foundation has no investment earnings, then things might change.

"We will have a very serious problem in terms of whether we will be able to award scholarships," he said.

The foundation cannot tap into the restricted corpus of the funds but can only spend the earnings.

"If a fund gets to the point where there is no longer any spendable money in it, then we will not be able to award scholarships," he said.

Sebring High School guidance counselor Deborah Weathers said the number and amount of local scholarships is holding steady despite the economy.

Service and civic groups are working hard to provide financial help for students who go to college, she said.

Avon Park High School 12th-grade guidance counselor Jennifer Langston said no local organizations have cancelled their scholarships. There are a few new memorial scholarships in memory of someone who has passed away.