Asset 1ScholarMatch

About


ScholarMatch makes college possible for underserved youth, from application all the way through college graduation.

  1. Our Mission

    Mission

    ScholarMatch’s mission is to support underserved first-generation college students from low-income backgrounds to earn a bachelor’s degree within five years. We provide virtual individualized advising, targeted financial support, and career mentoring all the way to graduation.

  2. Our Story

    Founded in 2010 by author Dave Eggers, ScholarMatch began as a San Francisco-based crowdfunding platform for scholarships and has since evolved into a full-service college access and persistence organization, delivering hands-on support for first-generation college students. In 2015, we launched the ScholarMatcher, a groundbreaking college list-building tool optimized for the needs of first-generation college students from low-income backgrounds, and began to offer virtual college advising services to high school students outside of the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2016, we expanded our college services to serve students in Los Angeles and launched our first virtual advising program for college students.

    Today, ScholarMatch is a nimble organization that engages 500+ volunteers per year to serve over 1,000 students nationwide at every point of the college journey.

  3. Our Work

    ScholarMatch’s services span a seven-year continuum to support students throughout their entire college journey.

    Beginning in high school, we deliver college access support to students who are the first in their family to attend college. College students receive the critical combination of one-on-one advising by staff, strategic scholarship support, and career mentoring to support their paths all the way to college graduation and into a meaningful career. Our services are free for students and available for contract by community-based organizations and foundations. Learn about our programs here.

    ScholarMatch is headquartered in San Francisco. Our program is fully virtual, supporting students in the San Francisco Bay Area and across the country. Our network of volunteers spans the globe, mentoring students from the college application process to the launch of their careers.

  4. Our Core Values

    ScholarMatch believes that culture is paramount. We are committed to maintaining a vibrant, productive culture that fosters growth, support, and excellence. Our core values guide our culture, and we strive to live into them each day.

    Excellence

    We are committed to continuous improvement, doing our best, and setting the bar high for ourselves, our students, and our volunteers. Our purposeful pursuit of excellence drives us towards learning, listening, innovation, and working towards our highest potential individually and collectively.

    Integrity

    We act with integrity, embodying honesty, ethical conduct, and moral courage— even when no one is around to see us do it. We stand up for what is right, speak truthfully, and strive to create a culture of trustworthiness and safety for everyone we meet.

    Generosity of Spirit

    We live with generosity of spirit. This expresses itself in a multitude of ways: we know that others may carry great unseen burdens and treat them with compassion, we feel and express deep gratitude for what we have, we give the benefit of the doubt, we empathize, pitch in, celebrate, and care. Generosity of spirit is at the core of our relationships to each other, ourselves, and the world.

    Mycelium!

    Mycelium is small, but immensely powerful: responsible for connecting each tree in the forest to share nutrients and medicine, carry warnings and information, detoxify soil, and more. Like Mycelium, we work to ensure that all members of our ecosystem can thrive—embodying hope, adaptation, connection, and inquiry into what is best for the whole.

Programs

College access & persistence support with strategic scholarships for students who need it most

Impact

ScholarMatch is driven by student needs, robust data collection, and cutting-edge research. As a result, our students succeed at extraordinary rates.

Our Team

Meet our dynamic, talented, passionate — and sometimes silly — team members.

Financials & Annual Reports

ScholarMatch is committed to transparency. We invite you to learn more about our work and our financials.

Read our Newsletter—

December 2024


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