NSPA Membership Types and Dues

Thank you for your interest in joining the National Scholarship Providers Association! Membership in the NSPA is open to organizations, colleges and universities, and individuals who are active in the scholarship provider community, seek to foster a positive association within this community, support and contribute to the NSPA goals, maintain their membership in good standing, and uphold the responsibilities and integrity of the Association without conflict of interest. 

Scholarship Provider Membership I

A Scholarship Provider Membership I is granted to an organization or individual that has as one of its principal purposes the awarding of scholarships based on identified and meaningful criteria. This membership category can include organizations that are also grant makers. Typical entities that fall into this category of membership include non-profit organizations such as private, corporate, and university foundations, or community foundations or other public charities.

Scholarship Provider Membership II

A Scholarship Provider Membership II is granted to an entity (not-for-profit or for-profit) that has as one of its key activities the awarding of scholarships based on identified and meaningful criteria even though the entity conducts other business, and is not otherwise engaged in the scholarship field. Typical entities that fall into this category include corporations or professional and/or educational associations that reward their employees or work to incent students to pursue a particular career field, issue-based organizations, banks, statewide higher education networks or commissions, school districts, student membership organizations (if a reasonable fee is charged, these organizations must offer in exchange demonstrable benefits in the best interest of their student members), and other entities that offer scholarships for higher education.
Please note: Entities that provide scholarships which are awarded without meaningful criteria and/or on a random basis (e.g. through sweepstakes or a lottery) are not eligible for the Scholarship Provider Memberships I or II. Entities that are not student membership based (as defined previously) and charge students for access to their scholarship information (either the application or the award criteria) are not eligible for membership in the NSPA.

Scholarship Provider I & II Dues

Your membership dues include all of these benefits for three representatives from your organization, or five representatives for members who give out $10 million or more in scholarships each year .Scholarship Provider Members I & II may name one voting individual and two non-voting individuals from their organization. The named individuals may change at any time upon notice to the NSPA.

Scholarship provider membership dues are assessed annually based upon the scholarship dollars awarded annually by each organization. The chart below outlines the dues for Scholarship Providers Memberships I & II:

Institutional Membership

 Annal Dues -  $300

An Institutional Membership is granted to a two- or four-year, public or private college or university accredited by an educational accrediting agency and must grant a diploma or degree. Each Institutional Member may name one voting member and two non-voting members. The named individuals may change at any time upon notice to the NSPA.

Affiliate Membership

Annual Dues - $1,100 as of 2013

Affiliate Plus Membership

Annual Dues - $2,000

An Affiliate Membership is granted to a business (not-for-profit or for-profit) which is engaged in a field related to college scholarships. These national, regional, or online entities may provide resources to students and families in the areas of scholarship directories or matching services, college preparation and success tools, and other higher education financing options such as student loans. Entities in this category may also provide service related resources for scholarship providers such as software, scholarship administration development, and research and/or evaluation services. Typical Affiliate members may include free scholarship listing and/or matching services, student loan providers, college recruiting or admissions related services, businesses that offer online scholarship applications, scholarship administrative services, and proprietary software. Affiliate members may or may not award scholarships as one component of their business.

In addition to standard benefits, Affiliate Plus members will be recognized on the NSPA website with their logo and link to their website, along with their choice of an ad in each of the quarterly NSPA e-Newsletters or a webinar promoting the member’s products, services or other topic of choice marketed to the NSPA membership.

Conditions to Affiliate Membership

1. If an entity is invited to join NSPA as an Affiliate member and the entity provides scholarships without meaningful criteria or those that are randomly awarded through sweepstakes or by lottery, these scholarships will not be permitted to be shared with the NSPA membership through the Broadcast E-mail Service or through other NSPA communications. Further, entity websites that market such scholarships will not be permitted to utilize the NSPA logo or name on the specific page in which such scholarships are listed or mentioned.

2. Entities that share students’ information with third parties will be asked to provide documentation of their current privacy policy, including language presented to student (s) to opt-in or opt-out of the selling or sharing of their student data as well as verification of internal controls ensuring that information is only shared with the express permission of the student (s) and for the express purposes of assisting the student (s) in accessing information about potential scholarships for which he/she may be eligible. Entities that sell students’ data or share it for the purposes of allowing third parties to offer goods and services for sale to student (s) and do not have clearly articulated and visible language for students to affirmatively opt-in or opt-out of the selling or sharing of their student data and/or those entities that do not have the verifiable internal controls designed in the best interest of students’ privacy and ensure that information is only shared with the express permission of student (s) are not eligible for membership in the NSPA.

3. Affiliate members may not advertise their products or services to NSPA members through the Broadcast E-mail service (invited, personal communications are allowed) or through the member contact information. Affiliate members that exhibit at NSPA annual conferences may send announcements to conference attendees via US or Canadian mail services based on a contact list provided by the NSPA. There may be a charge for the list of NSPA conference attendees.

Each Affiliate member may name one individual as its representative. The named individual may change at any time upon notice to the NSPA. Affiliate Members do not have voting privileges.