MATULICH FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER
December 2025 #1
1, This Year’s Sweepstakes
Although we had a successful year, granting $4,200 in scholarships, the year was disappointing because only 700 students applied. Florida Colleges and Universities have not done a very good job of publicizing our free scholarship sweepstakes. Our Foundation is still very small, so our scholarships are small also. Next year we’ll offer only one grant of $1,000.
2. Why is Next Year’s Scholarship So Small?
Florida and Federal laws require us to give away five percent of our endowment each year. If we give too little one year, we must make it up in the future. If we give too much, we must reduce the amount in the future. The laws are written to ensure that charities do not hoard money and not dissipate their endowment by giving away too much. By giving more than required in past years, we can omit awards in 2026, but we are giving the minimum so we can have the sweepstakes.
3. Exciting Development
A donor has pledged $10,000 for a single scholarship in 2026, but the money will be available only if schools satisfy a condition: More than 1,000 of its students must apply to be eligible for the larger award. A small school like Rollins College would have to get almost 50 percent of its students to apply but for a big university like UCF less than two percent of students can satisfy the requirement. We are anxious to see whether this incentive will increase applications.
4. Student Classifications
You will notice some changes in your student status. Class A students are now Class S, standing for Foundation Supporter. Students who wish to participate in the sweepstakes without Foundation membership are Class P, and their accounts are canceled at the end of the year. We eliminated the annual Class A membership dues and instead introduced a one-time $5 Class S membership fee that maintains your S status as long as you are enrolled as a student. The one-time fee is not required. Students who do not wish to pay it are assigned Class Q. Class S and Q students’ Foundation membership is automatically renewed on January 1 of the following year, with three sweepstakes tokens assigned to class S students and two to Class Q. Class Q and Class P students can change to Class S at any time by paying the one-time membership fee.