The paradigm shift from ‘search’ to ‘match’
In its annual report on charitable giving, Giving USA noted that 14% of all giving went to education in 2006.  Certainly a significant portion of that giving was in the form of dollars directed toward scholarships. 

Scholarships are very popular charitable vehicles for donors for many reasons, not the least of which is that they contain an "inherent accountability" report.  That is, it's pretty easy to see the impact of your gift when a person gets to go to college and pursue an education. Not to mention that you can give scholarships in honor of people you love or admire or want to memorialize.   

And scholarships feel good--they have the "psychic reward" that donors are looking for when they make charitable donations.  It is no secret that a college education is expensive, and that attaining a college degree is a key factor to job security and economic success. So helping students achieve that goal is rewarding to donors. 

Foundations and other organizations that administer scholarships will tell you that they are expensive and burdensome to administer, however.  Finding a way to scale the engaging aspects of scholarship giving and at the same time alleviate some of the administrative burdens would be a win-win-win for donors, students and scholarship administrators. An internet-based system that seamlessly matches college-bound students with scholarships and donors to students could help provide that scale. 

GivingNet has created a set of user requirements (download pdf, right)  that contemplate just such an online system.