ACU has adopted a new scholarship software platform for the 2025-26 academic year to simplify the application process for students and improve efficiency in awarding scholarships and communication with donors.

Previously the university used the software platform, AwardSpring, which has similar features to the new platform, Awarded. Students will see minimal changes to the application process.

Samantha Adkins, Executive Director of Donor Relations, and Annual Giving, brought Awarded to the attention of the university and began the process of moving to a new software platform. Talks of switching software platforms have been ongoing for the past year and a half.

“We had not been loving the software system we were currently using and felt like we might have a better bang for our buck with a new one,” Adkins said. “Awarded has come onto the scene just this last year and we felt like it better fit our needs.”

One of the needs the university was looking for was the ability to do operational endowments and look at all the endowments at once. With Awarded, the university can now see if any endowments have not historically been spent. Previously it had to go through multiple different departments across the university and software to view this information.

Another feature Awarded will have is allowing the university to easily communicate with donors. They will be able to see how their endowment went and who received the scholarship. The university can now email this information to the donors instantly instead of mailing it.

Previously, if students wished to write a thank you message to their scholarship donor they had to go to the advancement office. Awarded allows them to send a message electronically as soon as they receive the scholarship

The launch of the new software will allow for the university to make more students aware of the scholarship application. Only 50% of students who could have filled out an application this past school year did, Stuart McAlister, Endowed Scholarship and Department Award Specialist, said.

Wildcat Central sent an email to all students to announce the new software along with a link to the scholarship application.

McAlister hopes to see the number rise in the next year as him and his team work to advertise the new software to students.

“It’s a great opportunity to get that out in front of students and communicate to them we have a system where you can go in, spend maybe as little as 10 minutes,” McAlister said. “Take a little bit of time, fill out some information about yourself, and the system is then going to match them up with a lot of scholarships that they could potentially be awarded.”

The new software allowed Student Financial Services to closely look at and tweak the application and simplify it. The changes made hope to make the process less time-consuming for students.

Students and faculty will be able to see the results of Awarded in the fall semester when the university awards scholarships.