What Awardspring does

AwardSpring (legal entity: Scholarship Solutions, LLC; funding vehicle: AwardSpring Equity, LLC, Delaware) is a Chicago-based private SaaS company founded in 2015 that provides a unified scholarship, donor, and fund management platform to more than 600 higher education institutions in the United States. Customers span community and technical colleges, four-year universities, K–12 education foundations, community foundations, and professional associations.

The platform, positioned as the 'Fund Platform,' connects three traditionally siloed offices—Advancement, Financial Aid, and Finance—on a shared data graph spanning Scholarship Management, Donor Management, Fund Management (scheduled Summer 2026), and Donor Experience & Stewardship (scheduled Fall 2026). A proprietary AI layer called SpringIQ operates across all modules for matching, screening, donor record enrichment, fund-utilization flagging, and draft generation, with all decisions routed through human review. The platform integrates with major Student Information Systems (Ellucian Banner, Ellucian Colleague, Workday), advancement CRMs (Blackbaud Raiser's Edge), SSO providers (SAML, LDAP, Shibboleth, CAS), and Double the Donation.

AwardSpring sells exclusively through a consultative direct enterprise sales motion anchored by a 'Request a Demo' CTA. Annual subscription pricing is based on the number of scholarship Opportunities (no per-seat fees), with optional add-on subscriptions for SIS integration and SMS, fee-based professional services, and a $799/seat AI Summer School cohort program. The company is founder-led (CEO Alex Stepien, Chief AI Officer James Francis), raised approximately $2.38M in equity capital in December 2024 via SEC Form D under Rule 506(b), and holds SOC 2 Type 2 and FERPA compliance certifications.

Name

Awardspring

Legal name

Scholarship Solutions, LLC

Website

https://awardspring.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

AwardSpring is a Chicago-based SaaS company that provides a unified scholarship, donor, and fund management platform for 600+ higher education institutions, including community colleges, universities, and foundations, with a SpringIQ AI layer automating matching, screening, and stewardship workflows.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education SaaS / Scholarship Management Software

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Scholarship, Financial Aid & FAFSA Support Platforms (EDAFAMAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Scholarships, Grants & Donor-Funded Awards Management (EDALAJAB), Advancement Services & Donor Operations (CRM, Gift Processing, Stewardship) (EDALAOAD), Scholarships, Grants & Education Benefits Administration (Financing-adjacent) (FSAKAEAM)

Keywords

• Scholarship management software
• Donor management software
• Fund management platform
• Higher education SaaS
• Student information systems

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel

Revenue model

1. Annual Subscription (SaaS): AwardSpring is a hosted SaaS solution. Annual subscription pricing is determined by the number of unique scholarship Opportunities offered by the customer annually. If the number of Opportunities exceeds 25% above the contracted amount, AwardSpring may adjust pricing for the subsequent period. Subscription pricing is evaluated at the end of each full term and may move up or down based on actual usage. No per-seat fees are charged—unlimited applicants, reviewers, and admins are included.
2. SIS Integration Subscription: An optional annual add-on subscription for Student Information System data integration, enabling automated data feeds between the customer's SIS and the AwardSpring platform. Priced per the Rate Card (quote-based).
3. SMS Texting Subscription: An optional add-on subscription for SMS/texting capabilities, enabling direct text communications to applicants. Annual limits apply per Terms and Conditions.
4. Professional / On-Site Services: Fee-based professional services outside the standard service description, documented via Statement of Work. Standard per-hour fees apply.
5. AI Summer School (Cohort-Based Training): A 5-week hands-on cohort program teaching practical AI for higher education teams. Flat $799 per seat. One free seat is included for every AwardSpring Pro and Enterprise customer.
6. Equity Capital Raise: AwardSpring Equity, LLC (Delaware corporation) filed a Form D notice with the SEC for an equity securities offering of $2,750,000 total proposed amount, with $2,377,204 already sold. The offering is exempt under Rule 506(b). This is institutional/private equity capital, not revenue from product sales.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

AwardSpring provides a cloud-based SaaS Fund Platform that unifies scholarship management, donor management, fund management, and donor stewardship for higher education institutions, foundations, and professional associations. The platform connects the traditionally siloed Advancement, Financial Aid, and Finance offices on one shared data graph and adds a proprietary AI layer, SpringIQ, that handles applicant matching, screening, donor record enrichment, fund health monitoring, and drafting of stewardship materials.

Product overview

AwardSpring offers a unified Fund Platform combining four integrated products: Scholarship Management (live) for automating application-to-award workflows, Donor Management (live) for donor relationship and stewardship work, Fund Management (Summer 2026) for real-time fund tracking and UPMIFA compliance, and Donor Experience & Stewardship (Fall 2026) for personalized donor portals and automated impact reporting. A proprietary AI layer called SpringIQ runs across all products, providing matching, screening, donor record enrichment, fund health monitoring, and automated drafting capabilities. The platform is designed to connect Advancement, Financial Aid, and Finance teams on a single shared system.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SpringIQ: AI assistant built into the Fund Platform that provides AI-assisted scholarship review, donor record intelligence, fund health recommendations, and donor impact stories.
• The Fund Platform
• Scholarship Solutions, LLC
• AI Summer School
• SpringBoard
• SpringSquad

Products and services

• Fund Platform The unified SaaS platform connecting scholarship management, donor stewardship, and fund visibility. Connects Advancement, Financial Aid, and Finance teams on one shared system with real-time data across all three offices.
• Scholarship Management Automates the full scholarship selection process from application to award letter. Features include one universal application auto-matched to every qualifying fund, automated compliance checks, unlimited applicants/reviewers/admins with no per-seat fees, and SpringIQ-powered matching and screening.
• Donor Management System of record and action for donor relationships. Features native newsletters, events, online fundraising, built-in SMS, automated communications, and SpringIQ enrichment of donor records with meeting briefs and next-gift suggestions.
• Fund Management Real-time fund balance tracking, UPMIFA compliance monitoring, underutilization flags surfaced before reporting season, multi-year balance forecasting, and SpringIQ draft of gift agreement changes.
• Donor Experience & Stewardship Personalized donor portals and automated impact reports. Provides stewardship creative, rich digital experiences, premium direct mail, engagement data for a measurable stewardship loop, and major-gift-quality experience at any gift level.

Named customers32 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability7 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Ellucian BannercoreTechnology or IntegrationAwardSpring integrates with Ellucian Banner, a widely deployed Student Information System in higher education. The integration enables data synchronization between AwardSpring and Banner, eliminating manual cross-referencing of applicant information. Supported for Banner-integrated customers like University of South Florida Foundation.
• Ellucian ColleaguecoreTechnology or IntegrationAwardSpring integrates with Ellucian Colleague, another major SIS in the higher education market. Integration enables automated data feeds between the customer's SIS and AwardSpring.
• WorkdaycoreTechnology or IntegrationAwardSpring integrates with Workday, a leading enterprise HR and financial management system used by many large institutions. Integration enables data synchronization between student/HR data and scholarship management.
• Raiser's Edge (Blackbaud)coreTechnology or IntegrationAwardSpring integrates with Raiser's Edge by Blackbaud, a leading CRM for higher education advancement teams. Integration connects scholarship awarding data with donor relationship management.

Scale indicators15 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Foundant Technologies: Foundant provides scholarship and grant management software to community foundations and nonprofits, directly overlapping AwardSpring's foundation segment with similar application, review, and awarding workflows.
• WizeHive: WizeHive offers a configurable scholarship, grant, and awards management platform serving higher education and nonprofits, competing head-to-head with AwardSpring's universal-application and reviewer-matching workflows.
• CommunityForce: CommunityForce delivers scholarship, grant, and fundraising management for community foundations and universities, addressing the same Advancement, Financial Aid, and Finance use cases as AwardSpring.
• GiveCampus: GiveCampus is a higher-education fundraising and scholarship platform serving colleges, universities, and K-12 foundations, overlapping with AwardSpring's donor stewardship and awarding flows.
• SurveyMonkey Apply: SurveyMonkey Apply is an application management platform used for scholarships, grants, and awards across education and nonprofits, competing directly on application collection, review, and selection.
• Submittable: Submittable provides application management for grants, scholarships, and awards, used by foundations and education organizations, with overlapping reviewer workflows and award management.
• SmartSimple: SmartSimple provides cloud-based grants, scholarships, and applicant management software for foundations, corporations, and governments, competing on similar workflow automation and reporting needs.

Broad incumbents

• Blackbaud: Blackbaud is the dominant CRM/advancement and fundraising platform in higher education through Raiser's Edge, NXT, and Financial Edge, sitting upstream of AwardSpring and able to bundle scholarship features into existing enterprise contracts.
• Salesforce.org (HEDA): Salesforce.org's Higher Education Data Architecture (HEDA) underpins many advancement and student-success CRMs at large universities and could extend into scholarship and donor workflows, representing a broad-platform threat.

Emerging players

• Element451: Element451 is an AI-driven student engagement and enrollment platform for higher education that increasingly touches scholarships and awarding as part of the recruitment funnel, partially overlapping AwardSpring's Financial Aid and enrollment use cases.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses1 record

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights8 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/AwardSpring

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Awardspring