Financial Aid

Your school probably offers financial aid to ensure candidates and current students who have great merit but limited funds can afford to attend your school. You might accept students first and then review their financial status. Alternatively, if your financial aid budget is more limited, you'll probably limit the number of students you accept who can't pay in full and thus a candidate’s financial situation would play a greater role in the initial application.

Before you accept applications for financial aid, set up the types of financial aid you plan to offer and determine what to call your decisions.

An admissions manager can define the types of financial aid offered by the school, such as "Need-Based" and "Grant." See Financial Aid types in Candidate Profile Settings for more details and where to add more.

Admissions managers can define the terminology that is used for financial aid decisions, such as "Need-Based Aid Denied" and "Scholarship Awarded." See Financial Aid Decisions in Candidate Profile Settings.

Next enable candidates to apply for aid, submit documentation, and review their status as part of the application process.

When you create an application form, include the financial aid block and ensure it is visible. Edit the form and drag the Financial Aid block onto the section where you need it. See Application Forms for more.

See Checklists.

You can enter your school's decision from the checklist step on a candidate's checklist, or

  1. From Enrollment management, Financial Aid, and then select Financial aid awards.

  2. Use the filters to modify what data is shown in the list. Select the recipient's name in the list to be taken to their user profile.

  3. Otherwise, select Add financial aid to award new financial aid using specific user criteria.

    • Role - Candidate, Student, or Incoming. This is a Required field.

    • Entering Year - This is also a required field.

    • Entering Grade

    • Current grade

    • School decision

    • School program

    • Boarding or Day

    • International - select this option if the user is considered International.

    • Apply for Financial Aid - select this if the user is applying for financial aid.

    • Community connection - Are they related to someone involved with the school or have a sibling?

    • Name - First or Last

  4. Select Next to be taken to the Financial aid criteria and Default user options. Here you can set the Financial aid type, Amount granted, Decision, and Date requested. You can leave a comment as well. .

  5. Under that is the Individual user options area, where a list of users is displayed. You can bulk update multiple users by selecting the box next to each user, or change the options for an individual user.

  6. For each recipient, you can enter the

    • Financial Aid Type,

    • Amount Granted,

    • Decision,

    • Date Requested,

    • and a Comment.

  7. Then select Save and close. The financial aid is recorded to the candidate or student's record. Select Previous to go back to the previous screen, or Cancel to completely back out without saving any changes made.

Blackbaud Financial Aid Management

If your school uses Blackbaud Financial Aid Management (formerly known as Smart Aid), another Blackbaud K-12 product, you can invite parents to submit documentation about their financial situation. Analysts will then verify the documentation and Financial Aid Management will calculate the difference between a family's ability to pay and how much they would normally be expected to pay. You can use this information to help decide who receives financial aid and how much aid to award.

Single sign-on (SSO) to Financial Aid Management

A Platform Manager can set up a single sign-on so parents can seamlessly navigate to Financial Aid Management from the Education Management parent portal using a resource board post.

  • The SSO does not work while impersonating a parent.

  • Within Blackbaud Financial Aid Management, applications for aid are school-agnostic. A family submits one application, but they may apply for aid at multiple schools with that single application. A parent can access their application that may include multiple schools regardless of which school's parent portal they are signed into when navigating to Blackbaud Financial Aid via SSO.

  • Additionally, financial aid applications are associated with one parent's Blackbaud ID account. If parent 1 starts a financial aid application, parent 2 will not see that application if they sign into Financial Aid Management directly or via SSO. Parents will need to coordinate with each other if they are submitting a single financial aid application together.

  1. Select Content, then Additional content types, and then Links.

  2. Select Add New Category.

  3. Enter a name for the category.

  4. Set access to Public or limit access to parent roles.

  5. Select Save & Add Link.

  6. Enter a title for the link, such as "Blackbaud Financial Aid Management SSO".

  7. Under Link, select URL and paste this URL into the space provided: https://app.blackbaud.com/signin?redirectUrl=https://studentfinancialaid.blackbaud.school/Account/Login.

  8. Select Save.

  1. Select Content, then Resource boards.

  2. Set View Boards to Parent.

  3. Select Add Post.

  4. Enter a title for the post, such as "Blackbaud Financial Aid Management".

  5. Add an optional description or cover photo for the post.

  6. Under Post Cover Goes to, select Direct Link.

  7. Use Select Category and Select Link to choose the category and link created in the steps above.

  8. By default, the Parent roles are selected as having access to the resource board post.

  9. Select Save.

When a parent selects the Financial Aid Management SSO post on their Resources page for the first time, their experience varies depending on their previous interactions with Financial Aid Management.

  • Existing Financial Aid Management Account connected to BBID: A parent with an existing Financial Aid Management account associated with their BBID email address is seamlessly signed in and lands on their Blackbaud Financial Aid Management home page.

  • No Blackbaud Financial Aid Management Account: The first time a parent without an existing Financial Aid Management account selects the SSO post, they land on Link your Accounts and select I don't have a Blackbaud Financial Aid Management account, then select Create an account and sign in using Blackbaud ID. The next time they use the SSO, they are seamless signed into Financial Aid Management.

  • Financial Aid Account not linked to BBID: If a parent has an old Financial Aid Management account, but hasn’t signed into it for a few years, they can link that account to their Blackbaud ID. The first time they select the SSO post, they land on Link your Accounts where they can enter their Financial Aid Management username and password, then select Continue to link their accounts. Once the accounts are linked, the parent is seamlessly signed into Financial Aid Management when they select the SSO post on the resource board.