Scholarships
A scholarship on Famlo is your own money, set aside in advance and given to a named family. It comes off automatically when they register, so nobody has to ask you at the door and nobody has to be told no in front of their child.
Four things happen, in this order:
- You fund a budget — the pot the awards come out of.
- You award some of it to a family.
- The award applies itself when that family registers. There is nothing for them to claim.
- You invoice your own fund for what has been used, period by period.
Owners and co-leaders can open Scholarships in the console.
Fund a budget
Start by deciding how much you are giving away, and over what period. The budget is what the awards draw down, so it is the number that stops you promising more than you have.
Fund it before you promise anything. An award with nothing behind it helps nobody.
Award it to a family
An award goes to one family, for an amount you choose, and it is either:
- Tied to one activity — it applies to that registration and nothing else, or
- Open across your organization — it applies to any eligible activity you run.
You can also set a date the award runs out. Leave it open if you would rather it kept.
The family gets an email headed "You've received a scholarship". It names your organization, the amount, the activity if there is one, and the expiry date if you set one.
That email is the entire notification. There is no scholarship page in a family's account settings, nothing for them to accept, and nothing to activate. If a family tells you they cannot find where to apply, that is why — there is nothing to apply for.
Which activities an award can pay for
Scholarship payments are turned on per activity, and that switch covers the whole activity.
Every ticket on an activity that accepts scholarship money is payable from an award. There is no way to hold one ticket back from scholarship families while allowing the rest. If some part of what you are charging should not come out of an award, price it as its own activity.
What happens at checkout
The family registers exactly as anyone else does. Nothing about their checkout looks different, and there is no "pay with scholarship" button for them to look for.
When they complete the booking, Famlo works down what is owed in this order:
- Any promo code they entered.
- Any account credit on their balance.
- Their scholarship award, against whatever is still left.
Whatever remains is what their card is charged. If the award covers the rest, no card is charged at all and the booking confirms straight away. Where a family holds more than one award from you, the one expiring soonest is spent first.
:::note The checkout page does not preview the award The award is applied when the family completes the booking, not when the page renders. The Total they see can be higher than what actually reaches their card. This is the single most common question families ask about scholarships, and it is worth saying in your award email. :::
What it costs you
Nothing beyond the money itself.
Scholarship money carries no platform fee. It never passes through the card processor, so there is nothing to deduct. You and the family settle it directly, and Famlo records the award and spends it down.
See What's free and what's paid.
If the family cancels
A refund returns what a card was charged. Scholarship money was never charged to a card, so there is nothing for the card to get back.
Instead the coverage goes back onto the award. The balance is the family's again, to spend on another eligible activity you run. Nothing is lost and nothing leaves your budget twice.
The family's cancel screen shows Amount paid as the full ticket price and Total refund as only the card money, which reads alarmingly when an award covered everything. Expect to explain it once. Scholarships, for families covers the same ground in their words if you would rather send a link.
Invoice your fund
Scholarship invoices are how your organization bills its own fund for what it has awarded. They are generated per period, in the child's name, so a funding body can see who the money was spent on.
Every invoice carries one of four statuses:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Built, not sent. Still yours to change. |
| Sent | Issued to the fund. |
| On hold | Sent, but not moving — waiting on the fund or on a query. |
| Paid | Settled. |
Move an invoice on one at a time. There is no bulk status change.
Invoices are emailed to the organization's owner.
:::warning Families never receive a scholarship invoice An invoice belongs to your organization and bills your fund. It is generated for you, sent to you, and never appears in a family's account. There is nothing for a family to download, sign or submit through Famlo.
If a family's own funding program needs paperwork from you, send it to them yourself. :::
Scholarship invoicing belongs to the plan built for organizations funded this way. What's free and what's paid sets out which plan includes what.
What Famlo does not do here
Worth knowing before you plan a process around it:
- There is no invoice generation wizard, and no batch run across a whole activity.
- There is no invoice branding. No logo upload, no EIN field, no custom header or footer text.
- There is no PDF for a family to download, because families do not receive invoices at all.
- There are no usage tiers, no monthly invoice allowance and no overage charges.
- There is no bulk status update.
Troubleshooting
A family says the price did not change. Check three things in order: that the award came from your organization, that the activity accepts scholarship payments, and that the award has not expired or already been spent down.
A family says the checkout total still showed the full price. It always does. The award is applied when they complete the booking, and their card is charged the lower amount.
A family cancelled and nothing came back to their card. Their card was probably never charged. The coverage has gone back onto their award instead, and they can use it again.
A family is asking me for their scholarship invoice. They will not have one. Invoices bill your fund, not the family. Send them whatever their funding program needs, directly.
I cannot open Scholarships in the console. It is limited to owners and co-leaders. See Members, roles, and messaging.
What's next
- Scheduling activities — turn on scholarship payments for an activity.
- Getting paid — how the rest of the money reaches you.
- What's free and what's paid — the plans in full.
- Scholarships, for families — the same feature from their side.