Naples Alumni Club - Scholarship

History of our Scholarship Endowment

One of the very significant parts of the Naples Buckeyes mission is the awarding of scholarships to local area students who attend The Ohio State University. This key activity began with the founding of the Club in 1988. The early leaders identified scholarship activity as important work and began immediately to fund and raise funds for scholarships. 

Almost from the beginning, Club leaders identified the need to have a Scholarship Endowment Fund that would ensure that funds would be available for future students. The current Scholarship Endowment Fund was funded as an endowment fund recognized by Ohio State in February 1991. The original $15,000 in the Scholarship Endowment Fund was raised faster than any other Scholarship Endowment Fund had prior to that time.

The Scholarship Endowment Fund continued to increase through the 1990s and in 1997 reached the $100,000 level. In 1998, the Club Board gave support to a Major Gift Committee, which was formed to specifically double the Fund to "$200,000 by 2000."  This committee and the Club members achieved and surpassed all their goals.  Fundraising activities continued through the 2000s and the fund increased to $355,000. In 2011, the Club began a new endowment campaign, Naples Dollars for Buckeye Scholars, and the current value of the Scholarship Endowment Fund is over $1,000,000, the largest fund of any alumni club in the country.