Welcome to the HAF+WRCF Scholarship Reviewer Hub. This page is designed to support you, our wonderful reviewers, with any information, resources, and questions you may have!

Each section of this site will have information pertinent to the established expectations and responsibilities of your participation as a scholarship reviewer. For those of you who have been with us for a long time, some things have changed. For those of you are joining us for the first time- thank you for being here.

HAF+WRCF uses a Scholarship Lifecycle Manager, a software made by Foundant Technologies for our application and review processes. All scholarship evaluators have a user created for them by our staff. Returning Reviewers will use the same log-in information as you have in prior years. New users are provided log-in credentials and instructions by our staff.

HAF+WRCF Vision

Humboldt Area Foundation + Wild Rivers Community Foundation aims to invest in the future and create opportunities for every person in our region to have a dignified, productive, and creative life unencumbered by poverty or exploitation. Our Scholarship Program strives to support students with demonstrated financial need and to evaluate need holistically in the context of other barriers students face to pursuing higher education. Learn more about our Strategy and Values.

Each scholarship offered by the Foundation has its own criteria. Many of our scholarships are explicitly geared toward students with high academic performance, strong extracurricular involvement, and those who show “grit.” Students facing the most barriers are often the students who fall short in some of the traditional areas. It’s these students- who don’t have access or support- who benefit from scholarships the most. These are the students we aim to reach.

Participation Guidelines, Responsibilities, and Required Documents

In order to review scholarship applications with the Foundation, every individual who reads applications is required by the Foundation’s Board of Directors to complete a Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest Agreement as well as a Conflict of Interest Questionnaire. Our team cannot move forward with processing your recommendations until all members of your committee complete these forms.

The Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest Agreement forms will be assigned to you in your Reviewer Dashboard, on the Scholarship Finder.

In addition, please review the following documents prior to starting to review applications:

• HAF+WRCF Committee Guidelines and Expectations
• Bias Review
  • Implicit Bias In Action –Created by the Center for Urban Education
  • Bias Training – Created by Craig Woods of HAF+WRCF

Resources for the Review Process

Please take a moment to review the Evaluation Tutorial before you begin reading applications. If you are reviewing scholarship applications for multiple opportunities please take a moment to review this page, which has information about the ‘Group by Student’ feature.

Tips and Tricks for Scholarship Review – Our Team has put together a short document for highlighting our tips and tricks for scholarship review to ensure your experience is enjoyable, equitable and easy!

A note about FAFSA – HAF+WRCF will not be considering a student’s FAFSA financial aid package as part of their scholarship application. We ask that you review all information students have provided in the ‘Financial Need’ section of their application to determine a student’s financial need. We have created a spreadsheet, linked in the resources section below, that we hope will help give context to the cost of higher education. Please use it as a resource as you’re considering these applications.  

As you review, please remember to use the same lens when reading all applications from within the same fund. If you complete a set of applications and find yourself adjusting your scoring style in the midst of the set, please make sure you translate that change in review style to all applications for the fund that were previously reviewed.  

Anonymous Review

A newly approved Board Policy paired with a unique pool of applicants means that moving forward, some scholarships may have to be reviewed anonymously. This is contingent on details of the fund, the unique committee member make-up, and the pool of applicants. In order to make this work, there are a few adjustments our team may be making on a case by case basis. Some of you may log in to see that the applicant names have been hidden from your view. At the top of the applications there will be an ‘Applicant ID’, a string of 5 characters that you can utilize to identify each application. When making recommendations, please use that ‘Applicant ID’ to identify which student you would like to recommend. Additionally, we will be redacting the personal information from the student’s transcripts, as well. Because the bulk of the application is common, those of you who are reviewing applications whose student names/contact information has NOT been redacted, you may still see some redacted transcripts throughout your batch.

If you missed the Scholarship Review Meeting on 2.18.2026, here is the recording.

Making Recommendations

Recommendations are due by March 31, 2026.

Only one person from each committee needs to complete the recommendation form. If your committee may be delayed in the decision-making process, please let us know via email as soon as possible. Thank you!

All evaluation documentation must be submitted to our team. This new requirement ensures HAF+WRCF is following both legal IRS requirements and industry standard best practices.  

• If you review using the provided online evaluation form, through the system, nothing is changing. We have access to your evaluations, as needed.
• If you or any member of your committee takes notes outside of the review portal, these must be submitted to the HAF+WRCF Scholarship Team. This new requirement ensures that our team and the Foundation can follow both legal IRS requirements and industry standard best practices.
  • External notes can be submitted via email, scans, photos, hand-delivered to the Bayside or Crescent City Offices, or snail mail.
  • Please be sure that all notes are labeled with the Evaluator’s name and the name of the Scholarship Fund.
  • The Scholarship Team cannot start processing your recommendations until we have received evaluation notes from each member of the committee.

Here are some additional resources for ensuring equity in the review and recommendation process. 

• A-G Course List
  • Click this link if you would like to look up what AP classes are available at different high schools. 
  • Why is this helpful? (See bias training). When reviewing merit-based applications, it is easy to fall victim to anchoring bias, clinging to arbitrary numbers, and advocating for the student with the highest GPA. However, some regional high schools have far less opportunities than others. A coastal high school might have 10+ AP courses while others have one. We need to consider the context of the student’s environment. A 3.0 at one high school may be just as impressive as a 3.5 at another high school. 
• Cost of Attendance
  • Our Team compiles the average Cost of Attendance (including living on vs. off campus) for some of the most common schools our students attend. Data includes two- and four-year schools and the cost when living at home, versus in the dorms, or rental units.
• Spread the Wealth
  • Check this link to see if your top candidate is already getting a sizable scholarship. We have many other committees. This tracking sheet reflects HAF+WRCF scholarship decisions that have already been made (we will update as we receive decisions from other committees). Please note, research shows that scholarships start making a difference after $1,000.00. So, if your top candidate is only getting $500 from another committee, please still advocate for them.
• National College Attainment Network: Why Consider Students with Higher Financial Need?
• National College Attainment Network: College Remains Financially Out of Reach, Students Face $1,500 Gap at Public 4-Years
• Inside Higher Ed: Majority of California Community College Students Lack Basic Needs

Questions?

Contact us at scholarships@hafoundation.org or (707) 442-2993.

Sydney Morrone, Program Officer: SydneyM@hafoundation.org

Savannah Sonia, Grants and Scholarships Associate: SavannahS@hafoundation.org

Mika Lee, Grants and Scholarships Coordinator: MikaL@hafoundation.org