Put Your Family's Name on a Kid's Future

There is a particular kind of gift that outlives the giver, and it is not a building. It is a name spoken at a scholarship ceremony, year after year, long after the person who chose it has stepped back or passed on. A student who has never met your grandmother learns her name because it is printed at the top of the award that helped pay for her first semester. She carries it into a lecture hall. That is what a named scholarship does. It takes a name and gives it something to keep doing.

Families reach for this for all kinds of reasons. Some want to honor a parent who valued education above almost everything and never got much of it themselves. Some want to mark a loss in a way that feels like life instead of only grief. Some simply want their own family name attached to something they are proud of, a small standing vote for the kids of East Palo Alto. All of those are good reasons. None of them require you to be wealthy.

What actually is a named scholarship?

The idea is simpler than it sounds. A named scholarship is a gift that carries a name you choose. Instead of a donation that disappears into a general fund, this one travels under a banner: The Rivera Family Scholarship, or The James T. Okafor Memorial Award, or whatever words hold meaning for you. The name goes to the student who receives it, and often to the ceremony, the letter, and the record that follows.

You can name a scholarship in memory of someone who has died, which is where the word "memorial" comes from. You can name one in honor of someone very much alive, to mark a retirement, a milestone birthday, a fiftieth anniversary, or a person who quietly shaped you. Or you can name it for your family, plainly and proudly, as a way of saying this is what we care about.

What it is not is complicated or reserved for the very rich. There is no single price tag, and no requirement that you fund it all in one year. A named scholarship can be established at a range of levels, funded at once or built over time, given once or renewed each year. The structure bends to fit you, which is exactly why the first step is a conversation, not a form.

Why a scholarship, and why here?

Because in East Palo Alto, the door to college is real but heavy. In the local Ravenswood City Elementary School District, only about 12 percent of students scored proficient or above in English on the state assessment in the 2024-25 school year, against roughly 49 percent statewide. Nearly nine in ten students come from low-income families. The talent is not the problem. The Stanford researcher Sean Reardon has documented how the achievement gap between higher-income and lower-income children has grown by roughly 40 percent in recent decades, and is now nearly twice as large as the more familiar Black-white gap. That gap is built out of opportunity, not ability, which is a hard truth and a hopeful one at the same time. Opportunity is a thing you can hand someone.

For many of the students we serve, going to college means being the first in the family to do it. Nationally, first-generation students make up about a third of all undergraduates, and they persist and complete at meaningfully lower rates than their peers, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The barrier is rarely a lack of drive. It is money, and it is the quiet uncertainty of walking a path no one at your kitchen table has walked before. A scholarship answers both at once. It pays a bill, and it says out loud: someone is betting on you.

A gift can pay a tuition bill. A named gift also tells a student that a whole family, one she may never meet, decided she was worth it.

That second part matters more than the accounting suggests. Research from the mentoring field is consistent on this point: young people who know an adult is in their corner aim higher. In one national study, 76 percent of at-risk young adults who had a mentor said they hoped to enroll in and graduate from college, compared with 56 percent of those without one. A named scholarship is not the same as a mentor, but it works on the same nerve. It is proof, in writing, that someone chose to believe in you.

Who your gift would reach

Hope Horizon's Open Door Scholarships go to East Palo Alto students moving on to what comes after high school. Recipients keep at least a 2.5 GPA, and the award can go toward an accredited college or university, a junior college, a trade school, or an approved Bible school or mission training program. We say that plainly because the door we mean is not only the four-year kind. A young person who becomes a licensed electrician has walked through a real door too, and we are glad to hold it open.

In 2026, there are 12 students in college on our scholarships. That number moves with funding each year, roughly 10 last year, 12 this year, which is the honest and slightly frustrating part: the ceiling is not the number of capable students. It is the number of scholarships. Every new named fund lifts that ceiling a little. A family that decides to attach its name to this work is, in the most literal sense, making room for one more.

How it works, start to finish

The process is meant to feel like a relationship, not a transaction. It usually starts with a short talk about what, or who, you want the scholarship to stand for. From there we help you shape the details: the name, whether it honors or remembers someone, how it is funded, and whether it recurs. We are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 77-0151434), and scholarship gifts are generally tax-deductible, so your advisor can fold this into whatever planning you already do.

You do not have to guess whether the money is handled well. That is a fair question to ask of any charity, and a good one to ask of us. Independent standards give you a yardstick: the BBB Wise Giving Alliance recommends that a sound charity spends at least 65 percent of its expenses on programs. We are glad to walk you through how our scholarship dollars are stewarded and reported, because a family putting its name on something deserves to see exactly where it goes.

And then, if you want it, comes the part that surprises people most. A named scholarship is not a wire transfer that vanishes. You can hear about the student who received it. You can know that your grandmother's name, or your family's, was read aloud in a room full of caps and gowns and relieved parents. The gift keeps reporting back, in the best possible way.

A name that keeps working

For 40 years, since we began in 1984, the through-line of this work has been simple: show up for a kid, steadily, and trust what steadiness does over time. A named scholarship is that same idea aimed decades down the road. It lets a person you love keep showing up for students who have not been born yet.

You do not have to endow a wing or fund a chair. You just have to decide that a name you care about should go on doing good after you have handed it off. That is not a somber thing. It is one of the most quietly joyful gifts there is, a way of turning memory or pride or gratitude into a college door that opens, again and again, with your family's name on the frame.

Common questions

What is a named scholarship?

A gift that carries a name you choose, usually your family's name or the name of someone you want to honor. The name travels with the award to the student who receives it, so a person or value you care about becomes part of a young person's college story.

Can I name a scholarship in memory of someone?

Yes. Many families name a scholarship in memory of a parent, grandparent, spouse, or friend, or in honor of a living person for a milestone like a retirement or anniversary. A memorial or tribute scholarship keeps a name doing good year after year.

How much does it cost to name a scholarship?

There is no single fixed price. Named scholarships can be set up at a range of levels, funded all at once or over time, or renewed each year. The right structure depends on your goals, so the best first step is a short conversation with our team.

Who receives a Hope Horizon scholarship?

Our Open Door Scholarships support East Palo Alto students, many the first in their family to attend college. Recipients keep at least a 2.5 GPA, and awards can go toward an accredited college or university, a junior college, a trade school, or an approved Bible school or mission training program.

How do I know the gift is handled well?

Hope Horizon is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 77-0151434), and we are glad to show you how scholarship gifts are stewarded and reported. National benchmarks, like the BBB Wise Giving Alliance standard of at least 65 percent of expenses going to programs, are a useful yardstick for any charity.