MATULICH  FOUNDATION  NEWSLETTER
December 2025                                     #1

1. This Year’s Sweepstakes
Although we had a successful year, granting $4,200 in scholarships, the year was disappointing because only 700 students applied. Florida Colleges and Universities have not done a very good job of publicizing our free scholarship sweepstakes. Our Foundation is still very small, so our scholarships are small also. Next year we’ll offer only one grant of $1,000.
2. Why is Next Year’s Scholarship So Small?
Florida and Federal laws require us to give away five percent of our endowment each year. If we give too little one year, we must make it up in the future. If we give too much, we must reduce the amount in the future. The laws are written to ensure that charities do not hoard money and not dissipate their endowment by giving away too much. By giving more than required in past years, we can omit awards in 2026, but we are giving the minimum so we can have the sweepstakes.
3. Exciting Development
A donor has pledged $10,000 for a single scholarship in 2026, but the money will be available only if schools satisfy a condition: More than 1,000 of its students must apply to be eligible for the larger award. A small school like Rollins College would have to get almost 50 percent of its students to apply but for a big university like UCF less than two percent of students can satisfy the requirement. We are anxious to see whether this incentive will increase applications.

MATULICH  FOUNDATION  NEWSLETTER
January 2026                                     #2

1. This Year’s Sweepstakes
As always, the Matulich Foundation Scholarship Sweepstakes is free for all Florida students in higher education. The prize this year is $1,000. Not much incentive to waste five minutes of your valuable time by applying. After all, your chance of winning is almost zero. But those five minutes could make you the winner, and if you don’t apply, you are guaranteed not to win. How about $10,000? It could be yours if your token is selected and you belong to a school that has more than 1,000 scholarship applicants. See item 3 below.
2. Why is This Year’s Scholarship So Small?
In 2023 we gave $5,000 of scholarships, and $4,000 in 2025, The biggest single scholarship was $5,500 in 2020. Florida and Federal laws require us to give away five percent of our endowment each year. If we give too little one year, we must make it up in the future. If we give too much, we can reduce the amount in the future. The idea is not to hoard money and not to dissipate the endowment. By giving more than required in past years, we can omit awards in 2026, but we are giving the minimum to have the sweepstakes.
3. Where does $10,000 come from?
So how do we give $10,000 this year? A donor has pledged this amount, but only if a school has more than 1,000 students applying. This means your school will have to make a good effort to ensure all its students are aware of the scholarship. You can help by passing the word to fellow students.
4. Read Past Newsletters
If you are a recent applicant, you may have missed important information disclosed in previous newsletters. You can access earlier newsletters by clicking on the Newsletter link in your account. Sometimes, a newsletter may repeat material that was published previously if we think new applicants should be aware of it.