1 · What it is
Five grants. Nine thousand dollars each.
I'm Unc to about everybody in my village. That’s by choice. I’ve always been a servant leader. It seemed dishonest to call it something fancier than what it is.
Five people in the Portland metro area. Nine thousand dollars each. Paid straight to your school if you’re going, or straight to your loan servicer if you already went.
Nine and not ten because ten cents of every dollar runs the foundation, so ninety cents is what's left to give away. Forty five thousand divided by five is nine. I could have called it ten and quietly funded it out of next year. I'd rather the number be true.
PaPa Charlie was seventeen and wanted to go to college with no money to do it. A group of Catholics at St. Edward's in Austin decided he was worth paying for. College. Then dental school. They never asked to be paid back.
That's the whole idea. Somebody did it for him. We are trying to be those people for somebody else.
2 · Who can apply
Probably you. There are two ways in.
If you are going to school:
Your home is in the Portland metro area — Washington, Multnomah, Clackamas, or Yamhill County, Oregon. That's where you're from, not where you go to school. The school itself can be anywhere in the country.
You are enrolled in, or accepted to, an accredited school in the United States. Community college counts. Trade school counts. A certificate program counts. Undergrad and grad count. We do not care which.
After every other source of aid — grants, scholarships, savings, family, what you can earn — there is still a gap.
You are 18 or older, or you have a parent or guardian who will sign with you.
If you already went:
Same four counties. Same rule — where you're from, not where the school was.
You went to an accredited school in the United States and you are still carrying student loan debt from it.
It does not matter when. Last spring or fifteen years ago, we do not have a cutoff.
It does not matter whether you finished. If you took on the debt and the degree never happened, you are exactly who we want to hear from. That is the hardest version of this and almost nobody funds it.
That is the whole list. No GPA cutoff. No essay contest. No minimum age and no maximum age — if you are going back to school at forty-five, you qualify, and if you finished at twenty-two and are still paying for it at thirty-eight, you qualify too.
Both kinds of applicant go in the same pile. We are not holding slots for one or the other. Five grants, everybody weighed the same way.
What does not matter. Whether you know us. Not knowing us costs you nothing, and knowing us gets you nothing. Whether a business you work for sponsored us — sponsors get their name on a website, they do not get a lane. What you studied, or are studying. Where your school is. How you sound on paper, because we are not grading your writing. Whether you graduated — finishing is not a condition of anything here.
Who cannot apply. Anyone in the family of a 4 Oakes director or officer, and any of their descendants. That is absolute and it is in our bylaws. It is not personal. It is the rule that lets us look everybody else in the eye.
3 · What we ask you for
Four things. Half an hour.
Who you are. Name, contact, where you live.
Where you went, or where you are going. The school, the program, the dates.
The money. Either what the year costs and what is missing, or what you still owe. A number.
Three short answers, a few sentences each. What were you trying to do, and why that program. What does this debt, or this gap, actually cost you right now. What have you already done about it yourself.
We would rather have four honest sentences than four polished paragraphs. We are trying to build a partnership, not run you through an obstacle course. If any question in here feels pointless or degrading, tell us and we will cut it.
4 · Dates
5 · how the money reaches you
It goes where the debt is.
Never a check to you. That rule doesn't move.
Going to school — we pay your school directly, wherever your school will take it that way.
Paying off loans — we pay your loan servicer directly, on your account.
This is standard for education grants and it keeps the money doing what it was meant to do. If your school or your servicer won't accept a third-party payment, tell us and we'll work it out.
One note if you already graduated: how a grant like this gets treated at tax time isn't the same as tuition paid for a current student. We'll walk through it with you before any money moves. You won't be surprised in April.
6 · How it gets decided
Three people, one meeting, written criteria.
The board is three people and all three of us are Konzes. Me, my brother Nathan, and Heather-Ashley. We vote against the criteria on this page - the ones we published before you applied, not ones we made up after we read the applications.
If any of us knows you personally, we say so on the record and that person sits out your decision.
Everybody hears from us, chosen or not. Nobody finds out by refreshing a page.
We weigh three things, and here's how.
The gap. How much is actually missing or still owed, and how much of a difference nine thousand dollars makes to it. A grant that closes somebody's gap completely does more than one that dents it.
What it costs you. Does this stop something, delay something, or get paid for with more debt? If it's a loan, what is it keeping you from doing?
What you've already done. Not a test of worthiness. We just want to see that this is real and in motion.
Which kind of applicant you are is not a factor. Everybody goes in the same pile.
7 · The application form
8 · Questions
Text me. Email me. I'd rather answer a question than have you not apply because you weren't sure.
founder@4oakes.org · (314) 313-6117