Universal Application: Follow Up Configuration Options

A base structure using common and pseudo common follow up forms is the most efficient approach and works well for most organizations. A pseudo common follow up form is a follow up form that has been built to be assigned broadly across multiple award types rather than tied to specific opportunities.

Setup

Build one common follow up form per year of the award cycle to cover the range of award lengths your organization offers. A typical base structure includes:

• One common form for Year 1, assigned to all award recipients.
• One pseudo common form for Year 2, assign to two-year, three-year, and four-year award recipients.
• One pseudo common form for Year 3, assigned to three-year and four-year award recipients.
• One pseudo common form for Year 4, assign to four-year award recipients.

If your organization also awards two-year or three-year scholarships, or splits payments by semester, add forms to accommodate those award types. The goal is one form per year of the award cycle rather than one form per opportunity.
 

Workflow Notes

• When auto configure installments is set up, follow up forms are pre-configured during the approval process. Approvers confirm the assignment with a single action rather than selecting the form manually. If the default does not apply to a specific student, it can be overridden during approval without changing the opportunity's default configuration. 
• Attaching each follow up form to its corresponding installment makes follow up data available in installment level reports. This is required for non CommunitySuite clients who need to export data to financial software.
• Common follow up forms can only be assigned once per applicant. If a student receives multiple scholarships, they receive one set of common follow up forms rather than a duplicate set per opportunity.

Some organizations need opportunity-specific follow up forms in addition to their common base structure, typically when a donor requires a customized thank you note or when specific reporting is tied to a particular scholarship. 

In these cases, it is recommended to layer the opportunity-specific form on top of the common base structure rather than replace it. A student in this scenario might receive both a common follow up form for their award year and one opportunity-specific form for that donor's requirement. 

Setup

• Follow the setup guidance in Option 1 to establish the common and pseudo common base structure first.
• Add opportunity-specific forms only for the scholarships that genuinely require them.
• Keep the number of opportunity-specific forms as small as possible. A manageable number is generally under 50.

Workflow Notes

• Assign the common follow up forms first, then assign the opportunity-specific form for the relevant scholarship.
• If page load times are a concern, consider whether any of the existing opportunity-specific forms could be replaced with the merge template approach described below.

Opportunity-Specific Form Benefits

Opportunity-specific follow up forms do offer advantages in some cases. They allow opportunity-specific information to appear directly on the form, and the amount awarded can be pulled from the approval form onto the follow up. For organizations where those details matter to donors or internal reporting, these forms may be worth the added management.

Alternative: Merge Templates for Donor Thank You Notes

Rather than creating a separate opportunity-specific form per scholarship, consider adding a small set of open-ended questions to a common follow up form that donors would find meaningful. For example, asking students what they are most looking forward to in college or how the award will impact their plans gives donors a thoughtful, individual response without requiring a separate form per opportunity. A merge template can generate a personalized communication from those responses.

This approach reduces form volume while still meeting donor communication needs.

Thank You Notes in Scholarship Lifecycle Manager Video

This video walks through how to configure thank you note follow up forms in Scholarship Lifecycle Manager (SLM) for both standalone processes and universal applications, including strategies for collecting general versus personalized scholarship-specific notes.

• Standalone Process: Thank You Note Setup (1:22) - Explains the one-to-one ratio of standalone processes and walks through a sample form, noting considerations for students who receive multiple scholarships.
• Sample Questions (2:29) - Reviews real-world example questions covering student aspirations, college choice, life experiences, and the gratitude message, with discussion of how thoughtful prompts generate richer donor content.
• Universal Application: Introduction (4:07) - Transitions to the Universal Application setup and recommends reaching out to the success team for guidance on opportunity-specific follow up configuration.
• General Thank You Note Option (5:26) - Describes a single form covering all scholarships a student receives and highlights this approach as a good fit for reducing student burden or when donors are deceased.
• Personalized Thank You Note Option (6:09) - Explains how branching logic in a single form allows students to write scholarship-specific notes without requiring separate opportunity-specific follow up forms.
• Q&A and GLM Applicability (8:02) - Covers how the same follow up form approach applies to GLM for grantee thank you notes, with notes on using the content for donor engagement and marketing.

If your site has a large number of opportunity-specific follow up forms and is experiencing difficulty managing assignments, it is worth evaluating the structure and consolidating where possible.

Setup

Before rebuilding, review the existing follow up forms and identify consolidating opportunities.

• Determine which forms serve the same purpose across multiple opportunities and whether a common form could replace them.
• Identify opportunity-specific forms that exist primarily for thank you note purposes and consider whether the merge template approach a could serve that need instead. 
• Build or confirm the common base structure from Option 1 as the foundation.
• Add back only the opportunity-specific forms that cannot be replaced by a common form or merge template.

Workflow Notes

• Existing assigned follow up forms are not affected by changes to the form structure going forward. New assignments will reflect the updated structure. 
• Transitioning to a common-first structure may require coordinating with staff who currently manage follow up assignments, as the assignment workflow will change.
• Once the structure is simplified, attaching forms to installments as described in the General Reminders section provides the reporting foundation needed for installment-level data exports.