College Goal Sunday expands to 25 states
As College Goal Sunday enters its eighteenth year in 2006, students and parents in 25 states will have access to expert advice to help them complete the federal student aid form.
From late January to mid-February financial aid professionals will gather in hundreds of cities nationwide to provide guidance on filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Seven states – New Jersey, New Mexico, Florida, Minnesota, Texas, Tennessee and Wisconsin – will host their first College Goal Sunday events in 2006.
Since its inception in 1989 in Indiana, College Goal Sunday has served more than 125,056 students and parents nationwide. Last year more than 17,000 people received help at 300 sites in 18 states plus Washington, D.C.
This year the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), which manages the program, is taking steps to help states reach the students and parents who most need assistance. Although College Goal Sunday is open to any student or parent needing help completing the FAFSA, organizers want to make sure they reach specific populations including low-income families, minority students and students who are the first in their families to attend college. These students and families are most at risk for thinking college is not affordable, and they might not have a clear understanding of the wide range of financial aid available to them.
“Each state will receive a college access marketing toolkit to help in developing and delivering messages to make sure the messages impact the target populations,” says Marcia Weston, director of College Goal Sunday operations for NASFAA. The toolkit will help organizers identify strategic partners in their communities with which to collaborate.
“For instance, in rural areas the social network revolves around the church, so it is important to partner with area ministers who know the people that need the help,” Weston says.
State organizers also will receive fund-raising toolkits to help them identify sources of funding available in their states and give them tips on how to request donations and sponsorships. Lumina Foundation for Education provides grants for three years to get College Goal Sunday started, and states are expected to generate other sources of funding after that. As part of a new application process initiated this year, states must identify potential sources of funding when they apply to become College Goal Sunday states.
In addition to providing marketing and fund-raising tools to states, NASFAA is partnering with the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs to determine how many students and parents attending College Goal Sunday actually file their FAFSA. Researchers at the Institute for Higher Education Policy are also evaluating the College Goal Sunday program to determine its effectiveness during the current three-year grant period from 2005-2007. Evaluation results collected in 2005 showed that more than 90 percent of students and family members have expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the help they received, and 97 percent of the volunteers said they would volunteer again in 2006.
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