The following policies have been adopted by the OSU Foundation in response to the IRS regulations. Selection of recipients must be made on an objective, non-discriminatory basis. The group from which the recipients are chosen must be reasonably related to the purposes of the grant, and group must be large enough to constitute a charitable class. The criteria used in selecting recipients from the potential grantees should be related to the purpose of the grant. The person or persons who select recipients should not be in a position to receive a private benefit, directly, or indirectly, if certain potential grantees are selected over others.
Scholarship funds can have very specific criteria.
Many people question if this is discriminatory. While there are some restrictions on what a scholarship can target, if the donor can prove that the group selected is large enough to constitute a charitable class, an undefined amount by the IRS but which should pass the laws of common sense, a scholarship program can be viewed as nondiscriminatory even if it benefits limited classes of people such as women, minorities, or residents of a particular community.