Case study

A Smarter Scholarship Experience for Lake Travis ISD Students

The Lake Travis Education Foundation (LTEF) proudly supports graduating seniors across Lake Travis Independent School District through meaningful scholarship opportunities.

To better serve students, volunteers, and donors, LTEF’s scholarship program is powered by Merited — a modern, end-to-end scholarship platform built specifically for education foundations.

The Challenge

For years, scholarship management required a patchwork of tools — spreadsheets, email threads, shared drives, and manual review coordination. While dedicated volunteers and board members made the process work, it required significant time and administrative effort.

Key challenges included:

• Managing increasing application volume

• Collecting transcripts and recommendation letters securely

• Coordinating volunteer reviewers

• Ensuring fair and consistent scoring

• Tracking donor-restricted criteria and reporting impact

LTEF needed a platform built specifically for education foundations — one that was powerful, intuitive, and cost-effective.

The Solution

Merited's ScholarShip provides LTEF with a fully digital, end-to-end scholarship management system designed for their program.

• Fully customized scholarship applications aligned with LTEF branding

• Students complete applications entirely online

• Secure third-party uploads for recommendations and transcripts

• Built-in eligibility logic to match students with the appropriate award

• Online review portal for board members and community review volunteers

• side-by-side scorecards for consistent, criteria-based evaluation

• Configurable settings to support blind review and reduce bias

The Results

By centralizing the entire scholarship lifecycle within Merited, LTEF has:

• Reduced administrative burden on staff and volunteers

• Increased efficiency in application verification and review

• Improved fairness and scoring consistency

• Enhanced donor reporting and transparency

• Elevated the student experience

Most importantly, LTEF can now focus on impact by expanding scholarship opportunities and telling the stories of LTISD students' success!

Gallery View

Snapshots of our app in action, helping students and committees.

Streamlined Access

All applications organized in one easy-to-navigate platform.

Review Made Simple

Committees can log in securely, rate applications, and communicate seamlessly without juggling emails or papers.

Student Friendly

Students save progress, upload transcripts, and letters of recommendation easily, making the application process less stressful.