Bold.org Review: A Free Way To Search For Scholarships

Paying for college can get expensive quickly. While you can always take out student loans, it’s a good idea to limit your loan burden as much as possible. 

By taking advantage of scholarships and grants, you can cover many college costs without taking out extra student loans.

Free money in the form of scholarships and grants can go a long way toward making your college experience affordable. However, finding the right opportunities can be easier said than done.

Thankfully, Bold.org offers a streamlined way to search for scholarships and grants that fit your needs. But are there costs involved, and is the platform worth using? In this Bold.org review, we'll  explore what Bold.org has to offer students.

What Is Bold.org?

Bold.org is a free scholarship platform that aims to reduce the prevalence of student debt by providing scholarships to students. On the Bold.org website, donors can create opportunities by setting up scholarships that students can search and apply for. 

The company’s website states that, “The world is full of incredible people who are an opportunity away from making a huge positive impact. By enabling anyone and any company to create targeted scholarships, fellowships, and grants, Bold.org unlocks that opportunity.”

From the student’s perspective, Bold.org is an additional platform to seek out scholarship funding. Bold.org has also streamlined the process to make applying for scholarships more efficient. 

What Does It Offer?

Let’s take a closer look at what Bold.org has to offer.

Exclusive Scholarships

Donors have an opportunity to set up scholarships directly through the Bold.org platform. In other words,  there are scholarships on the platform that aren’t available anywhere else.

For example, one current scholarship opportunity is the Taylor Swift ‘1989’ scholarship. The scholarship criteria is a celebration of the 1989 album and is sponsored by Bold.org itself. As you browse through the platform, you’ll find countless opportunities.

You can filter the scholarships by education level, state, demographic, target field, and whether or not an essay is involved.

Easy Profile Creation

When it comes to applying for scholarships, filling out the same information on every form can get tedious. The good news is that Bold.org allows you to use your baseline profile as a starting point for all of your applications.

While you might have to add some personalized information to a unique scholarship application, the profile you create upfront will save you time along the way. 

Streamlined Paperwork

You can keep track of all the scholarships you’ve applied to through Bold.org’s online portal. In the scholarship dashboard, you can check the status of any scholarship.

If you win a scholarship, the funds will be automatically applied to your tuition. That way, you won't have to deal with any messy paperwork to obtain your funds. 

Your Own Scholarship Opportunity 

On the other side of the coin, Bold.org offers an interesting way to pay if forward. While current college students likely won’t be starting their own scholarships, more established individuals have the chance to create an entirely unique scholarship.

Through Bold.org, donors can handle the entire scholarship process. Starting with setting up the criteria and raising the funding, Bold.org can help you make it all the way to the finish line. While Bold.org will help you narrow the list of applicants, you can work with the team to select the winners.

If you make a donation, it’s tax-deductible and 100% of the funds will go directly to the scholarship winners. 

Are There Any Fees?

As of this writing, Bold.org is free for students and donors. Instead of taking a cut from the scholarships, Bold.org covers the cost of the platform through relationships with partner companies. 

How Does Bold.org Compare?

Bold.org isn’t the only way to find free money to pay for school. If their platform interests you, you'll also want to check out the following Bold.org alternatives. 

Scholly is a platform that promises to take the hassle out of finding scholarship opportunities. Through Scholly, you can access a large database of scholarships. So far, this tool has helped students land over $100 million in scholarships. The downside is that students must pay a monthly subscription fee.

ScholarshipOwl is another tool designed to help you find college scholarships. You can find over 6 million scholarship options through the platform. Like Scholly, you’ll encounter a monthly fee to use the platform. But they have a VIP service that will help you edit your scholarship essays.

How Do I Open An Account?

As a student, you can join Bold.org by setting up a profile. You’ll be asked to provide some details about yourself, including:

• Whether or not you’ve applied to scholarships in the past
• Your enrollment status
• Your education level
• Whether or not anyone in your family has graduated college
• Your extracurriculars
• Your work experience
• Your school
• Your address
• Your citizenship status
• Your ethnicity
• Your religion
• Your hobbies
• Your income level
• Your birthday
• Your gender identity
• Your name
• Your email

The entire process takes around 10 minutes to complete. While the amount of information might seem like a lot, these details can help Bold.org match you to the most appropriate scholarship opportunities. 

Is It Safe And Secure?

When you fill out your profile on Bold.org, you're providing a lot of personal information. According to Bold.org's privacy policy, your information is shared with scholarship providers and academic institutions, but Bold.org will not sell your information without your consent.

How Do I Contact Bold.org?

If you need to get in touch with the company, you can fill out a contact form on the website. Additionally, students can email contact@bold.org. However, you can also call 720-704-2653 for donor inquiries or 720-730-2653 for award inquiries. 

Is Bold.org Worth It?

Bold.org offers a useful way to get matched with unique scholarship opportunities. Since these scholarships are only available through Bold.org, you might be competing with a smaller pool of applicants. Depending on your situation, this can be advantageous.

The downside of Bold.org is that you will only be matched with Bold.org exclusive scholarships, so you're not getting access to scholarships on other platforms. Bold.org is a very useful scholarship-finding tool, but it shouldn't be your only one. Sign up for Bold.org, but keep searching for other scholarship opportunities through a more comprehensive platform.

Check out Bold.org here >>

Bold.org Features