Donate to a Community Fund or Apply For a Scholarship

Donate to an Existing Scholarship Fund

To make an online donation to any of the Trustees of the Trust Funds Community Scholarships, see the "donate" buttons above.

All donations are tax deductible. 

Establish a New Scholarship

To learn more about setting up a scholarship, go to the Policy Statement on Scholarship Funds.

The residents of Portsmouth have long recognized the importance of education to maintaining an informed citizenry, a requisite of democracy. Education allows our children to acquire the knowledge and to develop critical thinking abilities and other skills necessary to become self-supporting and contributing members of society. With that foundation they are better able to live engaged and fulfilling lives.

Portsmouth supports its commitment to education through a robust, publicly funded school system. Portsmouth public schools rank in the top 20% among public school districts in New Hampshire.

This community has a strong tradition of supporting its public school students, beyond tax dollars, through private donations in the form of scholarships. As early as 1834, a Portsmouth resident, Mary Clark, endowed a scholarship for deserving children in public school. The community is known for supporting its children’s education after graduation from high school with numerous scholarships providing financial assistance for college and career training, particularly for those students whose families’ financial circumstances might limit their educational opportunities.

Over the past 150 years, Portsmouth residents have created scholarship funds in memory of loved ones, popular members of the community or from bequests detailed in wills. Often, the funds were named for the deceased and are intended to exist in perpetuity. (The School Department also offers the Futures Program for students who show the ability, desire, and motivation to attend college, but lack the necessary resources.)

In addition to these individual funds, the City of Portsmouth has established five Community Funds, pooling small donations to award scholarships that recognize accomplishment and support study in areas such as STEM, the Arts and the Trades.

All scholarship funds are held and managed by the Trustees of the Trust Funds (the "Trustees") of the City of Portsmouth pursuant to State law, The Trustees are subject to the oversight authority of the Charitable Trust Unit of the Office of the Attorney General and must file an annual report with that office. The Trustees do not select the recipients of scholarships from these funds. They manage the funds and annually advise the school department of the number and amount of funds available for scholarships in the ensuing year. Generally, school officials and career advisors at Portsmouth High School evaluate scholarship applicants and award the scholarships.

Recommendation on Scholarship Policies - October 2019

Following review and deliberation, the Trustees of the Trust Fund issued a Report & Recommendation on Scholarship Policies to the City Council on scholarship fund policies, detailing the three goals that the Trustees would like to accomplish:

• Adoption of guidelines for future scholarship funds to ensure that they are adequately funded 
• Creation of new community scholarship funds.
• Consolidation of existing underfunded funds.

Report Back to City Council - December 2, 2019

Trustee Chair Thomas Watson detailed the report and recommendations to the City Council.

The Trustees recommended consolidating underfunded accounts into several newly created community scholarship funds, thereby increasing the amount of principal available to generate income annually for scholarships by over $280,000 and preventing the reoccurrence of unproductive funds in the future. 

The consolidation followed the following process: 

• Adopt new policies for the establishment of five new community scholarship funds
• Create the new community scholarship funds
• Merge the existing small scholarship funds into the new community scholarship funds

City Council Adopts Recommendations

The City Council adopted the recommendations (For City Council minutes of this action, click here), creating the following new scholarships. To make a donation to any of the scholarships, click one of the links below to connect to the City's secure online payment portal:

• Portsmouth Community Scholarship -- Arts
• Portsmouth Community Scholarship – Athletics
• Portsmouth Community Scholarship – Higher Education
• Portsmouth Community Scholarship -- Science, Technology, Engineering, Math
• Portsmouth Community Scholarship -- Career Tech/Trades

Trustee Managed Scholarship Funds

The Trustees of the Trust Funds manage these scholarships as well as the following scholarship funds:

• Annie Fields, 1917
• Annie Mcintosh, 1971
• Barbara Porter Memorial Scholarship, 2015
• Barry Hodgdon, 1974
• Bud Ricci Memorial, 2015
• Carrie Lee Memorial, 1998
• Clarence I. Sherwood, 1988
• Col. Helen D. Maslanka, 2011
• Demaris-Brooks, 1982
• Erik Rappolt Scholarship Fund
• Ermino A. Ricci, 1982
• Futures Program Endowment, 2009
• Gray Scholarship, 1955
• Henry B. Margeson Scholarship, 2011
• Horace A. Haven, 1934
• Jhaime S. Dye Scholarship, 2008
• John and Olga Leary Scholarship, 2003
• John Durgin Scholarship, 2013
• John J. Foley Scholarship, 1997
• John Wholey Scholarship, 2003
• Joseph H. Grilli, 1999
• Martha De Meritt, 1872
• Salvatore and Joanne Grasso Scholarship, 2000
• Tony Rahn Memorial Scholarship, 2015
• William and Irene Mortimer Scholarship I, 2003
• William and Irene Mortimer Scholarship II, 2015

For more information about the scholarship application process, contact Brittany Lind, College Counselor at Portsmouth High School. Telephone: 603.436.7100.