--- title: "NextGen Scholarship Manager Alternative | AwardSpring" description: "Comparing AwardSpring and Next Gen's Scholarship Manager (a Nelnet company)? See how the platforms differ on donor work, matching, and fit before you decide." canonical_url: "https://www.awardspring.com/compare/nextgen-scholarship-manager-alternative" markdown_url: "https://www.awardspring.com/compare/nextgen-scholarship-manager-alternative.md" --- 1. [Home](https://www.awardspring.com/) 2. [Compare](https://www.awardspring.com/compare) 3. Scholarship Manager (Next Gen, a Nelnet company) PLATFORM COMPARISON # Looking for a NextGen Scholarship Manager alternative? Scholarship Manager, from Next Gen Web Solutions, a Nelnet company, is a financial-aid-office tool that matches applicants to scholarships using Student Information System data, with a large library of standard reports. AwardSpring serves the financial aid office and the foundation together, with donor management and donor impact reporting on the same record as awarding. AT A GLANCE ## Comparison table AwardSpring and Scholarship Manager (Next Gen, a Nelnet company) at-a-glance comparison Criterion AwardSpring Scholarship Manager (Next Gen, a Nelnet company) Core buyer Financial aid and foundation offices at colleges, universities, and scholarship foundations Financial aid and scholarship offices, especially in the Nelnet ecosystem Single application with auto-matching Yes, for every customer Yes, driven by SIS data Scholarship + donor management Donor Management and Donor Experience on the awarding record Donor impact reports, thank-you letter management, and donor review access Reporting Fund-level to program-wide reporting 100+ out-of-the-box reports Support 16-minute average response; 4.7 of 5 on G2 across 110 reviews No published response targets; Capterra 4.9 across 7 reviews AI SpringIQ: AI drafts and prepares, people decide No AI-assisted features advertised as of August 2026; automation is SIS-rules-driven ### Core buyer AwardSpring Financial aid and foundation offices at colleges, universities, and scholarship foundations Scholarship Manager (Next Gen, a Nelnet company) Financial aid and scholarship offices, especially in the Nelnet ecosystem ### Single application with auto-matching AwardSpring Yes, for every customer Scholarship Manager (Next Gen, a Nelnet company) Yes, driven by SIS data ### Scholarship + donor management AwardSpring Donor Management and Donor Experience on the awarding record Scholarship Manager (Next Gen, a Nelnet company) Donor impact reports, thank-you letter management, and donor review access ### Reporting AwardSpring Fund-level to program-wide reporting Scholarship Manager (Next Gen, a Nelnet company) 100+ out-of-the-box reports ### Support AwardSpring 16-minute average response; 4.7 of 5 on G2 across 110 reviews Scholarship Manager (Next Gen, a Nelnet company) No published response targets; Capterra 4.9 across 7 reviews ### AI AwardSpring SpringIQ: AI drafts and prepares, people decide Scholarship Manager (Next Gen, a Nelnet company) No AI-assisted features advertised as of August 2026; automation is SIS-rules-driven WHY AWARDSPRING ## When institutions choose AwardSpring over Scholarship Manager Criterion 1 ### Donor work as a product line, not a report. AwardSpring pairs awarding with Donor Management and Donor Experience (available now) on one record, built for foundations that answer to donors. Scholarship Manager's documented donor features center on reporting and communication: real-time impact reports, thank-you letter management, and review access for donors and committee members (per Next Gen's Scholarship Manager product page, August 2026). Criterion 2 ### A platform that spans both offices. Scholarship Manager is built around the aid office and the SIS. AwardSpring's core base is financial aid AND foundation offices at two-year and four-year institutions, so committee review, departmental awards, and donor reporting live in one system for both teams. Criterion 3 ### A deeper public track record. Teams rate AwardSpring 4.7 of 5 on G2 across 110 reviews with support answering in 16 minutes on average. Scholarship Manager's public review footprint is thin by comparison: 7 reviews on Capterra, rated 4.9 (per Capterra's Scholarship Manager listing, August 2026). THE HONEST FIT ## When Scholarship Manager may fit better - An institution already in the Nelnet family, running Nelnet Campus Commerce for payments, or Next Gen modules like Dynamic Forms, Dynamic Verification, JobX, or TimesheetX, that wants one vendor relationship. - A financial aid office that treats awarding as an extension of aid packaging and wants matching, duplicate-winner prevention, and criteria enforcement driven directly off live SIS records via API. - An office that leans on a large library of standardized reports: Next Gen cites 100+ out-of-the-box reports for multi-year trend and audit reporting. SWITCHING ## Switching from Scholarship Manager: what the move looks like 1. **Export your data.** Applicants, awards, and fund history come out as spreadsheets. You own your data. 2. **Guided rebuild.** SpringBoard onboarding recreates your scholarships, cycles, and review workflows, and imports historical data. 3. **Cut over between cycles.** Implementation is timed so your next award cycle opens on AwardSpring. FAQ ## Questions about this comparison Is AwardSpring a good alternative to NextGen Scholarship Manager? For institutions where the foundation and financial aid share the scholarship program, and donor reporting matters as much as awarding, yes. For aid offices that want awarding run entirely off SIS data inside the Nelnet vendor family, Scholarship Manager fits that shape. How does AwardSpring pricing compare to Scholarship Manager? Both are quote-based annual subscriptions. AwardSpring includes unlimited applicants, reviewers, and admins, scoped to institution size and award volume. Can we migrate from Scholarship Manager to AwardSpring? Yes. Most customers switch between award cycles, and historical data comes across during onboarding. KEEP COMPARING ## Related comparisons [AwardSpring vs Blackbaud Award Management Read the Blackbaud Award Management comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/awardspring-vs-blackbaud) [Looking for a Foundant SLM alternative? Read the Foundant SLM comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/foundant-alternative) [Looking for a Kaleidoscope alternative? Read the Kaleidoscope comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/kaleidoscope-alternative) [Looking for an OpenWater alternative? Read the OpenWater comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/openwater-alternative) [Looking for a ScholarshipUniverse alternative? Read the ScholarshipUniverse (Ellucian) comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/scholarshipuniverse-alternative) [Looking for a SmarterSelect alternative? Read the SmarterSelect comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/smarterselect-alternative) [Looking for a Submittable alternative? Read the Submittable comparison.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare/submittable-alternative) [Compare scholarship management platforms Return to the comparison hub and choose another live evaluation path.](https://www.awardspring.com/compare) ## Request a demo. Bring your renewal quote and we will walk the same workflow side by side. [Request a demo](https://www.awardspring.com/demo)