--- title: "33,000 essays, 500 volunteer judges, one day a week: inside the Mensa Foundation's scholarship program | AwardSpring" description: "The Mensa Foundation has awarded scholarships on the strength of a single essay since the late 1970s. What changed in the last three years is what it costs to run: the judging season that once consumed the director's entire week now takes about a day of it." canonical_url: "https://www.awardspring.com/testimonial/mensa-foundation" markdown_url: "https://www.awardspring.com/testimonial/mensa-foundation.md" --- ![Scattered points of light gathering into brighter constellations against a deep blue field.](https://www.awardspring.com/_astro/mensa-foundation-hero.CtkVzAYH_179lJT.webp?dpl=dpl_7UH1y98ZQA4LEz59BQe523ve2yKY) Customer Story > During judging season this used to be my whole week. Now it's about a day. Jill Beckham Director Mensa Foundation 33,000 essays submitted last cycle 134 scholarships awarded 500 volunteer judges 5 days a week down to 1 in judging season Mensa Foundation case study # 33,000 essays, 500 volunteer judges, one day a week: inside the Mensa Foundation's scholarship program The Mensa Foundation has awarded scholarships on the strength of a single essay since the late 1970s. What changed in the last three years is what it costs to run: the judging season that once consumed the director's entire week now takes about a day of it. ![Jill Beckham, Director, Mensa Foundation](https://www.awardspring.com/_astro/jill-beckham-headshot.Cu8GkqOr_1lsPBH.webp?dpl=dpl_7UH1y98ZQA4LEz59BQe523ve2yKY) Jill Beckham Director Mensa Foundation ![Mensa Foundation logo](https://www.awardspring.com/_astro/mensa-foundation-logo.D9OLw8n3_Z1lMWtM.webp?dpl=dpl_7UH1y98ZQA4LEz59BQe523ve2yKY) The Mensa Foundation is dedicated to unleashing intelligence for the benefit of humanity, with its scholarship program representing its longest-running initiative. The premise has not changed in nearly fifty years: awards are earned by a written essay about goals and the plan to reach them, never by test scores or proof of intelligence. Anyone can apply. Roughly 100,000 people start the application each year, and about 33,000 finish and submit, all competing for 134 scholarships that range from open-to-everyone to tightly restricted by major or background. Reading essays at that volume takes a volunteer army: about 500 judges from the Mensa community worked the most recent cycle. Coordinating that army, and routing every essay to the right scholarships, used to swallow the calendar every judging season. ## Two home-built systems, then a different question The foundation moved from handwritten, mailed submissions to its first in-house platform in 2012. It struggled. A second in-house build followed in 2019, and it struggled too. So the question changed: rather than attempt a third build, trustee Michelle Rakshys took on evaluating the scholarship platforms already on the market. She came back with exactly one she was willing to put in front of the foundation. What set AwardSpring apart was not a feature list. It was the willingness to work inside the foundation’s unusual requirements: essay-only awards, complex eligibility routing, and application volume most programs never see. The evaluation ran about four or five months, unhurried, with the foundation’s director, development director, and national volunteer chair all in the room before a decision was made. Three years later, the program runs on AwardSpring end to end. > “We built our own system twice. The third time, we asked a different question: who already does this well? Only one platform came back off that search.” > > Jill Beckham, Director, Mensa Foundation ## The first-year test Every scholarship program knows the rhythm: everyone waits until the last day. The foundation’s old systems buckled under that final-day surge year after year, and applicants who waited often couldn’t get their submissions through. In AwardSpring’s first year, the last-day wave broke the system there too. What the foundation remembers is what happened next. The AwardSpring team reached out first, worried the foundation was upset, and sat down to walk through what went wrong and what would change. The crash has never recurred, and the final day now passes like any other. “What can we do? What can we fix? How can we make this better for you?” is how the director remembers that conversation. A rough day in year one became the moment the foundation knew it had chosen the right partner. > “Our old system crashed every year on the last day. AwardSpring hit that wall once, in our first year. They reached out to us first, asked what they could fix, and it’s never happened again.” > > Jill Beckham, Director, Mensa Foundation ## The routing nobody has to do by hand Before, volunteer chairs read essays one at a time just to determine which scholarships an applicant was even eligible for. Now eligibility is set once, when each scholarship is created, and AwardSpring routes every submission automatically. Judges see the essay and the scoring criteria side by side. When a judge goes quiet mid-season, a report surfaces it and the essays get reassigned. > “The essay and the scoring criteria sit side by side now. I’ve had minimal complaints since.” > > Jill Beckham, Director, Mensa Foundation The volunteers noticed. Within 24 hours of re-inviting last year’s judges back for the new cycle, more than 200 had already signed up again. > “Within 24 hours of inviting last year’s judges back, more than 200 had already signed up again. Volunteers don’t come back to software that wastes their time.” > > Jill Beckham, Director, Mensa Foundation ## Five days a week, down to one The clearest measure is the director’s own calendar. During judging season, running the program used to be a five-day-a-week job. On AwardSpring it takes about one. Award notifications, document collection, and proof of enrollment all happen in the platform, work that once meant printing and mailing letters to winners across the country. The newest addition is a first-round AI screen. Before any human judge reads an essay, the foundation runs submissions through an automated pass that flags entries breaking its own contest rules. About half came through to the judges last cycle, which means 500 volunteers spent their hours on essays that actually deserved them. The judging itself stays where the foundation believes it belongs, with people. ## Third year, and counting Ask the foundation whether it would recommend AwardSpring and there is no hedging: the move retired an in-house system and its IT burden, gave the director most of her week back in judging season, and kept its volunteer judges coming back. For a program built on the idea that a single essay can change a student’s plans, the platform finally matches the ambition. ## See AwardSpring on your own funds. A walkthrough shaped to your program: your funds, your students, your questions. [See a demo](https://www.awardspring.com/demo) [More customer stories](https://www.awardspring.com/testimonials)