How it works
The whole scholarship journey, in one place.
From the day a student applies to the day a donor sees the impact — Upwing runs intake, review, decisions, disbursement, and discovery together. Here's exactly what each person sees. Every screen below is the real product, shown on a sample foundation.
Every organization gets its own branded home — its colours, its story, its programs — at their-name.upwing.org.
For organizations
Run a scholarship without the spreadsheets.
Set up each program with its own eligibility, award range, questions, and application rounds. Submissions land in a live pipeline you can filter, rank, and act on — then Upwing handles the emails and the money.
- One org can run several programs, each with its own form and rounds; the dashboard filters by program, cycle, and status.
- Status chips and search surface where every application stands; accept, reject, or waitlist and the applicant is emailed automatically.
- Award per round, a suggested-amount from reviewers, and a disbursement schedule that tracks each tranche to paid.
- Generate a one-page flyer with a QR code, invite past applicants, and broadcast updates — all from the same place.
For students
Apply once, track everything.
Students find scholarships they're eligible for, apply through a guided form that saves as they type, and follow every step from their portal — no email tag, no lost paperwork.
- A single profile carries across programs; the form only asks each program's own questions.
- Auto-save means a dropped connection never loses an essay; a required headshot and documents keep applications complete.
- Request a letter of recommendation by email, or upload one already signed — the recommender's credentials are captured either way.
- Marksheets can be AI-read into structured marks for review, with the original always one click away.
For reviewers
Judge on merit, with an honest assist.
Reviewers score against the program's rubric, leave notes, and recommend — while an AI reads each application first to flag likely-ineligible cases and rank by fit. The AI assists; a human always decides.
- Rubric scoring, a recommendation, and a suggested award amount that the admin sees when making the final call.
- Peer reviews are shown anonymously by default, so scores stand on their merits — and a reviewer's objection is surfaced prominently to the admin.
- The AI review gives a summary, key points, an eligibility flag, and a fit score — each with a click-to-see reason, so a wrong score is easy to catch.
- The full application reads cleanly: highlighted essays, verified marksheet data, and a name-match check against the marksheet.
For donors
Fund a real student, directly.
Donors say what kind of student they'd like to support, discover a curated shortlist, and give straight to a student — the money never pools. Organizations can also share their own students to consider.
- Set preferences — level, stream, or a focus on financial need — and the shortlist tailors itself.
- Support one student at a time; identities stay private until a match, and the contribution goes directly to them.
- Ask to support a specific organization; once they accept, they share students for you to consider.
- Choose how you're recognised — publicly, within a community, or anonymously — on a donor honour roll.
For the platform team
Trust, kept by a light touch.
A small platform team verifies the organizations and donors who join, so everyone downstream can trust the network — and can enable shared AI for orgs that want it, without handing over keys.
- Review and verify new organizations and donors — each donor writes why they'd like to help, in good faith.
- Turn on a platform-wide AI key so any organization can use AI assistance without configuring their own.
- Contact messages, oversight of active organizations, and verified-donor records, all in one console.
Whatever brought you here — start.
Run a scholarship, find one to apply to, or fund a student directly.