Association Insights: PGSF
The Printing Industry as well as its suppliers are always looking for new, bright and eager talent for their organizations. As with many industries, finding highly qualified employees and enticing them to enter the graphic arts and related industries is getting more difficult by the day.
A 2018 industry survey listed the top three business challenges as
- Finding skilled sales personnel (65%)
- Finding skilled production employees (42%)
- Recruiting and retaining employees (38%)
To help attract young people to this great industry, the Print & Graphic Scholarship Foundation (PGSF) has been providing scholarships to students for over 60 years. The Foundation has coordinated the printing industry’s largest scholarship program since its inception in 1956.
PGSF is a not-for-profit, private, industry-directed organization that dispenses technical and college scholarships and assistance to talented youth interested in graphic communication careers. The mission of PGSF includes creating awareness of the broad range of career opportunities that are available in today’s modern and technology-driven graphic communications industry.
Individuals who are inspired to pursue post-secondary education in graphics, whether full-time or part-time while working in the industry can seek financial support from our vast portfolio of funds. Past and current PGSF scholarship recipients attend one and two-year technical schools, colleges and universities in virtually every state in the union. Their scholarships average $2400, but can be as high as $5000, depending on the endowment offering the funds. This past year the foundation awarded over $550,000 in scholarships and fellowships to 250 students attending over 100 institutions that are focused on the graphic arts.
New Structure
Until recently, PGSF was a part of the Printing Industries of America and located within their facility. During 2018, it was determined by the PGSF Board it would be beneficial to become a completely independent entity that would manage itself with a very small staff and a strong board of directors.
“As we look to the future and the strength of our funds, it was time for the Foundation to be clear about our independence as an organization to better accomplish our mission," said Board Chair Jules Van Sant. "We decided to end our administrative relationship with Printing Industries of America, which previously was a sponsoring organization of the 501c3. We are stronger than ever and poised to continue expanding our outreach to the educators, employers and individuals excited about a career in print and graphics. “
In order to qualify for a scholarship, a student needs to be either a full-time attendee at an accredited institution and enrolled in a graphic arts program, or a part-time student currently working in the graphic communications industry and has the support of their management to further their education.
Every May, the selection committee reviews over 600 applications for scholarships. The selection committee is comprised of educators, leaders in from the industry and former scholarship recipients. Full instructions on how to apply and more details on the rules are on our website at PGSF.org.
The PGSF has recently simplified the application process by using an online scholarship application platform via Kaleidoscope. This tool not only simplifies the process for students that are applying, but it also allows them to input data once and use it for other scholarships that are connected to the system. Another benefit of the new process is that by eliminating a paper-based system, the applications can now easily be reviewed online by a broader committee remotely.
PGSF also offers three contests for students to compete in that benefit both them and the Foundation. The first is for submission of a technical paper focused on the gravure industry and is sponsored by the Gravure Association of America. The second is a poster design contest to help promote the coming year’s scholarship opportunities. The winners will receive $500 and their poster will be printed at Printing United this fall in Atlanta. The third contest is a new a T-Shirt design competition asking students to showcase the careers possible in graphics, availability of scholarships through PGSF, and/or how graphic communications fit into today’s world.
We are excited to announce these will also be produced at Printing United and given out to donors to the Foundation. The winner of this contest will also attend the show to see their T-shirt being produced.
The key to PGSF’s ability to grant these scholarships each year is due in part to its large investment portfolio valued at over $10 million. Each year the board determines the appropriate amount of money to use as scholarships with the goal of maintaining the principal in the investment account.
Of course, as tuition increases, the size of our scholarships also need to increase for them to be meaningful to the students. We therefore are always looking for ways to raise new funds. There are many ways that donors can contribute to the foundation. These include one-time donations, recurring donations and endowments from a company or individual. Endowed scholarships enable the donor to specify where and how they would like their scholarship to be awarded. Donations of all dollar amounts can be easily made by logging onto PGSF.org and following the DONATE NOW box at the top right of the page.
Help us make a difference and build our industry workforce for the future. If you have any questions or want to know how you can become more involved with PGSF please contact me at [email protected].
