Corporate Community Relations

Nelnet's charitable giving programs represent our belief that successful students need successful foundations. That's why each year we dedicate millions of dollars to supporting scholarship, education, and community betterment programs throughout the country through the Nelnet Foundation and local giving programs. Nelnet is proud to have contributed financial or volunteer support to hundreds of outstanding organizations dedicated to student and social concerns.

Charitable Giving Highlights in 2005

Nelnet Foundation

• Scholarships
• Civic Gifts

Corporate Matching Gifts

• Nelnet surprises ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition family in Lincoln, Neb. with 529 college savings plans
• Nelnet teams with ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to surprise Big Mama with a $75,000 scholarship fund
• Nelnet distributes Hurricane Katrina Visa gift cards to displaced college students

Contact us at nelnetfoundation@nelnet.net 

The Nelnet Foundation was formed to provide a formal structure and consistency to the company's charitable giving.

Vision
Supporting educational dreams through charitable contributions and scholarships.

Mission
To provide financial assistance to expand educational possibilities for youth and adults and support for community-focused programs and organizations.

Core values

• It is essential to complement Nelnet's for-profit business with charitable contributions that are given back to educational and community-focused organizations.
• We believe educational opportunities should be provided to both youth and adults.
• Truth, honesty, integrity, and clear, open communication are fundamental to our success.

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Nelnet's scholarship programs, available for both need-based and merit-based students, are close to our hearts because they truly represent our vision of making educational dreams possible. Nelnet also supports the following programs:

• Center City Consortium: Based in our nation's capitol, the Consortium is a nationally recognized center of excellence in education with 14 schools dedicated to serving the educational needs of inner-city children.
• Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU): Nelnet's partnership with HACU provides higher education opportunities for Hispanic students and families across the country through college planning, financial aid information, and student loans.
• Junior Achievement (JA): As the national sponsor of the Junior Achievement Financial Aid Center, Nelnet provides education finance counseling and tools, scholarship support, and volunteer support to JA students across the nation.
• National College Access Network: Nelnet's cooperative scholarship program with the National College Access Network provides financial support to qualifying students across the country.
• Nelnet Scholars: Nelnet is proud to provide a program to help our own associates' children earn scholarship support. Each year we award two $5,000 and ten $1,000 scholarships to deserving dependents of our associates as they pursue higher education.
• United Negro College Fund: Nelnet's scholarship contribution to the United Negro College Fund helps support the UNCF mission to increase minority degree attainment by reducing financial barriers to college.

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Nelnet's local charitable contributions were formed to help direct local giving for the generous dollars Nelnet contributes each year.

Each location has the flexibility to select the charities they wish to support, although most are focused toward education or community betterment projects. Through this process, Nelnet is able to support a multitude of wonderful organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, after-school programs for underprivileged youth, YMCAs and YWCAs, and United Way organizations, among others.

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To encourage charitable giving among our associates, Nelnet provides dollar-for-dollar matches to contributions to civic organizations and a three-to-one match to secondary and higher education institutions.

Nelnet conducts annual campaigns to support local communities. Nelnet’s 2005 United Way campaign garnered over $215,000 in combined employee and corporate support.

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