Every season, at least one family on your roster is quietly doing the math on whether they can afford to stay. Most will never ask. They'll pay late, pay partially, or just not sign up next spring — and you'll assume the kid lost interest.
The numbers behind that silence are stark. According to the Aspen Institute's Project Play State of Play 2025 report, the average family spent $1,016 a year on a child's primary sport in 2024, up 46% since 2019. Households earning $100K or more spend roughly four times what households under $50K spend, and the participation gap between those groups widened from 13.6 percentage points in 2012 to 20.2 points in 2024.
Most team treasurers want to help. What stops them usually isn't money — it's the fear of handling it badly. Who has to know? What does the family see? What happens when a co-manager exports the roster? Here's how to run scholarships so the answer to all three is "nobody, nothing, and nothing."
Rule 1: Decide who needs to know, then stop there
Financial aid is private financial information about a family. The circle of people who know should be as small as your organization can tolerate:
- The person who approves aid. Usually the team owner or treasurer.
- Maybe one board member, if your bylaws require a second signature.
- Never the coaching staff. A coach who knows which kid is "the scholarship kid" treats that kid differently, even with good intentions.
- Never the other families. Nothing sours a team faster than parents comparing what they paid.
Write this down before the season starts. "Our aid decisions are confidential" is a much easier sentence to say to a curious co-manager when it's already policy.
Rule 2: Make the offer public, keep the decisions private
Families won't ask for something they don't know exists. Put one sentence in your registration email: "If the season fee is a barrier, reach out to [name] privately — we have scholarship funds and every request is confidential."
Keep the process light: a short conversation or a two-question form is enough for most teams. Requiring tax returns just makes proud parents walk away.
Rule 3: Let the software do the hiding
This is where most teams slip. The spreadsheet has a "Scholarship" column. The payment app shows a badge next to the player's name that every assistant coach can see.
GetDues calls this feature Private Scholarships, and it's built around who gets to see what:
- You, the team owner, see the adjustment, the amount, and an internal note only you can read.
- Co-managers see only the resulting status — Paid, Partial, or Waived — so they know not to chase anyone. No badge, no amount, no note, and the adjustment columns in any CSV they export come back blank.
- The family sees only their adjusted amount in their portal. If you want, you can add one optional line they'll see (for example, "Sibling discount applied"). Otherwise they simply owe less: a fully waived due shows as "Waived," and a discount or credit isn't labeled at all.
- Everyone else sees nothing. Each family's portal shows only their own dues.
It's included on the free plan. The step-by-step walkthrough is in the help center under Private Scholarships, Discounts & Waivers.
Rule 4: Use percentages and cover the whole season at once
Partial aid stretches your budget and often feels better to the family than a full waiver. A 50% scholarship on a $600 fee is $300 they didn't have to find and $300 they can be proud of paying.
Do the math once, not per fee. With the percentage toggle, you enter "50" and GetDues works out the dollar amount. Tick "apply to every current due" and the same scholarship covers the season fee, the tournament fee, and the uniform order in a single save, instead of three edits that each risk being forgotten.
Rule 5: Budget for it like any other line item
Aid is real money you're choosing not to collect, so plan for it:
- Bake it into the fee. Adding $10 to a $500 fee across 20 families funds a $200 scholarship nobody notices.
- Point a fundraiser at it. "Every dollar from the car wash goes to our scholarship fund" outperforms a generic ask.
- Find one sponsor. A local business covering one season is a story they'll happily tell, as long as you never name the recipient.
GetDues shows the team owner a running aid summary — "Private scholarships: $1,250 across 4 families" — so you can report a total to your board without attaching a name to it.
Rule 6: Review once a season
How many families asked, and how many did you help? Did anyone leave over cost anyway? Was the fund big enough? Adjust the policy and budget, then open next season with that one sentence again.
The whole point
No kid should sit out because of a number on a spreadsheet — and no parent should feel singled out for asking. Get the visibility rules right, let the software enforce them, and a scholarship becomes what it should be: a quiet yes.
For the policy side — who qualifies and how applications work — read our companion guide, How to Handle Financial Aid and Scholarship Players.
Source for the cost and participation figures: Aspen Institute Project Play, State of Play 2025.