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The Skilled Trades Scholarship Fund

THE SKILLED TRADES

Scholarship Fund

The Skilled Trades Scholarship Fund.

Disclaimer: Opt-in disclaimer: By providing your phone number and submitting this form, you are subscribing/consenting to receive SMS/MMS messages to that number, including donation asks, newsletters, and school choice news from the AFC Growth Fund and AFC Scholarship Fund. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. Reply STOP to opt-out at any time, reply HELP for help. The AFC Growth Fund and AFC Scholarship Fund are happy to help at 1-800-458-7313. SMS opt-in will not be sold, rented, or shared with any third parties/affiliates unless required by law. You can view our Privacy Policy and Mobile Terms and Conditions here.

Make a Donation

Starting in 2027, make a charitable donation to an approved Scholarship Granting Organization like AFC Scholarship Fund.

AFC Issues a Scholarship

The SGO grants a scholarship to a child who needs it.

A Student Gets Funded

Funds help cover real education costs including tuition, tutoring, books, and more. Putting the right educational opportunity within reach.

Up to $1,700 Tax Credit

You claim a dollar for dollar tax credit of up to $1,700 per year, not a tax deduction.

Why this fund

There’s a generation of students who learn best with their hands, and a country that needs exactly what they can do. Most of them won’t pick up a tool until years after graduation, if they ever do. Your contribution moves that training into high school, while it can still shape the whole arc of a career.

The country needs what these students are good at. It just isn’t teaching them yet.

  1. Sixteen isn’t too early. It’s the whole point.

    A student who finds the work at sixteen graduates with a skill instead of a guess. Your gift funds that training while they’re still in high school, not years later.

  2. Shop class disappeared. The work didn’t.

    Schools cut the programs; the country kept needing electricians, welders, machinists and technicians. Your gift funds the hands-on training a student’s school no longer offers.

  3. America runs on people who can build and fix things.

    Every road, hospital, data center and power line is somebody’s finished work. Your gift is how the next generation learns to do it.

The result: more students leaving high school with a skill, a credential, and a path that pays.

Who your gift Reaches

The Skilled Trades Scholarship Fund is built for K–12 students, mostly high schoolers, who want to learn a trade and don’t have a way in. Not every student belongs in a lecture hall. All of them deserve a path.

  • Students who learn by doing

  • High schoolers with no shop class

  • Kids who want a trade, not a lecture

  • Families without a path in place

By the Numbers

The Need Isn’t Demand. It’s Funding. The programs exist. The students are willing. What’s missing is the scholarship money to put one in the other.

Nobody is short of students who’d be good at this work, and nobody is short of work that needs doing. The gap is in between: the training, the equipment, the program fee, and who pays for it.

90%+

of every dollar you give funds scholarships directly, by federal rule.

1.1m

skilled trade job openings projected across America every year this decade.

$64k

median pay for an electrician. Typical entry requirement: a high school diploma.

SKILLED TRADES Stories

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to the questions generous donors like you ask us most.

You donate to the AFC Scholarship Fund, a Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO), and your gift funds K–12 scholarships directly. You give first; the dollar-for-dollar federal credit — up to $1,700 — comes back when you file, once credits activate January 1, 2027.

High school students, and K–12 students generally. This is not a community college program, an adult retraining program, or a post-graduation scholarship. Every scholarship goes to a student who is still eligible to enroll in K–12.

Any K–12 student who meets the EFTC’s eligibility requirements for age, household income, and state participation, and who is pursuing skilled trades or career and technical training. Approximately 90% of American students are eligible.

Hands-on career and technical education — carpentry, welding, electrical, automotive, machining, HVAC, construction, fabrication, robotics and the rest of the skilled trades — delivered through participating schools and programs that serve K–12 students.

No. Scholarships can support a range of qualifying K–12 education costs, not only private school tuition. What a specific scholarship can cover is determined by the SGO within federal rules.

Yes — you can direct your gift to our Skilled Trades Scholarship Fund. Federal law prohibits earmarking for a specific student; the SGO makes all award decisions independently.

EFTC credits activate January 1, 2027. Register your interest now and we’ll notify you the moment giving opens.

Yes. The AFC Scholarship Fund is a federally qualified SGO and 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and your donation qualifies for the EFTC’s dollar-for-dollar federal credit of up to $1,700.