About Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust
The Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust, in partnership with our seventeen independent Member Schools, recruits and supports through the admissions process academically ambitious, African American students with financial need from the Baltimore area. Once students are enrolled, B.E.S.T. positions them for success through academic preparation, character and leadership development and support programs.
Focus Areas
EducationScholarshipsCollege accessLeadership developmentFamily support / Parent engagement
Who They Fund
college or university students receiving financial aidscholarship recipients/Chick Lord Scholarsstudents facing financial emergencies or enrollment gaps
Funding Style
gap fundingemergency/rapid-response funding
About Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust
Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust centers its grantmaking on academically ambitious African American students with financial need in the Baltimore area, pairing admissions support with tuition assistance and student supports. Its recent grants show a steady flow of awards to Baltimore-area independent schools, including $72,762 to St. Paul’s Schools in Brooklandville and $69,731 to Friends School of Baltimore. Those grants sit within a broader program model that includes scholarship placement, financial-aid guidance, exam preparation, summer transition support, and parent workshops. The trust also connects its student support work to named programs such as Chick Lord Scholar and Panitz Award grants, indicating that its giving is not limited to straightforward tuition aid. Recent awards also reach schools such as Bryn Mawr School, McDonogh School, Park School of Baltimore, Gilman School, Maryvale Preparatory School, Roland Park Country School, and The Boys’ Latin School of Maryland. Across those grants, the trust supports both current students and the institutional aid structures that help place and retain them.
What Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust Funds
One clear theme is tuition and placement support for students in independent schools. The trust gave $66,498 to Friends School of Baltimore in 2025 and $54,809 to Bryn Mawr School in 2024, both tied to scholarship-related support and gap funding. A second theme is emergency and retention funding. In 2025, it awarded $47,768 to McDonogh School, and the grant record links that award to gap funding, emergency funding, and Chick Lord Scholar support. Leadership development is also part of the portfolio: the Molly Hathaway Young Women’s and Redmond C.S. Finney Young Men’s Leadership Programs serve B.E.S.T. students through speakers, panel discussions, and civic engagement opportunities. The trust also supports college-bound families through the .edu Project and First Generation Affinity Group, which uses workshops and convenings for students, parents, and college support professionals.
How Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust Gives
Typical awards cluster in the mid-$30,000 range, with a p25 of $23,897, a median of $34,439, and a p75 of $43,793. The recent record shows repeated support to the same schools across multiple years, including Friends School of Baltimore, St. Paul’s Schools, Bryn Mawr School, McDonogh School, Park School of Baltimore, Gilman School, Maryvale Preparatory School, Roland Park Country School, The Boys’ Latin School of Maryland, Garrison Forest School, Calvert School, and Jemicy School. That pattern points to recurring institutional support rather than one-off gifts. The trust is not an individual giving fund; it makes grants to schools and related programs, and it accepts unsolicited applications for some programs such as the B.E.S.T. Scholarship Program, the .edu Project, and Parent Support Network workshops.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$669K
Total Assets
$13.8M
Total Revenue
$1.7M
Total Expenses
$1.7M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $24K and $44K, with a median of $34K.
25th Percentile
$24K
Median
$34K
75th Percentile
$44K
Geographic Reach
Local1 state funded
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Leadership
JESSICA SURIANO
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