Mas Family Scholarships Inc.

Mas Family Scholarships Inc. is not a traditional institutional grantmaker — it is a family-founded, single-purpose scholarship vehicle (EIN 92-3598644, Coral Gables, FL) established in 1996 by Jorge Mas Santos and the Mas family to fund individual students, not organizations. There is no organizational grant-seeking pathway here: nonprofits, schools, and community groups cannot apply for operating or program grants from this foundation. The only door in is the individual scholarship application, open annually October 15 through January 31 (the current cycle runs through 2026-01-31). Grant seekers who work with Cuban-American students — college access nonprofits, first-generation student support programs, Cuban-American cultural or civic organizations — should treat this foundation as a referral partner rather than a funding prospect: the highest-value action is directing eligible students to apply, not submitting an LOI. The foundation's own asset base (~$11.9M, per the most recent 990) and income (~$12.9M) place it in the same tier as several peer scholarship funds also organized under NTEE code B82 (Scholarships/Student Financial Aid). Founder Jorge Mas Santos has been explicit that the program's philosophy is generational: it exists because his parents sacrificed to leave Cuba and prioritized education despite hardship, and the family views scholarship funding as the single highest-leverage investment they can make. Selection favors students who combine strong academics (3.5+ GPA minimum) with demonstrated leadership and community service, and the program is renewable for up to four years, meaning the foundation is implicitly investing in long relationships with individual scholars rather than one-off awards. First-time individual applicants should know that financial need is assessed but is explicitly secondary to merit and leadership — this is a merit-first, need-aware program, not a need-based one. Practically, this means the foundation is best approached as a downstream referral relationship: college-access counselors, Cuban-American cultural organizations, and first-generation student programs in South Florida and beyond should build the October-January window into their annual advising calendar and proactively identify eligible seniors and current undergraduates, rather than attempting to pitch the foundation on a partnership or co-funding arrangement, which its structure does not support.

No 990 grant-level financials or grantee-list data were available in this record (financials, top_50 grantees, and matched public grants all returned empty in the source database), so dollar-level analysis relies on web-sourced program data rather than IRS filings. Third-party scholarship databases cite award amounts up to $8,000 per recipient per year, renewable annually for up to four years of undergraduate or graduate study — implying a potential four-year commitment per scholar of up to $32,000. The foundation's most recently reported asset base is approximately $11.86 million with reported income of approximately $12.9 million, though no breakdown of annual disbursement volume, number of scholars funded per cycle, or program-vs-administrative cost split is publicly available. The recipients page shows roughly 15-20 new scholars named per graduating class in the 2023-2025 cycles, which — at up to $8,000 per scholar per year and assuming multi-year renewals stack across cohorts — suggests total annual disbursement in the range of several hundred thousand dollars, though this is an estimate, not a confirmed figure. Geographically, funding flows exclusively to individuals rather than institutions; recipient enrollment skews toward Florida institutions (University of Florida, Florida International University, Florida State University) and elite national universities (Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Caltech, Notre Dame), consistent with a national applicant pool concentrated in South Florida's Cuban-American community. There is no evidence of programmatic funding outside the scholarship + mentorship model — no capital grants, no operating support to third-party organizations, and no geographic expansion beyond U.S.-based Cuban-American students. Trend-wise, the visible cohort size has grown modestly year over year — 10 recipients in the Class of 2023, 15 in the Class of 2024, and 20 in the Class of 2025 — suggesting either a rising applicant pool, an expanding disbursement budget, or both, though without itemized 990 grant schedules this cannot be confirmed against actual dollars distributed.

Mas Family Scholarships sits squarely in the middle of this peer cohort by asset size — all six foundations cluster tightly between $11.6M and $12.1M in assets, suggesting they were matched as size-comparable education funders rather than mission-identical ones. What distinguishes Mas Family Scholarships from this peer set is specificity of mission: it is one of the few in this cohort with a named, narrow ethnic-community focus (Cuban-American students) rather than a generic regional or subject-matter education mandate, and it is the only one with a public-facing website, named recipients, and a documented annual application cycle — the peer foundations show no public website or disclosed application process, implying they may operate through invitation, direct relationships, or minimal public grantmaking activity.

The most concrete recent activity is procedural rather than programmatic: the 2025-2026 scholarship cycle opened October 15, 2025 and closes January 31, 2026, consistent with the foundation's long-standing annual rhythm. The Class of 2025 cohort — 20 named scholars — was announced with placements at Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Yale, and Duke, continuing a multi-year pattern (Class of 2024 had 15 scholars at Yale, MIT, Notre Dame, and Duke; Class of 2023 had 10 recipients at Johns Hopkins, Columbia, and Caltech) of growing cohort size year over year. The foundation's signature public fundraising event, the annual charity golf tournament, is scheduled for March 18-19, 2026, and remains the primary visible community/PR touchpoint outside the scholarship cycle itself. No leadership changes, new program launches, major gifts, or organizational restructuring were found in available news coverage — founder Jorge Mas Santos continues to be the public face and philosophical driver of the program, with messaging consistently tying the scholarship's mission to his family's own emigration from Cuba. Because this is a closely held family scholarship vehicle rather than a large public foundation, it does not generate the volume of press coverage typical of major institutional funders, and grant seekers should not expect frequent news signal beyond the annual application-cycle announcement and the golf tournament.

This program funds individual students only — organizations cannot apply, so these tips are written for the students and advisors who work with them. First, eligibility is a hard gate: applicants must be born in Cuba or be direct descendants of someone who left Cuba, hold a minimum 3.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and enroll full-time in an accredited undergraduate or graduate program; there is no exception process for near-misses on GPA. Second, timing matters — the window is short (October 15 to January 31) and does not appear to extend or reopen, so advisors should flag this deadline to eligible students by early fall, not midyear. Third, the essay and personal statement are the differentiators among a pool that already clears the GPA bar: the 1,000-word essay on a specified topic and the 500-word personal statement should foreground specific leadership actions and community service tied to Cuban-American identity rather than generic 'well-rounded student' narratives — the foundation's founder has publicly framed the scholarship as an investment in future civic and community leaders, so essays that connect academic goals to leadership or service resonate with the program's stated philosophy. Fourth, treat the three recommendation forms as a full application component, not an afterthought — request them from recommenders in the first weeks of the window so there is buffer before the January 31 deadline, since incomplete recommender submissions appear to be a common failure point. Fifth, submit the FAFSA summary and/or CSS Profile even though financial need is a secondary factor; award amounts (reported up to $8,000/year) are said to be need-informed, so a complete financial picture can only help. Finally, because the scholarship renews for up to four years with a 3.0 GPA maintenance requirement, students should think of acceptance as the start of an ongoing relationship (including mentorship) rather than a one-time award, and should engage with the mentorship program once selected, since the foundation explicitly positions mentorship as core to its mission, not an add-on.