The Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Scholarship

Mission 

The Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund was created to ennoble, empower, and uplift young girls and women. Jacob Godfrey Schmidlapp created the fund to memorialize his daughter, who was killed at the age of nineteen in an automobile accident while touring France. He wanted other women to have the same opportunities in life that he would have afforded for Charlotte. 

Legacy

In 1908, while women around the world were fighting to attain the most basic rights, Jacob Schmidlapp was working to ensure their futures. What started as a $250,000 fund has grown to more than $25 million in assets. It began by awarding interest-free loans to aid young women in pursuit of higher education. In 1919, the fund gifted its first award to a not-for-profit organization, the YWCA.

Over 100 years later, the fund is still supporting the work of the YWCA. In 2008, the Charlotte Schmidlapp Fund Scholarship was created to provide financial support to women who are participating in YWCA programs to complete their educations in order to secure employment and financial stability and achieve independence and self-sufficiency.