Key Difference: Scholarship is a financial grant aid awarded to students to help them pay for their education. It generally refers to grants in support of undergraduate education whereas sponsorship is aid supporting an event, person or an organization.

Scholarship is a financial grant aid awarded to students to help them pay for their education. It generally refers to grants in support of undergraduate education whereas sponsorship is aid supporting an event, person or an organization; this can be done through financial support or by providing products or services.  Scholarships are funded for encouraging students to peruse higher studies and are not done in the expectation of a commercial return whereas a sponsorship specially corporate sponsorship is used in context to business and therefore is expected to gain some returns for the sponsor.  Scholarships aim at providing opportunities of study to those who cannot study further due to various constraints or to encourage meritorious students. Sponsorship on the other hand is mainly associated with brand building. Many companies sponsor events like sports in order to maximize the reach of their product and gain publicity. In today’s world sponsorship is regarded as a key to powerful marketing. Sponsors may also sponsor a scholarship.

The main difference between scholarship and sponsorship is the purpose behind awarding or granting them. A scholarship is awarded to people for educational purposes and can cover school fees, accommodation, food and other needs. Scholarship recipients do not have to repay scholarship whereas sponsorship is mainly related with corporate sponsorship where gains are expected.

Thus there is little difference between these two terms. They are similar in terms of  support provided by the donor or sponsor. However, scholarship is used in context to education and sponsorship can be used in both the context; education and commercial. Sponsorship may require legal documents for keeping details like tenure of sponsorship and various other terms and conditions whereas scholarships do not include these legal considerations.

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