Our Mission

The mission of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund is to give high school scholarship assistance and programmatic support to eighth graders from the Chicagoland area.  DMSF seeks to make a life-altering difference in the lives of its Scholars by providing them with the best opportunity to succeed in high school and college.

DMSF works to ensure that financial constraints do not hinder a young person’s ability to obtain a quality education. DMSF seeks to create three-way partnerships between college preparatory high schools, the families of bright and young people, and DMSF. Through these partnerships, young people who traditionally have very little choice in matters of education receive the opportunity to attend a high performing high school, participate in extracurricular activities, benefit from honors and accelerated high school classes, and take advantage of DMSF’s educational support services and programs.
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By giving these Scholars the opportunity to attend college preparatory high schools, DMSF is making a difference in the lives of deserving young people, their families and their communities.

Our History

The Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund was founded in 1989 by two Chicago-based brothers with their family and friends, to enrich the lives of Chicago youth by providing them with educational opportunities they would otherwise be unable to access. After partnering with two private high schools, in the spring of 1990 DMSF awarded high school scholarships to four students who exhibited academic excellence.

As interest in DMSF’s work increased, it developed partnerships with additional high schools, increased the number of scholarships it was able to offer, and developed programming to enrich the lives of its Scholars.
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Today, DMSF is able to offer 150 new scholarships to 8th grade students each year. Those students are attending roughly 40 different parochial and independent day schools in the Chicago area, as well as 40 boarding schools from coast to coast. As of November 2021, DMSF has awarded scholarships to nearly 3,600 Scholars to allow them to attend college preparatory high schools.