Unlike the universities that can only grant scholarships to students that have maximum
scores; the foundations can give money to students with medium grades but that have excellent achievements on something else.
These foundations can also be created by people that have a lot of money and are willing to help the society by giving students the possibility to go to school even if they cannot afford it.
Some of these foundations even give loans to students, that they can pay back after graduation and when they get a place to work. This really makes a difference for millions of students every year. The difference between a foundation that gives a scholarship and a university that's gives a scholarship is that foundations can afford to give scholarships to a very large number of students, the awards can be a lot bigger plus the fact that, unlike the university scholarships the foundation scholarships are much easier to maintain. But, unlike the universities scholarships, some foundations can ask for their money back. But of course the student is aware of that when he applies for the scholarship and has to take into consideration that he may not be able to pay back; this is why sometimes these types of loans should be avoided because the amount of money is very large.
Foundation scholarships granters can let the student explain through a letter why he did not fulfill his obligations (high scores or performances) and if the commission concludes that the student is exhausted, they can grant him with a semester to recover. Most universities don't do that.
Foundations also can have a number much larger than universities when it comes to the types of scholarships that they are granting. Except the four basic scholarships that a university or foundation can grant, the foundation can grant excellent achievements in one particular area of study or extracurricular activities scholarships and also one time scholarships if the student gets somehow involved in the foundation.,
Furthermore, some human organization can grant the students with memorial scholarships or scholarships for entering some contests.