Anticipating the final establishment of the college, Churchill met with American friends Lewis W. Douglas, John Loeb Sr., and Carl Gilbert to ask them to create a scholarship for young Americans to study at the college.
In 1959, the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States was established as a nonprofit charitable organization.
In order to increase the number of Churchill Scholars, the foundation decided in the early 1980s to support only one-year programs.
To this day however, it is not uncommon for Churchill Scholars to obtain alternate funding to support continued doctoral study at the University of Cambridge following the completion of their Scholarship year.
The scholarship is worth between $50,000 and $60,000 depending on the exchange rate, covering all university and college fees (i.e., tuition, currently about $25,000) at the University of Cambridge, a living allowance, visa fees, up to $1,500 for travel between the United States and the United Kingdom, and the possibility of an additional $2,000 Special Research Grant.