The federal government awards $120 billion dollars in student financial aid each year to 13 million students in the form of grants, loans and federal work-study funds.

But many times, that still isn't enough.

During the 2017 academic year, the average family said their student received $8,390 in financial aid, which accounted for about 35 percent of their total college costs, while contributions from parents averaged only 23 percent, according to a report by Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab. 

Pointing to the need for families to find college funding beyond financial aid, the same report found that one in 10 community college students have had to go a whole day without eating in the past month.

Another source of income for many students is scholarship programs. Nearly half of all students received some type of scholarship, according to recent report from Sallie Mae. 

Fortunately for families, however, there are ways to be proactive about finding scholarships for college-bound children, according to a recent report by Kiplinger.

The consumer finance website suggested the following ways in which clients can seek out scholarship funding:

Online Scholarship Finders

Students looking to secure funds online through online scholarship finders should make sure to fill out all questions, including the optional ones when creating their profile, according to a recent report on scholarship searches from CNBC.