Where to Give
A summary of each program, including donor benefits, is set forth below. In many cases, customized benefits can be arranged, depending on the level and type of gift offered.
Scholarships
Each year, the Headliners Foundation awards scholarships to students studying or actively participating in journalism at universities across Texas. Please visit the scholarships page for a description of the program and a listing of current and past recipients.
To add support to the Scholarship program, donors may contribute to the Founders’ Scholarship Fund in their own name or to honor or memorialize another person. Also, donors of amounts above a specified sustaining level are afforded the option of establishing a named scholarship for a limited time period or in perpetuity. A broad range of funding arrangements exists, ranging from funded perpetual endowments to dedicated and managed “spend-down” funds, which can sustain a memorial scholarship for a number of years. The Founders’ Scholarship Fund also provides matching funds for gifts sufficient to endow one-half of a scholarship’s face value.
Please visit the Founders’ Scholarship Fund page for more information on this portion of the Foundation’s mission fulfillment.
For more details, please contact us via email at donations@headlinersfoundation.org and a representative from the Headliners Foundation will respond to discuss a gifting plan that best addresses your wishes.
Journalism Contest
In partnership with the Texas Associated Press organizations (Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and Texas Associated Press Broadcasters), the Headliners Foundation annually conducts a well-respected journalism contest to recognize the best work achieved in Texas journalism for the prior year. Awardees receive cash awards and recognition through the Foundation website and the statewide AP wire. Winners in eleven print, broadcast and online categories are invited to Austin to attend the annual Headliners Foundation Mike Quinn Awards Luncheon, where they are presented their awards. Details about the contest can be found on the awards page. Donors wishing to support this annual contest, or the Awards Luncheon itself, which is the Foundation’s central event each year, may give directly to the contest fund, or in support of some specified element of the contest. Names of benefactors or their designees will be listed on the website as contributors in support of this important annual Foundation activity.
Distinguished Speakers Series
The Distinguished Speaker Series presents speakers who bring insights into the practice and experiences of professional journalism, its challenges and its value to our society. The Foundation hosts two events per year, featuring high-profile working journalists and media executives. Donors will receive program recognition at each event in this series and on the Foundation’s events page.
Foundation Website Design and Maintenance
Donations of any sort are extremely helpful in providing sustaining funds for the purpose of keeping the Foundation’s website dynamic and updated. Underwriting, whether in the form of endowed funds, a matched spend-down fund or an individual contribution, is very much needed to support the expenses relating to site maintenance and new online developments. In this area particularly, even smaller gifts can support a large result in terms of outreach and contact with our target audience.
Other Foundation Activities
As opportunities arise and budgets permit, the Headliners Foundation from time to time awards grants to worthy causes or initiatives that reflect upon or further the field of Journalism in Texas. With adequate donor support, the Foundation intends to establish a dedicated fund for the purpose of supporting an increased grant effort in the future.
General Endowment
In addition to the select programs above, gifts may be made directly to the endowment that supports the overall mission of the Foundation. In giving to the general endowment, donors are allowing the Foundation to utilize their gifts in ways that best support the mission of promoting excellence in Texas journalism.
Please consider including Headliners Foundation in your will or as a beneficiary of your life insurance or IRA. Thank you!