Since we put out the call July 1 for help coping with cuts in our WKU budgets and our reserves being reappropriated by the university, alumni and friends of WKU Student Publications have shown significant financial support.
As of Dec. 5, you have reached deep to provide more than $57,000 in cash support to help us with immediate needs, such as costs for training and equipment, and with helping us build a foundation for long-term financial stability.
That generosity has come primarily in two funds:
- The Student Publications Legacy Fund, which we can use for immediate needs, with $34,987.94 donated since July 1.
- The Student Publications Endowed Fund, from which we hope to build a $3 million permanent endowment to support our students, with $22,465 donated since July 1.
This doesn’t count money pledged, or funds already given to those areas. But it is real and tangible proof that our alumni recognize the importance that our four student-led areas — the College Heights Herald, the Talisman, Cherry Creative and Student Publications Advertising — play in growing the next generation of journalists and media entrepreneurs.
The Legacy Fund donations will help us pay our bills for the current year — software costs for both the business and editorial sides, repairing equipment that breaks down from heavy use, enabling us to send students to unique training experiences such as the College Media Mega Workshop, and purchasing essentials such as our annual libel insurance, without which we cannot operate.
The donations to the Endowed Fund help us march toward the day when we have a reliable source of money that will support our students and their important work as aspiring journalists. The Endowed Fund, which currently has about $1.2 million worth of documented planned gifts through estates, will remain untouched until it has at least $1 million in the bank. At that point, it would provide $40,000 in annual proceeds for Student Publications. Once it eventually reaches $3 million, it will provide $120,000 a year — transformative sums that protect the journalism our students do.
The generosity of our alumni and friends is something we treasure. We make sure our students are well aware that much of what they can do is underwritten by that support.
You are ensuring a workable present and a bright future for WKU Student Publications. And as we wrap up 2024, that support is heartwarming, gratifying and so appreciated.
Thank you.