Radio show provides scholarship support to black colleges
Apr. 13, 2006 News media contact: Linda Green * (615) 7425470* Nashville {216}
NOTE: Photographs and audio are available at http://umns.umc.org.
By Linda Green*
A nationally syndicated radio program that supports scholarships for needy students at historically black colleges will benefit four United Methodist-related schools in 2006.
"The Tom Joyner Morning Show" and the foundation of the same name are raising money to support scholarships, bricks and mortar, endowments, special funds and projects at 11 black colleges in 2006.
Each month, the four-hour syndicated radio program features one of 11 schools, launching a yearlong fund-raising campaign by the school and foundation to assist students of that school in higher education. The show is heard daily on 96 stations of the ABC Radio Network and on the Armed Forces Network.
Among United Methodist-related colleges, Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C., is the celebrated institution for April. Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Fla., was featured in March, and the highlighted institution in January was Claflin University, Orangeburg, S.C. Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, will be featured in September.
When a school is designated as the "school of the month," the radio program and its affiliated entities raise money for that college, with 100 percent of the funds going to the school. The Tom Joyner Foundation matches the first $100,000, and when the institution reaches a goal of $500,000, the foundation makes an additional match.
Joyner, who is known as both the "fly jock" and "the hardest working man in America," has a weekday morning show with an audience of about 8 million people in 116 markets.
He got his nickname from flying between Dallas and Chicago for eight years to do radio shows five days a week. His foundation raises money that benefits a variety of causes, including underprivileged students at historically back colleges and victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The campaign for Bennett College was launched April 7 in Nashville, Tenn. Joyner and his morning show crew conduct a "sky show" - a live version of the radio show used to kick off a college campaign. The 2,000 people who attended the event included officials from Bennett College, including President Johnnetta Cole, as well as Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen.
"Not only will we receive the much-needed scholarship dollars, we will also receive national and international publicity for Bennett, publicity that we could never purchase," Cole said.
"The show reaches over 85 percent of our African-American households. These are households that have girl children that are preparing for college. If we can reach 100 young women who enroll in Bennett, that will increase our revenue by $1 million."
Invaluable publicity
The United Negro College Fund notes that the United States has 105 black academic institutions. The impact of "The Tom Joyner Morning Show" for these schools is profound, according to Cole.
"We all know the power of the media," she said. "We can criticize it, but we sure better acknowledge that it has power. There is no way to even put a price tag on what it will mean to have Bennett College for Women, a United Methodist-related, historically black institution, projected through his radio show."
Cole hopes the exposure will increase enrollment and financial support for women attending the 133-year-old college. "What happens during this month is that for every dollar that is raised, the foundation will send us two dollars. We get students and scholarship money, and we are convinced that the two are related," she said.
The Dallas-based foundation was organized in 1998 as a nonprofit to award scholarships to college students based on financial need, academic records and circumstances involving the student's application, according to Kim Peters, director of community relations for the Tom Joyner Foundation.
"We fund scholarships to historically black colleges and universities. ... We need to keep kids in school," she said.
Money is raised from individual donations and corporate support and through http://www.tjms.com/site.aspx/foundation/index, the foundation's Web site. The foundation partners with minority businesses and receives matching support from the United Negro College Fund.
The "sky show" format - filled with musical artists, comedy, trivia, political commentary and an audience of 5,000 to 7,000 people - attracts corporate sponsors who "come out and give solely to these historically black colleges and universities," Peters said.
Black College Fund
The four United Methodist-related schools featured in 2006 are also financially supported by the denomination's Black College Fund, which marshals support for the programs and ministries of the 11 historically black United Methodist colleges and universities. Bennett College is one of four United Methodist-related colleges for women.
Historically black colleges, including those related to the United Methodist Church, have small endowments. Collectively, the endowments of the church's black institutions are more than $205 million.
"If we added the endowment of all the historically black colleges and universities, the public and private ones ... they would still not have as much money, all of them together, as Harvard has by itself," said Cynthia Bond Hopson, director of the Black College Fund at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
She added that the Tom Joyner Foundation will help these schools "in such a powerful way" because the schools have educated many African-American leaders and professionals across the country, including bishops in the United Methodist Church. "We owe the schools more than we can ever pay."
The average amount a college receives when featured by the "The Tom Joyner Morning Show" and through the foundation is $230,000, Peters said, and the scholarships range from $1,000 to $15,000. Using one of Joyner's oft-repeated statements, Peters said, "The Tom Joyner Foundation only does one thing ... it helps students continue their education."
The scholarship support money is sent directly to the featured college and then awarded to students by the institution's financial aid department, based on financial need and other requirements from the school and the donor. Since its creation, the foundation has raised more than $30 million to send students to historically black colleges and universities.
Financially challenged, traditional historically black colleges and universities "are becoming almost a thing of the past," Peters said. "We have very few that are in the black at the end of the day. We have many that are about to have their doors closed." The schools need help, she said.
Joyner's foundation responds to that need. Said Hopson: "The foundation helps people who have not been
*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. ********************
United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org
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