By Amando Dominick
Staff Writer
Money collected by Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing during the Communities Foundation of Texas’ North Texas Giving Day on Sept. 13 to fund existing scholarships could be awarded as early as this semester or next with disbursement occurring in the following semesters.
During Giving Day, a one-day event in which charitable donations to nonprofit organizations are partially matched by the Communities Foundation of Texas, more than $35,000 was collected for the school.
The Louise Herrington School of Nursing, located on the Baylor University Medical Center campus near downtown Dallas, prepares baccalaureate and graduate level nurses for their career, all within a Christian community. No scholarships have been awarded yet, although most of the money raised will go straight to endowed scholarships.
“About 95 percent of the donations went into some form of scholarship account for students, with the other 5 percent going to funds not related to scholarships,” said Stephanie Willey, assistant to the dean at the School of Nursing.
This year marked the nursing school’s second year of participation in the event.
The nursing school is eligible to participate in the event due to its Dallas location, although the main campus in Waco is not eligible.
Christina Gibson, front desk coordinator for the Communities Foundation of Texas, said, to be eligible to participate in the North Texas Giving Day, organizations must meet several requirements: they must be tax exempt under the IRS and at least 50 percent of the services rendered must benefit the North Texas area along with several other requirements. Willey said this year’s goal was to collect $35,000 and the school surpassed both it and last year’s total despite not using much advertising outside of emails.
“Without having to spend a lot for marketing for this year’s event, we felt Giving Day 2012 was very successful,” Willey said.
The cost of attending the nursing school on the Dallas campus for one year is $37,230. Scholarships allow nursing students, like Houston junior Gisselle Cardenas, to focus on schoolwork without having to stress about tuition and bills as often as other students. Cardenas attended two years of school on Baylor’s Waco campus before moving to complete her undergraduate degree at the Dallas campus.
“They [scholarships] allow me to pay for school because, without them, I couldn’t afford to attend Baylor out of pocket,” Cardenas said.
The Communities Foundation uses a website, called DonorBridge, to facilitate donations to North Texas organizations. Although the Giving Day is a one-day event, the DonorBridge website is active year-round. However, The Communities Foundation only offers to match a percentage of the funds on the Giving Day.
On the website, donors have the ability to specify where their money goes. Donors can donate to either the nonprofit of their choice or choose an organization from a range of categories of different types of charity organizations.
“If they do not specify where they want their donation to go, we will determine the most appropriate place for it to go,” Willey said.
“It gives you a very good idea of who you’re donating to,” Gibson said. Those interested in donating to the Louise Herrington School of Nursing can visit www.donorbridgetx.org.
