FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: USE THE NEWS FOUNDATION CELEBRATES FIRST YEAR
WITH A LOOK BACK AT ITS ACHIEVEMENTS

(San Francisco, CA, October 15, 1999) Use The News Foundation celebrates its inaugural year with a reception honoring those who have supported the educational work of the Foundation. The reception will be held following the first meeting of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees on Saturday, October 30, 1999. Featured speaker will be Patsy Morton, Director of Education Alliances for The New York Times.

Under the leadership of Use The News (UTN) Foundation President Betty L. Sullivan, the Foundation’s achievements in its first year include: serving as a fiscal sponsor to a number of Newspaper in Education (NIE) programs worldwide, providing technical assistance on strategies, grant proposal development, identification of partners and project verification and evaluation for American NIE programs.

Providing Fundraising Services for NIE

The Use The News Foundation staff has provided training and consulting services on a variety of fundraising themes. Topics such as “The Nuts and Bolts of Grant Writing” and “How to Gain Tax-deductible Donations for NIE” have been presented at regional NIE conferences, the Newspaper Association of America’s annual NIE conference, and the NIE programs of the Knight Ridder Newspaper Group, The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner. UTN Foundation has also assisted The New York Times in obtaining grants for special projects.

“Our focus is to help educate the NIE world about finding corporate sponsorships and educating the sponsors about how that process works,” said Dr. Sullivan. “We’ve given many conference presentations and sent out a variety of materials on growing sponsorships.”

Most recently, Dr. Sullivan addressed the World Association of Newspapers Third International Newspaper in Education Conference in Paris on the topic “Sex, Lies and Videotapes: NIE and the Tough Topics.” Dr. Sullivan examined headline stories, including recent school violence, the Clinton sex scandal, hate crimes and other controversial, high-impact news stories.

International Support for NIE Contacts

The UTN Foundation has hosted international guests from the media industry and facilitated their contact with NIE programs here in the United States. In the past year, UTN Foundation hosted Naraa H. Nararjargal of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, President of The Globe International, providing her with NIE materials and information about recent NIE developments in the United States for use in Asia. Ms. Nararjargal has since become a charter donor to Use The News Foundation. The Foundation has also arranged visits for NIE specialists from Korea and Japan with NIE managers from The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner and The New York Times. Additionally, Use The News Foundation provided earthquake-ravaged schools in Antigua with UTN materials for use in the classroom and helped teachers recognize and deal with post-traumatic stress syndrome in children.

A Clearinghouse for NIE Research

As an information clearinghouse, Use The News Foundation makes available research on Newspaper in Education to NIE managers, journalism students and scholars. In its first year, the Foundation processed requests for article reprints from over 35 NIE programs in the United States, as well as from Antigua, Brazil, Canada, France, Sweden and other countries.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead to the year 2000, the Use The News Foundation has received a special seed grant from the Richard Nathan Anti-Homophobia Trusts in Oakland, California, to develop a diversity awareness campaign for NIE programs throughout the country.

Use The News Foundation

Use The News Foundation is a nonprofit public benefit corporation that fosters partnerships with schools, Newspaper in Education programs and their business sponsors. The Foundation’s services have been used in seven countries and by more than 700 newspapers and their NIE programs in the United States, reaching more than 67,000 classrooms. Use The News is able to provide fiscal sponsorship to aid NIE programs in the receipt of tax-deductible donations for their educational work. It its initial year, the Foundation has built a fiscal sponsorship client base of 15 newspapers and media groups.

Board Members of The Use The News Foundation

Board members are: Dr. Susan J. Bethanis, Director; Dr. Edward F. DeRoche, Director; Regina Howard Glaspie, Director; Patsy Morton, Director; David Sundwall-Byers, Director; Scott Balderson, Treasurer; Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Corporate Secretary; B. Scott Levine, UTN Foundation General Counsel; Nanette Miller, CPA, UTN Foundation Accountant; and Dr. Pam Allen-Thompson, UTN Foundation Development Director.

To learn more about Use The News Foundation, call (415) 503-1375 or e-mail: bettysnie@aol.com