Easy way to help an Austin kid go to college

College tuition varies—from $7,000 per year at a public, four-year college to $27,000 per year at a private four-year college—but no matter what type of college you choose, that amount adds up quickly. For many Austin students, it’s completely unaffordable.

Imagine working hard enough to be accepted for college only to realize you can’t actually afford college. This doesn’t have to happen. You can help!

Volunteers are needed to help families complete financial aid applications at Financial Aid Saturdays, here in Austin.

Volunteers at Financial Aid Saturday events provide personal assistance with filling out the FAFSA. Students and families can also bring other financial aid applications they need help with, including the Texas Application for State Financial Aid (TASFA) and scholarship applications. It is our mission to help students secure the financial aid they need to go to college.

Events take place Saturdays (Feb 5, 12, 19, 26, March 5, 26) from 8:30 am – 12:30 p.m. at schools across Austin. They could sure use your help.

Just think: You could be the final push an Austin kid needs toward his college degree. Wow.

LEARN MORE HERE

GivingCity Austin Issue #6 January 2011

Inside the new issue:

Philanthropy at The Gate – Texas is short $27 billion and looking for philanthropy to pick up the slack. Now more than ever, Austin nonprofits must speak up.
A Fair for The Future — A Spanish-only education fair could be the key to Austin’s economic success.
Austin’s Angel – For parents of children who have passed away, Amy Allen is a a bright spot.
PLUS – Theatre Action Project, RISE, Philanthropy Day, Michelle Valles, Stephanie Fisher, Jason Sabo, nonprofit jargon, CASA of Travis County and more.

CLICK HERE to open the new issue now.

Thanks to Givers Ball sponsors, Give Realty and El Sol y La Luna.

Nominate a New Philanthropist

New issue available now. Click cover.

We’re looking for budding philanthropists, the Austinites who will help build a culture of generosity over the next decade.

These are not just people who give back, these are people who will be role models for the rest of us. They’re people Austin needs to take the lead; people who have the energy and vision, charisma and connections, and commitment to making this one of the most generous cities in the country.

NOMINATE A NEW PHILANTHROPIST NOW

We need your help to recognize and encourage the New Philanthropists. There is no age limit, but nominees must demonstrate the following:

1. Energy to be a leader in the local philanthropic community for the next 10 years or more.
2. Willingness to be interviewed and photographed for the magazine.
3. Availability to appear at photo shoot in early March 2011.

Nomination deadline: February 28, 2011.

Questions? Email Monica at monica@givingcity.com.

PROCEED TO NOMINATION FORM

*See the 2009 New Philanthropists

A word about our photographs

Please do not grab photos from the magazine to use on other websites or personal pages. They are the property of GivingCity Austin and the Austin Community Foundation.

We contract with local photographers for those images. The contracts specify that photographers not share those images with anyone. In fact, even the photographers are not allowed to put the photographs on their own sites until 90 days after we publish the magazine.

Your use of the photographs undermines and diminishes the integrity of our content. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to provide free personal photographs for the subjects of our stories. It would be like my asking you to hire a photographer to take photos of you and then give them to me for the magazine for free. (We’re just not that kind of magazine.)

Please feel free to contact me about high-res reprints of the article. Thanks for your help!

I hear the best stories

I just met two college students on a mission to get nurseries and big-box retailers to stop selling invasive, non-native plants in Texas. And they’ll do it, too.

They started their nonprofit, Eco Texas,  when they were sophomores at LBJ High School and run it now from Harvard and Cornell. So far, they’ve enlisted hundreds of teenage volunteers from all over Austin to cut down and remove invasive plants in several Austin preserves and parks.

Picture it: Teenagers, boys and girls, in the hot Texas sun, using hack saws and axes to save a park. Can’t picture it? See the photos here.

The energy, the creativity, the will to change Austin for the better is out there.

I’m lucky that I get to hear these kinds of stories every day. I just try to share the best ones with you.

Please keep an eye out for our next issue, which goes live on Tuesday. Share it with your friends. Thanks!