RIAS Alumni Donations Doubled in 2018
Private donations to the RIAS Berlin Commission nearly doubled in 2018 to a total of just under 8,000 euros with contributions coming from more than 50 alumni and friends of RIAS in Germany and the United States. Those donations will help make it possible to expand the programs in 2019. All donations raised from alumni and friends of RIAS are being used directly and entirely for additional spots on the exchange programs for journalists between the United States and Germany.
There were a total of 78 journalists on exchange programs in 2018, which was up from 54 participants in 2017. The RIAS Berlin Commission is hoping to expand further to a total of 100 exchange program participants in 2019 with a special expanded one-week senior editors and alumni program November to celebrate, mark and report on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The donations in 2018 included 5,365 euros from 30 alumni and friends of RIAS in Germany and $2,545 from 24 alumni and friends of RIAS in the United States. There was a wide range from individual donors in 2018, from $50 to $500 in the United States and 30 euros and 2,000 euros in Germany.
The alumni chapters set up in Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Rhine-Main, Brussels, New York, Washington and Los Angeles are helping spread the message on donations. With more than 1,600 alumni over the last quarter century, the RIAS Berlin Commission is hoping to double the amount of donations once again in 2019.
The main RIAS Berlin Commission’s annual Media Prize awards ceremony will be held on May 23 at the RIAS building in Berlin. There will also be a panel discussion and alumni get-together the following evening in Berlin on May 24. All alumni are cordially welcome to attend both events. In the United States, alumni get-togethers are planned for Washington DC on March 8 and in New York City on March 15. There will also be a series of alumni events in San Antonio at the RTDNA Excellence in Journalism convention on September 6 and 7.
A heartfelt thanks from the RIAS Berlin Commission to all those friends who made donations in 2018: Kerstin Koretz, Kevin Arnold, Sonja Christen, Helge Fuhst, Juergen Schleifer, Ben Fajzullin, Patricia Adenauer-von Berg, Martin Richter, Birgit Franck, Anne Kristen Sieger, Stephanie Orbach, Louisa Maria Giersberg, And Riekmann, Bartosz Dudek, Charlotte Potts, Matthias Baehr, Oliver Sallet, Maja Freudenberg, Christine Langer, Sarah Schmidt, Peter Twiehaus, Marcel Grzyb, Frank Hofmann, Erik Kirschbaum, Katja Weber, Michael Roetzscher, Anna-Maria Schuck, Felix Wessel, Christian Walther, Jan-Peter Bartels, Sarah Williams, Justin Campell, Marilyn Geewax, Adam Reiss, Stacey Samuel, Miranda Dotson, Stephanie Wolf, Gitzel Puente, Kane Farabaugh, Lane Luckie, Thomas Hawley, Bonnie North, Jessica Prater, Judith Snyderman, Bryan Weakland, Cameron Knowles, Emily Damm, Dustin Stephens, Carol McKinley, Jennifer Macdonald, Michael Gargiulo, Scott Libin, Okawa Hisashi, Helene Finn Kane.
