PR Foundation

The Public Relations Foundation of Texas is a nonprofit subsidiary organization of TPRA founded in 1979. Its primary mission is to support public relations education in Texas.

2008 Public Relations Foundation of Texas Joe Riordan Scholars

Four Texas college students have been named Joe Riordan Scholars by the Public Relations Foundation of Texas (PRFT) and received full or partial registration for the 2008 Texas Public Relations Association (TPRA) annual conference in San Antonio Feb. 29 - March 2. Joe Riordan was a long-time member of TPRA who died last year, and his family designated PRFT as the beneficiary of memorials in his name. The memorials have made the Joe Riordan Scholars project possible.

The first Joe Riordan Scholars are:

Kuriko Hasegawa, University of Houston, an international student from Japan. Hasegawa is active in various student organizations and has interned at both a government office and a multinational corporation. She is now interning with a global public relations agency.

Jason Sears, University of Texas at Austin, a sophomore majoring in public relations. Sears is a writer for the Daily Texan campus newspaper and has volunteered with the Child Support Division in the Office of the Attorney General of Texas.

Ryan King, Texas State University, a senior in his last semester of college. King has served as an officer in his PRSSA chapter and is currently interning with the marketing and promotions team in the athletic department at Texas State. He also interned with the Austin Wranglers arena football team on the media relations team.

Heather Martin, University of Houston, a senior majoring in public relations. Martin is president of her PRSSA chapter at UH, and is treasurer of her Association for Women in Communications chapter.

Contributions

Celebrations

PRFT is pleased to introduce a new way to honor people on special occasions including awards such as Public Relations Accreditation. Celebration gifts also recognize birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Grandparents Day and other events.

Celebration donations are intended to honor friends, relatives and others, whether or not they're members of TPRA. It's a great idea for a gift to those who "have everything." Each person honored will receive a Celebration card notifying them of the gift in their honor, and the contributor will receive a similar card recognizing the donation.

Regular Donations

Regular donations can be one-time gifts or recurring monthly, quarterly or annual contributions.

Memorials

Memorial gifts honor deceased persons and are especially appropriate for honoring public relations practitioners and educators. Designated loved ones will receive appropriate cards making them aware of the gift, and the contributor will receive a similar card.

What Happens to My Donations?

All contributions to PRFT-and that means 100%-go into the Permanent Endowment Fund. Earnings from the fund will be used for scholarships, so your contributions will continue indefinitely to provide benefits to the Public Relations profession. And because PRFT is a 501(c)(3) organization, all contributions are tax-exempt under IRS regulations.

Board of Trustees

Charter Life Members
(original contributors, in certificate-number order, to the Foundation's first fund-raising effort)