By Jennifer Johnson
Alumni from Lipscomb University [1] (Nashville, TN) helped create The Contributor, a “street newspaper” sold by the homeless in the city to provide a source of income for themselves and a source of information on homelessness to the public. Recently, Lipscomb alumni, administration, faculty, staff and students came together to save it.
In September, The Contributor “announced that unless enough money could be raised in the next month, the September issue would be its last,” Lipscomb writes [2]. The college community raised more than $5,000 and LU president Dr. Randy Lowry provided a matching gift, making the total donation over $11,000.
“Contributor vendors sell about 50,000 newspapers each week,” shares the school. “The Lipscomb gift of $11,277.76 is enough to fund publication of two weeks” worth of newspaper. So the Lipscomb donation will end up placing $100,000 into the pockets of homeless and formerly homeless Nashvillians.”
The Contributor“s executive director reports that additional gifts have also been made by “about 1,000 donors” and the newspaper will be able to continue through the end of the year.