A Good Day Series: The Dooley Foundation
Founded on principles of compassion, inclusivity, and opportunity, The Dooley Foundation envisions a world where every individual within marginalized communities has the opportunity to thrive, regardless of their circumstances. The foundation's goal is to open doors to students from HBCUs through scholarships, mentorship, employment access programs, and community initiatives so that they have the resources to thrive and succeed within the media, journalism, and communications space.
Donovan Dooley was inspired to start The Dooley Foundation in 2021 after seeing firsthand how transformative having mentorship and benefitting from others opening doors for you can change your career trajectory. Donovan’s mentor Bill Rhoden brought him into an innovative program within ESPN and showed him various skillsets and opportunities to jumpstart his career. Donovan wanted to take his experience and be a catalyst for someone else’s success like Bill Rhoden was for himself.
Donovan Dooley, Founder of The Dooley Foundation
Since the launch of the Dooley Foundation in 2021, how many scholarships have the foundation awarded people?
Over the past two years, we have been fortunate enough to grant thousands of dollars worth of scholarships to over ten people. We plan to increase that number within the next few years with the help of other organizations and individuals.
What programs do the Dooley Foundation scholarships cover?
Our scholarship programs are broad and go to incoming minority first-year students looking to attend a 4-year institution. The Dooley Scholars program is tailored to media students within HBCUs and offers individuals an opportunity to work with some of our sponsors.
What has been the most significant impact made by the Dooley Foundation over the past few years?
The most significant impact that we have had hasn’t necessarily been from the funding we give out but rather from being able to open up many other people’s eyes to get involved in our mission on a grassroots level. Being able to bring awareness to others so that they want to open up their network and help out individuals around them from marginalized communities is the most significant impact of the foundation.
How can others get involved?
People can go to our website here and see various ways that they can help out and what we do. We have had exceptional individuals reach out and volunteer, as well as great donors who have been generous in funding so that we can give out more scholarships.
What are the future plans for Dooley Foundation?
Our future plans are to continue to be a catalyst for someone else’s success by continuing to reach out to various organizations and sponsors so that we can open up doors for others and provide significant levels of scholarship money to students to set them up for success.
We also have a few special programs coming up that address the information and opportunity gap and bridge that for minority communities, but I can’t give away too many details yet, stay tuned!
