Community

The O’Toole Family Foundation provides grants to a variety of organizations to promote the arts, cultural activities, and civic engagement to enhance community life.

Songwriters on the Beach Concert Series – Jersey Shore

The Foundation is a participating sponsor of a summer series of free weekly acoustic-based concerts in Belmar, New Jersey: “Songwriters on the Beach,” presented by NPR affiliate Brookdale Public Radio, 90.5 The Night.

The annual summer series has been bringing local and national acts to the Jersey Shore since 2005. The Foundation has made grants helping to cover performer fees and production costs of the event since 2017.

Songwriters on the Beach Concert Series – Jersey Shore

Songwriters on the Beach Concert Series

Commitment to Sustaining Quality Journalism

The O’Toole Family Foundation believes that sustaining quality journalism is essential to preserving a functioning democracy. The Foundation supports programs that train journalists to meet the highest standards of reporting, editing, and ethics. Through grants to the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the Foundation also supports initiatives seeking to help the industry adapt to the changing media consumption and advertising landscape through research and dialogue on sustainable, replicable business models for media outlets, particularly local ones

Edward Trayes Scholarship

The O’Toole Family Foundation funds an annual scholarship through the Dow Jones News Fund for participants of the editing internship residency at Temple University. The Edward Trayes Scholarship is named for Dr. Edward Trayes, Director of Temple’s Center for Editing Excellence. Terry attended the program as a student at Villanova before spending his summer interning at The Wall Street Journal.

The Center for Editing Excellence’s internship residency is a 10-day program that prepares students for internships at partner newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among others, and its graduates have gone on to successful careers in major news organizations nationwide.

As the industry continues to shed jobs, newsrooms have likewise reduced or eliminated internships. That was reflected in the Summer Internship Program’s Class of 2025, which totaled 81, down about 8% from the previous year. However, our applicant pool remains strong, with more than 1,000 applications for the second year in a row. That healthy interest from the best and brightest minds in journalism gives me hope for the industry’s future.

Also, giving me hope is the commitment of people like Terry O’Toole, a News Fund alumnus who has been giving back to DJNF for more than 20 years through the O’Toole Family Foundation. This year, O’Toole, the founder and managing member of Macanta Investments, decided to do more. His nonprofit foundation created a grant that covered training and salary for three News Fund interns this summer. Terry’s dedication to the News Fund stems from the life-changing summer he spent as an editing intern in 1979 after his junior year at Villanova University. Thank you for remembering the News Fund, Terry!

Shirley Carswell
Executive Director
Dow Jones News Fund

Dow Jones News Fund Intern at the Center for Editing Excellence at Temple University.

O’Toole Family Endowed Fund for Excellence in Journalism at Villanova University

In 1995, the Foundation established the O’Toole Family Endowed Fund for Excellence in Journalism. The endowment provides funds that support both the training and development of student journalists at The Villanovan, the official student newspaper of Villanova University, as well as operating costs for the paper. Terry worked as a reporter and then editor-in-chief of The Villanovan as an undergraduate.