Giving Priorities

Emerson’s Annual Fund is designed to address Emerson's areas of greatest need. Through unrestricted support, you will help to create unlimited possibilities. Your gift will help to support students in all aspects of their Emerson career. It will encourage creativity and enable innovation, while strengthening confidence and autonomy. Your gift will empower Emersonians.

Emerson’s Parent and Family Fund is an unrestricted fund dedicated to supporting your child and their peers as they work toward obtaining their degrees. The Fund's current-use nature empowers the College to nimbly respond to your students’ most pressing needs and emerging opportunities.

We want to ensure that no student is forced to forgo their Emerson education because of a lack of financial aid. A gift to the Emerson Scholarship Fund will provide students with access to financial aid dollars–dollars that will open doors and allow them to continue pursuing their dreams.

Endowment income is one of the primary sources of dedicated, long-term financial support for Emerson College. In creating an endowed scholarship, you create a lasting legacy with the college. Your gift today will remain in perpetuity and will provide financial aid dollars for Emerson students 100 years from now.

Momentum Scholarships are a powerful way to provide immediate support for students in need. Starting with an investment of $5,000 per year over a period of three years, you can make a life-changing gift that gives Emerson students the momentum that they need right now to start or continue their Emerson education. If you establish a Momentum Scholarship, the value of your gift is awarded directly to students as a scholarship in your name over three years. By establishing a multi-year scholarship in your name–or in honor of a family member, mentor, or friend–you are leaving a long-lasting legacy at Emerson.

The Mary Burrill Scholarship for Diversity was established in 2002 to honor Mary Burrill, the first woman of color to graduate from Emerson, and to promote and support diversity at the College. The scholarship is awarded to students in the incoming first-year class from a diverse and/or economically disadvantaged background.

Established by Norman Lear himself in 2018, the Norman Lear Scholarship Fund allows the school to admit exceptionally motivated and gifted students from first-generation, underrepresented and underserved backgrounds who have an interest in pursuing a career in writing for theatre, television, or film, or in the field of writing itself.

The Lions Fund is an immediate-use fund that supports all 14 varsity sports at Emerson by being allocated to the Department's greatest needs including: transportation to away games, new gear and uniforms, improvements to facilities and training equipment, updated tech and media equipment, and so much more. This is a current-use fund, meaning your gift will have an immediate impact.

The Internationalization and Equity Fund uplifts the voices of our marginalized students and faculty through new and existing equity programs and initiatives, infuses internationally focused changes into our curriculum, and supports equity-focused education abroad programming.

The Student Assistance Fund is a need-based fund, that makes small awards, to help eligible students with indirect costs of attendance such as books, printing and copying costs, film, developing, other required course supplies, personal items, transportation, and food.

The Emerson Pride Fund was established to aid and empower the people, programs, and organizations that serve our LGBTQIA+ community– fostering a safe, secure, and welcoming environment for all members of the LGBTQIA+ community at Emerson College. Annually, the Emerson Pride Fund plays an integral role in bringing the queer community on campus together.