--- title: How Much Does the White House Correspondents' Dinner Actually Raise for Scholarships? description: The proceeds of the annual event go toward scholarship money for aspiring journalists, but the total awarded is relatively small. authors: - name: Kaitlin Mulhere role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/ bio: Kaitlin Mulhere is an editor at Money.com. Since joining in 2015, she’s written and edited about a variety of personal finance topics, including banks, credit, student debt, saving strategies and more. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2015 articles: 217 covers: - Education - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/KMulhere - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-mulhere-64503048/ published: '2016-04-29T21:26:56.000Z' modified: '2016-04-29T21:26:56.000Z' section: Education tags: - Barack Obama - college scholarships - larry wilmore - Nerd Prom - scholarships - White House Correspondents Dinner word_count: 483 canonical: https://money.com/white-house-correspondents-dinner-scholarship-fundraiser/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![President Barack Obama, right, brings out actor Keegan-Michael Key from Key & Peele to play the part of "Luther, President Obama’s anger translator" during his remarks at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton on April 25, 2015, in Washington.](https://img.money.com/2016/04/160429_em_correspondentsdinner.jpg?crop=0px%2C45px%2C2100px%2C1181px&quality=85) *President Barack Obama, right, brings out actor Keegan-Michael Key from Key & Peele to play the part of "Luther, President Obama’s anger translator" during his remarks at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton last year.* Comedian Larry Wilmore will take the stage at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night to roast President Obama in front of a powerful, wealthy crowd of celebrities, lobbyists, politicians, and media elite. Lost in the levity may be a major reason the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner is supposedly held at all: to raise money for college scholarships. As the event has grown in glitz and glamour, its role as a fundraiser to support aspiring journalists has faded. The dinner, hosted by the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA), spent nearly 60% of its revenue on scholarships in 2009, according to [an audit of its financial records by the *Washingtonian*](http://www.washingtonian.com/2015/04/22/the-biggest-joke-at-the-whca-dinner-is-the-scholarship-fund/). That dropped to just 26% in 2013, and then fell again in 2014 to 21.5%, [the *Washingtonian* found](http://www.washingtonian.com/2016/04/28/whca-scholarships-2014-2015-even-less-money/). [![Best college education image](https://content.money.com/wp-content/themes/money2018/img/college-site-banner-02.png)](https://best-colleges.time.com/money/search-colleges/?xid=cm-mcpFindTheCollegeWidget) This year, the association will award about $77,500 to 18 students, the [WHCA announced last week](http://www.whca.net/scholarships.htm). Most awards are worth $5,000—not an insignificant sum for an individual college student. But that's small change compared to the incredible amount of money spent on and around what's been dubbed D.C.'s [Nerd Prom](http://nerdpromthemovie.com/). There are 260 dinner tables (with 10 seats each) for sale at $3,000 per table, for an effective price of $300 a ticket. Guide Star reports the WHCA's total revenue from contributions in 2014 was $445,565. The [*Washington Post* estimates](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/meet-the-elite-who-tell-rupert-murdoch-where-to-sit/2016/04/29/09a57acc-0cbb-11e6-bfa1-4efa856caf2a_story.html) the association's annual revenue at about $600,000, and says most of that money comes from the dinner. And the dinner is now just a small part of the hoopla around Nerd Prom. There are dozens of events planned through Sunday (though not by the WHCA), from brunches to panels to after parties at undisclosed locations. C-SPAN will be on the Red Carpet. "Funny or Die" and *Vanity Fair* will host parties. Celebrities like Kendall Jenner, Will Smith, and Rachel McAdams will clink glasses with wealthy socialites, cabinet members, politicians, and even a few of the reporters for whom the event is named. ![](https://content.money.com/wp-content/themes/money2018/img/newsletter/money-homepage-newsletter-120.png) NEWSLETTER: COLLEGE\_PLANNERSign up for **COLLEGE\_PLANNER** and more [View Sample](https://money.com/subscribe/) After being called out for its small-by-comparison scholarship activities, the [association has defended](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/white-house-correspondents-dinner-group-pays-boss-more-than-it-gives-out-in-scholarships/article/2563534) itself by saying that it is not a scholarship organization. Instead, its primary mission is to advocate for openness and transparency at the White House by bargaining for access to events the press pool, for example. The WHCA also told the *Washingtonian* that it recently started putting some of its scholarship money aside in an endowment to fund future awards, which explains the decrease in current award dollars. That very well may be, yet the association states on its homepage that proceeds of the dinner "go toward scholarships and awards that recognize aspiring and accomplished journalists." No doubt hosting D.C.'s version of the Oscars isn't cheap. But if the total money awarded in scholarships is just a fraction of the revenue brought in, we have to wonder: Is the event truly a scholarship fundraiser? Or is it just another fancy dinner for the Washington elite, with college students getting the crumbs? ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/white-house-correspondents-dinner-scholarship-fundraiser/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Education", "item": "https://money.com/education/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Paying for College", "item": "https://money.com/paying-for-college/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "How Much Does the White House Correspondents' Dinner Actually Raise for Scholarships?" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/white-house-correspondents-dinner-scholarship-fundraiser/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/white-house-correspondents-dinner-scholarship-fundraiser/", "name": "How Much Does the White House Correspondents' Dinner Actually Raise for Scholarships?", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-04-29T21:26:56.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/white-house-correspondents-dinner-scholarship-fundraiser/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/white-house-correspondents-dinner-scholarship-fundraiser/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-04-29T21:26:56.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "How Much Does the White House Correspondents' Dinner Actually Raise for Scholarships?", "articleSection": "Education", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/04/160429_em_correspondentsdinner.jpg?crop=0px%2C45px%2C2100px%2C1181px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "160429_EM_CorrespondentsDinner" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kaitlin Mulhere", "url": "https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/#author", "description": "Kaitlin Mulhere is an editor at Money.com. 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