--- title: Issa Rae Starts Scholarship For Alton Sterling's Family description: Actress Issa Rae started a scholarship fund for the family of Alton Sterling canonical: https://time.com/4397098/issa-rae-alton-sterling-scholarship/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-07T19:21:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:11.530Z og:title: Issa Rae Raises More Than $390,000 for Alton Sterling's Family og:description: "Some of us feel helpless when these things happen, but that's a small step." og:url: https://time.com/4397098/issa-rae-alton-sterling-scholarship/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c7c3cef5ef75990/69889b093c1639e53a45df3d/issa-rae-alton-sterling-scholarship.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival - Diversity Speaks Panel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Issa Rae Raises More Than $390,000 for Alton Sterling's Family twitter:description: "Some of us feel helpless when these things happen, but that's a small step." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c7c3cef5ef75990/69889b093c1639e53a45df3d/issa-rae-alton-sterling-scholarship.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Issa Rae Raises More Than $390,000 for Alton Sterling's Family  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 7, 2016 7:21 PM UTC  Issa Rae speaks onstage at the Diversity Speaks Panel during the 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 4, 2016 in Culver City, California. (Photo by Jerod Harris/WireImage) Issa Rae speaks onstage at the Diversity Speaks Panel during the 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 4, 2016 in Culver City, California. (Photo by Jerod Harris/WireImage)Jerod Harris—WireImage  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 7, 2016 7:21 PM UTC [_Awkward Black Girl_ and _Insecure_ star Issa Rae](http://time.com/3696502/hbo-larry-wilmore-issa-rae/) has started a scholarship fund for the children of [Alton Sterling](http://time.com/4395459/alton-sterling-baton-rouge-police-shooting/), a black man who was shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Tuesday. The actress created a [GoFundMe](https://www.gofundme.com/2d3eze7g) campaign on Wednesday, with the goal of raising $200,000 for Sterling’s five children. She’s since far surpassed the goal, with more than $390,000 in donations. Rae initially tweeted about starting the scholarship fund on Wednesday, noting that, “Some of us feel helpless when these things happen, but that’s a small step.” Later that day, Rae thanked her followers and tweeted that the campaign goal of $200,000 was met in just nine hours, with all the donations going to Sterling’s family. > [](https://twitter.com/IssaRae/status/750892726464319489) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4397098/issa-rae-alton-sterling-scholarship/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4397098/issa-rae-alton-sterling-scholarship/"},"headline":"Issa Rae Raises More Than $390,000 for Alton Sterling's Family","datePublished":"2016-07-07T19:21:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:11.530Z","description":"\"Some of us feel helpless when these things happen, but that's a small step.\"","url":"https://time.com/4397098/issa-rae-alton-sterling-scholarship/","keywords":["Newsfeed","shootings","alton sterling"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c7c3cef5ef75990/69889b093c1639e53a45df3d/issa-rae-alton-sterling-scholarship.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c7c3cef5ef75990/69889b093c1639e53a45df3d/issa-rae-alton-sterling-scholarship.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2016 Los Angeles Film Festival - Diversity Speaks Panel","caption":"2016 Los Angeles Film Festival - Diversity Speaks Panel","creditText":"Jerod Harris—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4397098/issa-rae-alton-sterling-scholarship/","name":"Issa Rae Raises More Than $390,000 for Alton Sterling's Family"}}]}] ```