FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact:
Amelie Ansari
Read to a Child
781-489-5910
Amelie.Ansari@readtoachild.org
Read to a Child Hosts Friends & Family ‘Give Me $5’ Fundraising Campaign!
BOSTON, August 1st – 31st, 2014 – National nonprofit literacy and mentoring organization Read to a Child will host its first digital fundraising campaign for friends and family called ‘Give Me $5’ in the month of August.
83% of 4th graders from low-income families are not proficient in reading.
To combat this literacy crisis, the American Academy of Pediatrics has just come out with an official policy recommending doctors “prescribe” reading to children as a critical component of how parents can support children’s healthy development. In line with this recommendation, Read to a Child enlists volunteer reading mentors to read with at-risk children and give young students the time, confidence and tools to reverse the cycle of illiteracy. By raising $50,000 in one month, Read to a Child can provide 3,000 additional reading sessions to at-risk children in the 2014-15 school year.
‘Give Me $5’ will be hosted in real time on Facebook and will engage and motivate volunteers and supporters to join the fundraising effort with an affordable $5 appeal. Participants are invited to sign up to fundraise a $100 goal, needing only 20 friends and family to make a $5 donation each. Prizes for top fundraisers will be awarded and anyone who makes a donation will be entered into a daily drawing for books and other prizes.
“Together we can build a movement across the country of people working towards the vision that one day, every child will have a caring adult reading regularly to him/her. You can give at-risk children a better chance to succeed by participating in this campaign”says Read to a Child CEO, Olivia Mathews.
“We are proud to be a sponsor of the Read to a Child campaign and it has been very exciting to come together with other industry media agencies and partners in a collaborative effort – all in support of children’s literacy,” says Tracy Pearce, Global CSR Engagement Manger at Dentsu Aegis Network.
All proceeds from the event go to Read to a Child to fund their lunchtime reading program, which pairs more than 1,100 elementary school children with volunteer mentors from businesses who spend a lunch hour each week reading with their student partners.
Sponsors:
Sponsors include Dentsu Aegis Network, Carat, Group M, Hubspot, Skyword and DIRECTV, who are generously donating marketing and media space for the campaign.
For more information about the ‘Give Me $5’ campaign and how to participate or donate, please visit the campaign page here. (https://readtoachild.org/give-me-5-digital-fundraising-campaign/)
When: August 1 – 31, 2014
About Read to a Child:
Read to a Child, www.readtoachild.org, is a national literacy and mentoring nonprofit organization that inspires caring adults to read aloud to children and to help create better opportunities for the future. Research proves that the simple act of reading aloud to a child regularly significantly impacts his or her literacy skills and, thus, his or her likelihood for success.
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