Literacy and education

Every child deserves the chance to grow into a healthy, productive adult.

We focus our philanthropy on education in order to increase and enhance opportunities for all students in school districts where we have a presence:

• We serve young children through early literacy programmes that encourage parent engagement, stimulate development of language and literacy skills and foster a true love of learning.
• We serve children from nursery school through middle school with year-round educational programmes, both school-based and after-school. We support in-school programmes that focus on literacy, core curriculum and science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (STEAM) disciplines. We also support summer programmes that help to minimise the loss of academic skills during school holidays.
• At the high school level and beyond, we support programmes that motivate and equip students for higher education and potential career choices. Subject areas include language and STEAM as well as business, entrepreneurial and communications skills.

In addition to our direct grant-making, we encourage employees to donate their talent and expertise through skills-based volunteering activities. From mentoring to participation on nonprofit boards, employees across the company donate thousands of hours each year to help children and families in our communities.

Programmes supported include:

Early Childhood Education

A grant from the Pitney Bowes Foundation helped Read to Grow to promote early childhood literacy in Bridgeport, CT. The grant provides literacy packages to families of babies born at Bridgeport hospitals, and free children’s books for families to keep, available at Book Places hosted by non-profits throughout the city.

Our support for Children’s Learning Centers of Fairfield County (CLC)’s full-day, full-year Head Start programme serves low-income families in Stamford, many of whom are English language learners. Our grant enables parents to work full-time while their children receive extra help in preparation for kindergarten. CLC's holistic approach includes nutritious meals and snacks, family support services and a curriculum relating to social and emotional development.

Other early childhood education programmes that we support include:

• Jumpstart for Young Children Kindergarten Readiness Program, Atlanta, Georgia
• Kent Education Foundation Bright Beginnings Early Childhood Program, Spokane, Washington
• Mercy Learning Center Early Childhood Education Program, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Mi Escualita Early Childhood Education Program, Dallas, Texas
• Rainbow Village Early Child Development Center, Atlanta, Georgia
• Regional YMCA of Western Connecticut Children’s Center, Danbury, Connecticut

Youth Literacy Programmes

Since 2004, Pitney Bowes and the Pitney Bowes Foundation have been proud supporters of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation's largest children's literacy organisation. Our support has included funding for teacher training, book distributions to underserved school districts and the development of Share the Message: Read! volunteer tool kits. Share the Message: Read! is a rewarding programme in which volunteers read with young students from nursery school to year 6, conduct craft projects and help the children to choose a new book of their own to take home. In 2018, our Share the Message: READ! Activities again included ‘Explore. Innovate. Play!’ at the Discovery Museum and Planetarium in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Our newest family/teacher resource guide and related employee volunteer toolkit introduce students to the topic of coding.

Other local, regional and national youth literacy programmes we support include:

• Bridgeport Public Education Foundation Reading Enrichment Program, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Communities in Schools, Atlanta, Georgia
• Danbury Youth Services Kids Literacy Program, Danbury, Connecticut
• DIBS for Kids, Omaha, Nebraska
• Everybody Wins, Atlanta, Georgia
• Literacy Access Fund programme to ensure young learners’ equal access to public library resources, several locations nationwide
• Literacy Center of West Michigan Family Literacy Programs, Detroit, Michigan
• Literacy Volunteers of Rensselaer County’s Read to a Child Power Lunch programme, Albany/Troy, New York
• Operation Outreach in Detroit, Michigan and Troy, New York, public schools
• Reach Out and Read, several locations nationwide
• Reading Partners One-to-One Literacy Tutoring, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• ReadWorks, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• United Way of Western Connecticut Strong Start Neighborhood Early Literacy Program, Danbury, Connecticut
• Whole School Whole Child Program at City Year, Detroit, Michigan

Mentoring

The Pitney Bowes Foundation continues to invest in the Connecticut-based Governor’s Prevention Partnership’s efforts to strengthen mentoring programmes nationwide. Our most recent grant has enabled GPP to build training programmes that strengthening mentors’ ability to understand and work with mentees who have been affected by trauma.

Our support of Big Brothers/Big Sisters affiliates across the country helps to ensure that young people have a mentor who can help them to achieve their dreams. In 2018, the Pitney Bowes Foundation provided grants to the Big Brothers Big Sisters programmes in the Fox Valley Region (Appleton, Wisconsin), the Capital Region (Troy, New York), and the Inland Northwest (Spokane, Washington) that enabled them to advance mentoring programmes and improve education outcomes to prepare students for college and their careers.

Since 2007, we've been a Read to a Child National Partner, supporting national, regional and local mentoring programmes for low-income elementary students. Read to a Child creates better opportunities for children by inspiring adults to read to children. In March 2018 (National Reading Month), we were again Visionary Sponsors of Read to a Child’s national digital fundraising campaign to help to ‘Spark Something Meaningful – Help Kids in Need Love to Read’. The Pitney Bowes Foundation again provided a grant to support the expansion of Read to a Child’s national lunchtime reading programme.

Other mentoring programmes that we support include:

• Best Friends of Neenah-Menasha, Neenah, Wisconsin
• Danbury Schools and Business Collaborative School-based Mentoring and Early College Opportunity programmes, Danbury, Connecticut
• Future Five College Prep Program, Stamford, Connecticut
• Mentoring for Academic Achievement and College/Career Success (MAACS), Bridgeport, Connecticut
• United Way of Greater Atlanta Learning Spaces Program, Atlanta, Georgia
• Urban Impact, Bridgeport, ConnecticutRead to Grow

School-Based Programmes

The Pitney Bowes Foundation supported the development of Success for All’s Tutoring with the Lightning Squad, a multimedia tutoring tool for students in years 2–4. Produced in collaboration with Sirius Thinking, Ltd., John Hopkins University and Sesame Workshop, this small-group computer-assisted tutoring programme helps children to build critical literacy skills. Our most recent grant has enabled Success for All to develop additional individual practice options to enable students to continue to advance their learning when their Tutoring with the Lightning Squad partner is absent.

The Pitney Bowes Foundation partnered with MIND Research Inc. to provide transformative mathematical experiences to students from nursery school to year 9 in locations across the country. MIND provides a highly visual, personal, engaging and rigorous maths experience, building skills that are increasingly valued by technology companies and inspiring students to become creative problem solvers.

We also support the school-based programmes of Teach for America in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

After/Outside of School Programmes

Boys & Girls Clubs throughout the United States have benefited from our employees’ volunteer involvement as well as funding from the Pitney Bowes Foundation. 2018 Foundation grants were awarded to the Boys & Girls Club of Spokane County (Washington), the Boys & Girls Clubs Of Greater Dallas (Texas) and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis (Indiana), among others, to ensure student literacy and academic success.

Other after/outside of school programmes that we support include:

• Trinity River Mission (Dallas, Texas)
• Wakeman Memorial Association Inc. (Bridgeport, Connecticut)
• Wellspring (Detroit, Michigan)
• YouthGo (Appleton, Wisconsin)

Summer Learning

At the national level, we support Horizons National Student Enrichment Program, which provides summer academic enrichment programmes for at-risk, low-income students in partnership with nearly 500 independent schools, colleges and universities in the US. The programme’s offerings span literacy, science, maths, arts, sports and cultural enrichment at every level from nursery school to secondary school. In small classes led by professional teachers, students dive into a rich curriculum with a focus on reading, STEM and art. Our Foundation support provides Horizons affiliates with reading specialists, assessment tools, training and STEM materials to help to manage the curriculum and facilitate data sharing with parents and public schools.

We also support other summer learning programmes including:

• Starfish Connection’s After School and Summer Enrichment Programs (Stamford, Connecticut)
• Person To Person P2P Summer Campership Program (Fairfield County, Connecticut)
• Stamford Public Education Foundation’s Mentoring Programs (Stamford, Connecticut)
• Odyssey Summer Program (Atlanta, Georgia)
• Person to Person Campership Program (Fairfield County, Connecticut)
• SoundWaters (Fairfield County, Connecticut)
• Regional YMCA of Western Connecticut Escape to the Arts Summer Program (Danbury, Connecticut)
• Project Transformation North Texas (Dallas, Texas)
• Page Ahead Children’s Literacy Summer Reading Program (Spokane, Washington)

Youth leadership development

Since 1992, we’ve collaborated with buildOn, a global non-profit organised focused on helping inner-city students in the US to expand their horizons and develop critical skills. Its signature programmes engages students in building schools in developing countries, thus creating opportunities for others as well as themselves. We participate in buildOn's Corporate Partner programme, engaging employee volunteers to help students develop college, career and financial literacy skills. This year the Pitney Bowes Foundation funded buildOn Youth Engagement Zones and School-Wide Service Projects at Western International High School (Detroit, Michigan) and Bassick High School (Bridgeport, Connecticut).

Other Youth Leadership Development programmes that we support include:

• Essential2life Inc FIFTEEN Youth Leadership Program, Atlanta, Georgia
• Kids Helping Kids Launching Libraries Program, Stamford, Connecticut
• MPKids, Dallas, Texas
• Stamford Public Education Foundation’s Children's Leadership Training Institute, Stamford, Connecticut
• Valley United Way Youth Leadership Development Program, Shelton, Connecticut
• Young Men’s Christian Association Of Stamford LEAD After School Program, Stamford, Connecticut

Entrepreneurship Education

At the national level, Pitney Bowes and the Pitney Bowes Foundation have been supporting the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) since 2000. NFTE programmes inspire young people from low-income communities to build entrepreneurial skills, launch businesses and connect experiential learning to educational programmes. Pitney Bowes Foundation grants have supported NFTE’s World Series of Innovation: Sustainable Development Goals Online Challenge, as well as Summer Biz Camps and Innovation Days in Dallas, Texas, Washington, D.C., New York, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts. We have also supported NFTE’s Global Showcase and signature regional events.

In 2018, the Foundation supported NFTE’s ‘ntrepreneurship in Every School: Startup Tech’ programme. This programme blends learning with entrepreneurship by asking students to identify ways to improve their world and then build marketable digital solutions using MIT App Inventor. Students create an original app that addresses a community need, develop a corresponding abbreviated business plan and marketing materials, and present in a Startup Showcase expo for a chance to win funding and publicity.

Another entrepreneurship education programme that we support is the James J. Hill Reference Library’s Support for Young Entrepreneurs in St. Paul, Minnesota.

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math) Education

With support from the Pitney Bowes Foundation, the Connecticut Science Center is transforming schools in Stamford with new, engaging ways of teaching science from nursery to second-level education and sparking interest in STEAM. In October 2019, the Center will open a Pitney Bowes Foundation-supported exhibit that explores the impact of human beings on our planet in the past, present and future. Our in-kind donation of GIS data sets will enable students not only to visualise Connecticut climate data but also to learn about the power of the technology and the possibility of building a successful career on it.

Other science, technology, engineering and maths programmes that we support include:

• Cardinal Sheehan Center STEM Program, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Children’s Museum Of Science and Technology (CMOST) STEAMing into Troy Program, Troy, New York
• Connecticut Science Center Next Generation Science Standards Teacher Training, Shelton, Connecticut
• Discovery Museum STEM Education Fund, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Greater Capital Region Science and Engineering Fair, Albany/Troy, New York
• Housatonic Community College Science Technology Engineering Art and Math (STEAM) Center of Excellence, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• TEAM Inc. Tech Stars Computer Literacy Program, Shelton, Connecticut

Arts Education

• Capital Repertory Company On-the-Go Program, Troy, New York
• City Lights & Co. Multicultural Arts Program, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Connecticut Ballet Dance Exposure Project, Connecticut
• INTAKE Organization’s Reading Music, Reading at Grade Level Program, Fairfield County, Connecticut
• Neighborhood Studios of Fairfield County Saturday Studios, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• New Haven Symphony Orchestra Shelton Family Concert Series, Shelton, Connecticut
• Project Music – Archipelago – El Sistema Academy, Stamford, Connecticut
• Ridgefield Playhouse Charlotte’s Web Writing Workshop and Theater Exposure Program, Fairfield County, Connecticut
• Silvermine Arts Center at Trailblazers Academy, Stamford, Connecticut
• Stamford Public Education Foundation All-School Musical, Stamford, Connecticut
• Valley Shakespeare Festival Company: Thorton Wilder’s Our Town, Shelton, Connecticut
• Young Playwrights Festival, Stamford Center For The Arts, Stamford, Connecticut

Adult Literacy and Education/Workforce Development

Pitney Bowes and the Pitney Bowes Foundation are proud of our decades-long partnership with Junior Achievement Worldwide, one of the world’s largest youth-serving NGOs. For 100 years, JA has delivered hands-on, experiential learning that creates pathways to employability, job creation and financial success. We support JA both through employee volunteering activities in teaching programmes such as ‘JA in a Day’ and through Pitney Bowes Foundation grants. This year, we supported Financial Literacy education, career readiness mentoring and the JA Stock Market Challenge in Troy, New York; New York, New York; and Bridgeport, Shelton, Danbury, Stamford and Norwalk, Connecticut.

Through our longstanding support of the Creating IT Futures Foundation’s IT-Ready programme, we help to diversify the tech industry and open career doors to a wider demographic. The IT-Ready programme encourages populations that traditionally have been under-represented in the IT workforce, such as women and people of colour, to launch tech careers.

The Pitney Bowes Foundation is also a long-time supporter of NAF and its efforts to bring education, business and community leaders together to transform the high school experience. Our most recent grant to this national organisation has been directed to the NAF Academies of Engineering to develop and diversify the next generation of engineers.

Other Adult Literacy and Education/Workforce Development programmes we support include:

• Burroughs Community Center English Language Services, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• CAP Services Skills Enhancement, Appleton, Wisconsin
• Family Centers’ Promoting Career and College Readiness with adult ESL students, Stamford, Connecticut
• Ferguson Library Summer Sunday Hours, Stamford, Connecticut
• Inspirica Jump Start Career Program, Stamford, Connecticut
• Literacy Action program for adults with low literacy levels, Atlanta, Georgia
• Mercy Learning Center’s Literacy and Life Skills Program, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Norwalk Community College Summer Bridge Math Intensive Program, Fairfield County, Connecticut
• Richardson Adult Literacy Center, Dallas, Texas
• Service Corps of Retired Executives, Fairfield County, Connecticut
• Texas Adult Literacy Program, Dallas, Texas
• Vocational Development Center, Omaha, Nebraska
• Wilkinson Center Adult Education Program, Dallas, Texas
• Women are Dreamers Too, Atlanta, Georgia
• Womens Mentoring Network E to the 4th POWER Program (Education, Employment, Economic Security, Empowerment), Stamford, Connecticut
• The Workplace Inc. Dress for Success Program, Bridgeport, Connecticut

Other Programmes we Support

The Stamford Cradle to Career Collaborative aligns community resources to help young people grow into active and productive citizens of our community. The Stamford partnership utilises Community Action Networks to focus on issues of school performance as well as physical, social and emotional factors at key stages including infant health and development, nursery school readiness, reading in the early stages of education, transition to middle school, transition to secondary school, and transition from secondary school to post-secondary, college and/or career level. Our Foundation grants support the data gathering and analysis that underlies the Collaborative’s work.

Other programme areas supported by the Pitney Bowes Foundation include:

Parent Engagement Programmes

• Connecticut Association for Human Services Family Economic Success Program, Fairfield County, Connecticut
• Connecticut Institute for Communities Adult Education (PEP & ESL for parents)
• Literacy Lab Parenting Skills programme, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Saint Joseph Parenting Center, Stamford, Connecticut
• Stamford Public Education Foundation’s Parent Leadership Training Institute, Stamford, Connecticut
• YWCA of Darien/Norwalk Parent Awareness Program, Fairfield County, Connecticut

Social/Emotional Skills Development

• Domus Kids’ Lion's Den Out-of-School-Time Program, Stamford, Connecticut
• Kids In Crisis KIC Educational Services, Connecticut
• Laurel House Thinking Well Program (Fairfield County, Connecticut)
• Wings for Kids, Atlanta, Georgia

Students with Special Needs

• CASA of the Fox Cities, Appleton, Wisconsin
• Center For The Visually Impaired, Atlanta, Georgia
• Chases Place, Dallas, Texas
• Child Guidance Center of Southern CT, Fairfield County, Connecticut
• Children In Placement Connecticut Inc., Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Connecticut Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Connecticut
• Hearing Oral Program of Excellence (HOPE), Spokane, Washington

Recent Immigrants

• International Rescue Committee Mentors for Success Program, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Refugee and Asylee Mentor Program through the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants, Connecticut
• Summer Reading Program for Disadvantaged Immigrant Children through Building One Community (Stamford, Connecticut)

NGO Partners in India

Pitney Bowes India is proud to partner with several outstanding education partners.

The ETASHA Society is a non-governmental organisation that works to empower youth from marginalised communities by training them to develop the right skills, attitude and mindset for successful careers. This year we supported ETASHA’s Employability Skills Development and Placement (ESDP) project and Computer Lab for Vocational Training and Placement.

Our operations in Pune, India, support Tara Mobile Creches Pune’s Project Khelghar to provide mobile learning centres for the children of migrant construction workers. Last year, our support helped to provide education, recreation and health-care benefits to more than 550 of these children.

Pitney Bowes India’s Pune CSR team has also been regularly collaborating with the NIIT Foundation to organise educational workshops for children and youth on technical and interpersonal skills. Since 2004, the NIIT Foundation has been working to expand educational opportunities and ensure inclusive development in India.