Literacy and education

Every child deserves the chance to grow into a healthy, productive adult. Yet far too many children lack fundamental resources needed to progress academically, acquire critical skills and become successful in today’s economy. They have limited access to books or programmes that have been proven to make a lifelong difference. 

We help combat this problem by partnering with outstanding non-profits at the global, national and local levels. We focus our efforts on at-risk students served by school districts in communities where we have a presence: 

• We serve young children through programmes that encourage parent engagement, stimulate development of language and literacy skills and foster a true love of learning. 
• We serve children from pre-kindergarten through middle school with year-round enrichment programmes, both school-based and after-school. Our support for summer programmes helps minimise the loss of academic skills during school vacations.
• At the high school level and beyond, we support programmes that motivate and equip students for higher education and potential career choices. These programmes range from mentoring and job training to high school equivalency and ESL or other local language programs.

In addition to providing more than $1.6 million each year in grants, we encourage employees to donate their talent and expertise through skills-based volunteerism. From tutoring to participation on non-profit boards, employees across the company donate thousands of hours each year to help children and families in our communities.

Here are just some of the educational organisations we support:

ProLiteracy Worldwide

For more than 20 years, we have supported the important work of ProLiteracy Worldwide, a global non-profit focused on adult literacy. On January 27, 2016, ProLiteracy presented Pitney Bowes and the Pitney Bowes Foundation with its President's Award in honour of our continuing support of adult literacy and workforce preparedness initiatives on a local, national and global level. We are only the second recipient of this award, first given in 2011.

Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)

NFTE provides a variety of programmes to help young people from low-income communities build entrepreneurial skills and launch businesses. For NFTE’s 2015 World Series of Innovation, the Pitney Bowes Foundation challenged students to create an app that would help young people find or become mentors for others in their community. Out of 60 submissions, the winner was a New England team’s “fem-tor” app to connect women working in STEM-based careers with students pursuing STEM education.

Reading Is Fundamental

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 in pre-nursery to grade 5, conduct craft projects and help the children choose a new book of their own to take home. In 2015 our “Share the Message: READ” activities included a Family Literacy Night at Stepping Stones Museum for Children in Norwalk, CT. We also joined with others to celebrate RIF’s 50 years of achievement, including the distribution of more than 412 million books to 40 million children.

Read to a Child

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 and strengthens society as a whole by inspiring adults to read to children. In March 2016 (National Reading Month), we again supported their national digital fundraising campaign on the theme "Spark Something Meaningful – Help Kids in Need Love to Read”.

buildOn

Since 1972, we’ve collaborated with buildOn, a global non-profit focused on helping US inner-city students expand their horizons and develop critical skills. Its signature programme engages students in building schools in developing countries, creating opportunities for others as well as themselves. In 2015, we invested in buildOn’s new Corporate Partner programme as employee volunteers donated their time to help students develop university, career and financial literacy skills.

Horizons National Student Enrichment Programme

Horizons National provides summer academic enrichment programmes for at-risk, low-income students in partnership with nearly 500 US schools, colleges and universities, with a curriculum spanning literacy, science, maths, arts, sports and cultural enrichment at every level from pre-nursery to high school. Our support provides Horizons affiliates with reading specialists, assessment tools, training and STEM materials to help manage curriculum and facilitate data sharing with parents and public schools. In 2016 we are once again sponsoring Horizons Giving Day, the organisation’s national online fundraising campaign. Ron Totaro, Pitney Bowes General Manager, Global Financial Services, recently joined the Horizons National board of directors.

Connecticut Science Center

With support from the Pitney Bowes Foundation, the Connecticut Science Center is developing materials in support of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for grades 4-12. The programme combines teacher training with interactive exhibits that illuminate the design process used by scientists and engineers to investigate and solve problems.          

Children’s Learning Centers (CLC)

CLC provides preschool education and family engagement to more than 600 children and their families each year including low-income families served by Connecticut School Readiness, Head Start and Early Head Start programmes. Our funding provides a full-day, full-year expanded Head Start programme for low-income families with limited English language skills, allowing parents to work full-time while their children receive extra help in preparation for nursery. CLC’s holistic approach includes nutritious meals and snacks, family support services and a curriculum on social and emotional development that was recently honoured with the Marvin Maurer Spotlight Award from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. In May 2016 our longstanding support for CLC was formally recognised at the organisation’s annual fundraising gala.

Etasha

Pitney Bowes proudly supports the ETASHA Society in India to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds develop skills needed for successful employment. ETASHA provides vocational training, career guidance and placement programmes. Our funding supports programmes on essential competencies for employment and women’s professional development and economic independence. Manish Choudhary, Pitney Bowes Vice President of Worldwide Engineering, serves on ETASHA's Governing Council.

Tel Aviv Wonder Class

Pitney Bowes operations in Israel provide educational support to children at Tel Aviv’s Achuzat Sara Children’s Home. The goal: To break social, academic and emotional barriers that can keep students from reaching their potential. The Pitney Bowes-sponsored “Wonder Class” provides academic enrichment to 10 new residents aged 6 to 14 to ensure their success in both their new home and their new school. Students achieved significant progress in both areas. Additional volunteer efforts benefit the larger school community of 140 students.