NYC United Way Gets $52 M to Combat Chronic Absence
The New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) has awarded a four-year, $52 million grant to United Way of New York City (UWNYC) to fight chronic absence through its Community Schools program. The award is the largest education grant ever given by the city to a nonprofit organization. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the “Attendance Improvement and Dropout Prevention” grant to provide social services at 40 high-needs schools. The program will be... ... More »

Summer Learning: Meeting Children Where They Are
This blog was originally posted by Abbie Lieberman on EdCentral. Just because summer vacation usually means a break from class time, it does not also mean a break from learning. Research reveals that students from all economic backgrounds suffer from “summer slide”—meaning they lose hard-earned academic skills over the summer. While all students are likely to lose some math skills during the summer, children from low-income families are likely to lose two to three months of... ... More »

UPS Donates $5 Million to United Way for Grade-Level Reading
UPS and its employees are donating more than $5 million to support grade-level reading work being done by United Ways across the country, United Way announced today. The substantial donation to United Way represents a decision by UPS employees to dedicate their contributions to ensuring that more low-income children have a strong foundation in education. The investment will benefit United Ways in nearly 100 communities that are currently working closely with the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading... ... More »

Vision to Learn Honored as Pacesetter Program
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading today will recognize the Los Angeles-based Beutner Family Foundation for its Vision To Learn program that has provided free eye exams to more than 21,000 low-income children and free glasses to 16,000 of them.The foundation's program will be honored as a GLR Campaign Pacesetter Program, a distinction that reflects its contribution to improving academic achievement and, with that, life prospects for young children in California.“Because of Vision To Learn,... ... More »

Game-Changing Philanthropy Through Funder Collaboration
This commentary first appeared in Philanthropic News Digest. It is written by Leslie Boissiere, chief operating officer of the GLR Campaign and Patrick Corvington, a senior fellow for the Campaign. Philanthropy has spent decades focused on achieving good outcomes with not enough to show when it comes to population-level impact on intergenerational poverty. It’s clear that to achieve better results, we need to change the way we do our work. As we ask nonprofits to collaborate to ensure... ... More »