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BOSTON, May 1st – 31st, 2015 – National nonprofit literacy and mentoring organization Read to a Child will host its second annual digital fundraising campaign called Spark Something Meaningful in the month of May.

Astoundingly, 80% of 4th graders from low-income families are not proficient in reading.

To combat this literacy crisis, the American Academy of Pediatrics official policy recommends 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 $100,000 in one month, Read to a Child can provide 6,000 additional reading sessions to at-risk children in the 2015-16 school year.

Spark Something Meaningful aims to create an inspirational awareness movement across social media platforms. Supporters and fundraisers will help spread the message ‘Help Kids in Need Love to Read’ by sharing a personal story about ‘who sparked their love of reading’ in a social media post. The post, along with a favorite ‘book selfie’ image, is then passed along to networks of friends and family, challenging them to do the same.

By sharing people’s personal stories about the importance and joys of reading, the campaign hopes to engage and inspire online supporters and influencers to help promote the cause and fundraise $100,000 in one month.

“Together we can build a movement of people working towards the vision that one day, every child will have a caring adult reading regularly to him or 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 digital campaign and it is exciting to come together with other agencies and partners in a collaborative effort – all in support of creating a social media literacy movement,” says Tracy Pearce, Global CSR Engagement Manger at Dentsu Aegis Network.

All proceeds from the campaign will 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

Leading sponsors of the campaign are Pitney Bowes and Arclight Capital. Other top sponsors include Baron Funds, the Tarini Family, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, along with Dentsu Aegis Network, Posterscope, Clear Channel and OUTFRONT Media, generously donating marketing and media services for the campaign.

• For more information about the ‘Spark Something Meaningful’ campaign and how to participate or donate, please visit http://readtoachild.org/spark-something-meaningful/

When: May 1 – 31, 2015

About Read to a Child

Read to a Child, http://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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