Guest Blogger Susan Lawton is the Director of Children & Youth Initiatives at the United Way of Tampa Bay, a First Book Recipient Group.
In 2006 United Way of Tampa Bay chose a children’s book drive to call attention to the issue of early literacy in our community. Since that time we have collected nearly 300,000 books. The best of the books are given to children to take home because we know the number of children’s books in a home is often an indication of the levels of poverty, health literacy, and education in that household. These factors affect whether or not children and youth achieve their potential, our ultimate goal.
For the last 3 years we have been fortunate to have a Magical Wizard of Book Doubling. Our corporate partner, Psychological Assessment Resources (PAR), has offered to match all donations made during the first week of the drive to a maximum of $10,000. Their sponsorship is critical to the success to our virtual book drive because it builds excitement and even competition between teams and workplaces.
United Way of Tampa Bay’s partnership with First Book allows us to utilize the most efficient and cost effective methods to get quality books to these children in a way that engages our workplace donors. Each year the First Book team works with me to utilize new ways to invite greater participation. In 2008 alone, we distributed new books worth over $110,000. That’s a return on investment of over 600% for our donors.
Learn more about how you can participate and help United Way of Tampa Bay reach their goal.
Add a Comment