Families and communities benefit from NCFL's groundbreaking partnerships with philanthropic institutions. NCFL was founded in 1989 with a major grant from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust. Since that time, corporations, businesses, foundations and community organizations large and small have worked with NCFL to develop new solutions to the literacy challenge. These distinguished partnerships have positively influenced the literacy field from the ground up—from grassroots advocacy efforts to research-based instruction and dissemination to an entrepreneurial approach for sustaining programs.
Corporate partners not only fund NCFL's work, they advise the organization on business practices and follow the results of their investment over time. Below are brief profiles on NCFL's current corporate partners. To learn more about NCFL's groundbreaking partnerships or to find out about joining these efforts, please contact Emily Kirkpatrick, Vice President.
Click on the corporate partners' names below to expand and read more information on how they help NCFL.
Toyota, one of the nation’s most successful corporations, began a partnership with NCFL in 1991. In addition to a commitment of more than $35 million, Toyota has also contributed a wealth of in-kind support — including advertising, planning and management expertise — to form one of the most progressive corporate/nonprofit partnerships in the nation.
Three major programs have been developed through the Toyota partnership based on the family literacy model of parents and children learning together. These models have influenced federal and state legislation, leveraged local dollars to support family literacy and led to successful programs being replicated across the country. To read more about NCFL's long-term partnership with Toyota, click here.
Verizon's ongoing commitment to NCFL and families has been marked by the tremendous support of cutting-edge, technology-based solutions to the nation's literacy challenges. NCFL is a major content developer for Thinkfinity Literacy Network, a free, online resource that provides training and information and is a core component of Verizon's new Thinkfinity educational platform. Other recent NCFL/Verizon efforts include Parenting for Academic Success, a unique curriculum for English language learners, and Tech Savvy, a special awards program that recognizes programs that help parents to better guide their children's use of technology for learning.
Better World Books, a dynamic social enterprise and the leader in converting donated books into funding to support literacy, selected NCFL as its domestic literacy partner in 2005. Better World books has raised more than $440,000 for NCFL to date. Hundreds of thousands of books have been donated and sold to support family literacy since the partnership began. Books come from college campus book drives, library discards and donations, and corporate book drives. These efforts have funded the purchase of more than 10,000 books to restockfamily libraries after Hurricane Katrina, and the development of resources to reach wide audiences with literacy tools and materials.
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation began partnering with NCFL in 2006. Most recently, the Foundation partnership is supporting three new initiatives: Strengthening Our Adult Readers (SOAR), another initiative meeting the needs of the American Indian population, this time focused on adult learners; the Early Literacy Initiative, developed to disseminate the soon-to-be released groundbreaking research of the National Early Literacy Panel in practical terms for parents; and a project to provide much-needed literacy materials in Spanish for Hispanic families. Previously, the Foundation supported a project designed to provide dialogic reading training for American Indian parents and children in the Family and Child Education (FACE) Program, a Bureau of Indian Education-supported project that NCFL has been working with for nearly two decades.
Pitney Bowes has actively supported NCFL since 2004. Currently, two projects are ongoing: an initiative to disseminate critical information to literacy teachers and programs through technology, and a planning grant to support the replication of the La Lectura en Familia program. NCFL piloted La Lectura en Familia in 2004; it is a program model that successfully addressed the specific literacy needs of Spanish-speaking families with preschool-age children. NCFL and La Lectura were featured in the new Pitney Bowes Community Investments brochure, the Fortune 500 company's first philanthropy publication.
NCFL's partnership with the Southern California McDonald's restaurants is fueling McDonald's Family Mealtime Literacy Nights. This innovative new program is designed to show parents of preschoolers how they can use simple household routines and items to teach literacy, math and science.
NCFL’s partnerships with forward-thinking national foundations have consistently resulted in progressive national and local literacy initiatives that lead to positive results for parents and children nationwide. The substantial investment and trust of these partners has helped NCFL blaze new trails and take risks that have been essential to the organization’s growth, knowledge and leadership.
Click on the foundation partners' names below to expand and read more information on how they help NCFL.
NCFL’s founding partner, The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, invested in family literacy and NCFL even before the organization opened its doors—when it was little more than a groundbreaking idea with tremendous potential 20 years ago. The Kenan Trust has continued its commitment to NCFL and family literacy over the years, investing more than $10 million in NCFL and its work. Most recently the Kenan Trust helped NCFL establish the Hispanic Family Learning Institute, a concerted effort to develop resources and disseminate information about improving educational services for Hispanic/Latino and other immigrant families in the U.S.
NCFL and MetLife Foundation formed a dynamic partnership in 2008 that is committed to giving adult learners in family programs the support and resources they need to succeed as they transition to higher education. Fueled by a $300,000 two-year grant, NCFL is developing a systematic approach for using community colleges as a stepping stone for adult learners, many of whom are also parents. Activities of the Family Literacy Community College Initiative include conducting a best-practices assessment of existing family literacy/community college partnerships; developing and testing new tools and resources for programs, community colleges and families; and widely disseminating the resources and findings of the project.
NCFL is partnering with the Annenberg Foundation to build new and cutting-edge web-based resources for the literacy field and parents. This grant is funding an important part of NCFL’s strategic plan: to reach more families with literacy tools and information than ever before. While literacy teachers and volunteers will always be a core audience for NCFL, this partnership is helping NCFL tap new opportunities for reaching parents and children directly through technology. In addition, the partnership has developed resources to improve parent involvement in schools. Another recent grant from the Annenberg Foundation resulted in a research-based and systematic framework to help schools improve strategies for parent involvement, a critical component of childhood academic achievement.
Since 1994, the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has brought about significant change for NCFL, transforming our work, the family literacy field, and the lives of families throughout the nation. Beyond generous financial investments totaling more than $5 million, Knight Foundation support has been a magnet for other initiatives and funding, and the underpinning for a much wider body of work. Recent efforts of this partnership include a national public service announcement campaign for family literacy managed by the Ad Council and the support of effective new strategies for working with low-literate English language learners in the Cambodian Technical Assistance Project. NCFL has leveraged these initiatives and other Knight investments to perpetuate true change and grow the family literacy movement nationwide.
The Carnegie Corporation of New York first invested in NCFL with a grant to break new ground in addressing the low reading achievement of a much underserved age group—adolescents and pre-adolescents. As a result, NCFL identified effective instructional approaches and created a framework for parent involvement with older children. NCFL’s partnership with the Corporation continued in 2007 with its financial and program staff contributions to the exciting Hispanic Family Learning Summit held at NCFL’s Conference in March 2007.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation and NCFL are teaming up to improve family literacy services within the Foundation’s already substantial efforts to educate and serve families. By delivering technical assistance to the Foundation’s Making Connections programs, NCFL is expanding the use of proven family literacy strategies and practices and honing its capacity to deliver customized technical assistance services in Making Connections communities.
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