猫咪AV Receives Unsolicited $20 Million from MacKenzie Scott and Announces Plans to Raise $100 Million Over Three Years to Advance Educational Equity Through Early Literacy
March 7, 2022
Contact:
Joyce Macek
Executive Director, 猫咪AV Seattle
917-392-1885,听joyce.macek@readingpartners.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Funds will help 猫咪AV support students in Seattle and across the country at a time when learning disruptions have disproportionately impacted students experiencing economic challenges
(Seattle, CA) March 7, 2022聽鈥� 猫咪AV received a $20 million, unrestricted gift from MacKenzie Scott to support the national nonprofit鈥檚聽聽early literacy intervention program. This comes as the organization is embarking on an initiative to raise more than $100 million over three years to provide a range of literacy support services to tens of thousands of students across the country each year.
猫咪AV collaborates with under-resourced public schools in Seattle Public Schools, Highline Public Schools and 11 other regions across the US and recruits and trains community volunteers to provide students with the proven, individualized reading support they need to read at grade level by fourth grade. Working one-on-one with their tutors, students become proud, confident readers. Research shows that students who read at grade level by fourth grade have a greater opportunity to shine in school and beyond.
To deliver its program in schools, 猫咪AV Seattle partners closely with Sanislo Elementary, Rising Star Elementary, Leschi Elementary, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary and Beverly Park Elementary and transforms a dedicated space into a reading center, complete with a library and teaching tools managed by a full-time AmeriCorps member. When the pandemic started, 猫咪AV rapidly innovated and launched an interactive online literacy tutoring program and digital library to ensure students could still receive their weekly tutoring sessions when schools were closed. The new platform, 猫咪AV Connects, enables students and tutors to connect online and includes a curriculum aligned with Common Core and state literacy standards.
MacKenzie Scott鈥檚 contribution will support the expansion of 猫咪AV Connects and the organization鈥檚 mission of helping children become skilled, confident, lifelong readers. Over the next few years, 猫咪AV aims to leverage 猫咪AV Connects, other innovations, and community-centered partnerships to support far more students than ever before. For the 猫咪AV Seattle team, this means working with more schools in Seattle, exploring community-based partnerships and launching new school district partnerships around the Puget Sound and beyond.
鈥淭his unprecedented gift is a huge support for early literacy in this country, which remains a widespread and critical challenge we have a responsibility to address as a society, especially given the challenges of the past few years,鈥� said Joyce Macek, Executive Director of 猫咪AV Seattle. 鈥淲e are so grateful to MacKenzie Scott for entrusting us with this generous unrestricted gift. We are thrilled it supports our work nationally and the expansion of our program in her hometown. Every investment in 猫咪AV is an investment in the students and communities we are so proud to partner with. Whether it鈥檚 a monetary donation of any size, a year of AmeriCorps service, or any one of the thousands of tutoring sessions delivered by volunteers each year in our partner schools, each contribution we receive is valued because it brings us a step closer to our vision of educational equity for all students.鈥�
The extraordinary challenges of the past few years have exacerbated pre-existing opportunity gaps, with pandemic-related learning disruptions disproportionately impacting Black, Latinx and Indigenous students and students experiencing economic disadvantages. 猫咪AV is committed to ensuring that all students receive equitable access to a high-quality literacy education, and聽聽has proven that 猫咪AV helps students significantly increase reading proficiency.
猫咪AV believes reading is foundational and that the ability to read transforms lives and empowers children and communities to thrive. To get involved with or learn more about 猫咪AV Seattle, please visit聽. To make a contribution toward 猫咪AV鈥� $100 million growth initiative to support exponentially more students, please visit聽.
A regional coordinator supports a 猫咪AV student working remotely with a volunteer tutor using the 猫咪AV Connects program innovation (photo credit: 猫咪AV)
A 猫咪AV student working remotely with a volunteer tutor using the 猫咪AV Connects program innovation (photo credit: 猫咪AV)
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About 猫咪AV
For over, 猫咪AV has helped empower students to succeed in school and beyond by engaging community volunteers to provide one-on-one literacy tutoring. Since its founding, the national nonprofit organization has mobilized over 70,000 community volunteers to provide, individualized literacy tutoring to nearly 70,000 elementary school students in over 450 under-resourced schools across ten states and the District of Columbia. Visit聽to learn more about our聽and our聽online program innovation, or connect with us on,,, and. 猫咪AV is a proud聽service partner and has been endorsed by The New York Times.
Learn more about MacKenzie Scott鈥檚聽.
