Pitney Bowes help youngsters learn to love books

Today I wanted to continue writing about CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility and the varied approaches that different companies are taking to help their community and environment in tangible ways. It’s rewarding to see the overall shift of awareness and activity concerning CSR and corporations showing innovation and integrity in looking beyond profit to truly make a difference. A noticeable trend that is growing rapidly is that companies are tending to offer the dividends of time and people in the form of volunteerism rather than only offering cash to augment their community profile and contribution. It is a trend sure to continue as there is a strong argument that time and people accomplish more and with added efficiency than a cyclical distribution of funds, although both have true merits. The other overpowering positive to the people commitment is that it directly involves your employees; furnishing them with the opportunity to make a direct difference as well as observing your company commitment to CSR.

This latest example is one that bring a company directly into the community where the employees live and work. Pitney Bowes the large maker of office related hardware and software are continuing along the path of employee engagement with the CSR program. The company has over 36,000 employees and has a good pedigree for employee relations and corporate practices winning the following awards.

“40 Best Companies for Diversity” – Black Enterprise Magazine (2007)
“One of World’s Most Ethical Companies” – Ethisphere Magazine (2007)
“100 Best Corporate Citizens” – CRO Magazine (2007)

Recently sixty Pitney Bowes volunteers in Dallas,Washington, and Atlanta partnered with Reading Is Fundamental to host over 1,300 participants for “Share the Message: READ!” family literacy events. The events were held at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Washington, Cleveland Elementary School in Atlanta, and Robert L. Thornton Elementary School in Dallas.  “Reading is fundamental” were a logical partner for Pitney Bowes. Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. prepares and motivates children to engage in reading and develop better reading skills by delivering free books and literacy resources to the children and families who are most at need. The organisation is over 30 years old and is the most established and biggest childrens and family nonprofit literacy organization in the United States. They have community volunteers in every state a and provide 4.5 million children with 16 million new, free books and literacy resources each year. Kathleen Ryan Mufson VP of Pitney Bowes expands on the commitment:

“Pitney Bowes understands the important role literacy plays in closing the achievement gap. As a company we are committed to supporting worthwhile education programs like RIF in communities where they are needed the most.”

Pitney Bowes volunteers teamed with Reading is Fundamental staff  to  work with both children and parents to understand various communications themes on self-guided tours of the custom made educational activity stations. The work stations focus on communications technology, communicating through the arts, great communicators, language, and animal communication. Each participant was invited to take a tour of the stations as they participate and were given stamps to add to their special passport as the events. Following the passport being filled the child is then allowed to select a book of their choice to take home.
Pitney Bowes plans more events in partnership with the foundation in other cities throughout the year.

Visit RIF’s website at www.rif.org.