Philadelphia, March 24, 2016—Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in Philadelphia, and Wells Fargo, a diversified, community-based financial services company, have partnered to help transform literacy instruction to ensure children in Philadelphia read proficiently by third grade. Wells Fargo presented CLI with a $50,000 check, which will go toward Philadelphia’s Early Literacy Project during the 2015-2016 school year.
CLI, an approved Educational Improvement Organization under the 2015 Pennsylvania state Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program, requested that the money be designated to the EITC tax credits. Any contribution allocated 2015-2016 EITC donation supports its Philadelphia Early Literacy Project.
Throughout the five-year strategic plan, Philadelphia’s Early Literacy Project (2015-2016) provides CLI targeted training, in-school coaching and classroom materials to high-need elementary school students through enhanced educator instruction.
“Wells Fargo’s generous donation of $50,000 to CLI’s Philadelphia Early Literacy Project allows CLI to continue its work in the School District of Philadelphia. By investing in this project, Wells Fargo supports CLI’s mission to improve student reading achievement,” said CLI CEO Joel Zarrow. “This contribution demonstrates commitment to invest in quality teaching and educators and resources within our community.”
“Children’s Literacy Initiative is seeing results in closing the literacy gap between disadvantaged children and their more affluent counterparts,” said A.J. Jordan, Wells Fargo’s Community Affairs Manager for Pennsylvania and Delaware. “At Wells Fargo, we’re proud of our role in supporting this work that helps teachers transform their instruction and encourages children to enjoy reading at an earlier age.”
Established in 1988, Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI) is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, headquartered in Philadelphia, that is focused on improving literacy instruction in public, charter and parochial schools to ensure that students can read by third grade. CLI’s program provides personalized coaching for teachers and principals, research-based literacy training, and the books and materials classrooms need so that students can become powerful readers, writers and thinkers. Third-party research has shown that CLI professional development model can improve both educators’ early literacy instruction and also student reading achievement. Connect with CLI on Twitter @CLIupdates, on Facebook at Facebook.com/ChildrensLiteracyInitiative and via www.cli.org.
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.8 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through 8,700 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 36 countries to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 265,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 30 on Fortune’s 2015 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Wells Fargo perspectives are also available at Wells Fargo Blogs and Wells Fargo Stories.
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