After a week of shopping on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, Malibu residents have an opportunity to support local schools, beginning on #GivingTuesday.
Dun & Bradstreet has announced that starting on #GivingTuesday, Dec. 1, the company will match every dollar donated through Dec. 31 to the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation (SMMEF), as well as provide additional funds for an internship and college scholarship program.
The company will match donations to SMMEF up to $90,000, and has also pledged an additional $20,000 to continue its summer high school internship program and college scholarship fund for students in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD), according to a press release. During the summer of 2015, six high school students participated in the internship and were awarded scholarship funds.
“We are pleased to launch this matching grant for SMMEF and to continue our impactful internship program next summer,” Jeff Stibel, Vice Chairman of Dun & Bradstreet, stated in a press release. “We hope that the matching gift will inspire other individuals and businesses across our community to join us in supporting our local public schools.”
Dun & Bradstreet’s program — EdAhead — was created in order to support educational initiatives in the communities where Dun & Bradstreet’s offices are located. SMMEF has received over $340,000 from EdAhead over the last three years.
“We are so appreciative of Dun & Bradstreet’s generous gift,” SMMEF executive director Linda Greenberg said in a release. “For the last three years, they have been a tremendous partner and champion for education in our community.”
SMMEF has received $109,816 in corporate donations so far this school year, not including Dun & Bradstreet’s pledge.
The foundation also participated in #GivingTuesday by hosting donation tables at several schools across the district. The movement was created to encourage people to donate after Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales have ended.
According to figures provided by Ann Conkle, SMMEF communications and events manager, districtwide, 25 percent of families have donated to the foundation as of Nov. 30, while 8.8 percent of Malibu families have given this year, compared to 4.3 percent last year.
SMMEF-funded staff and programs include arts education for the district’s 4,900 elementary students, 87 instructional assistants and enrichment grants for all 16 schools in the district. Many schools use these grants to provide science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) or visual and performing arts programs. Point Dume Marine Science Elementary and Webster Elementary schools have used some of their allocated money to fund programs such as Planet Bravo, a computer multimedia literacy educational program.
SMMEF was founded by a dedicated group of parents, community leaders and local business owners in 1982 in response to crushing federal and state budget cuts, according to its website. Since then, SMMEF has aimed to enhance and supplement SMMUSD coffers.