The Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation (SMMEF) raised $643,336 during a five-week matching challenge from SMMEF Corporate Partner Dun & Bradstreet. Inspired by Dun & Bradstreet’s $70,000 matching gift, 1,105 individual gifts were made during the match, which ran from Aug. 4 through Sept. 9.
“We are grateful for Dun & Bradstreet’s visionary match and thrilled with this tremendous display of support for our students at the start of this school year,” said David Vukadinovich, President of the SMMEF Board of Directors. “These funds will directly support incredible arts education, instructional assistants and enrichment programs for every student in the Santa Monica and Malibu public schools.”
Donations to the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation change the lives of students in the Santa Monica-Malibu public schools. Contributions fund excellent programs – from art to STEM to wellness – that shape our future problem solvers, visionaries and global citizens. For a full list of programs, go to smmef.org.
“Investing in education is critical for our community, our employees and our future entrepreneurs,” said Jeff Stibel, Vice Chairman of Dun & Bradstreet. “We are proud to be doing our part in helping to empower the next generation of doers and leaders as a partner of the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation.”
Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation has been a beneficiary of Dun & Bradstreet’s EdAhead program, which was established to support education initiatives in the communities where Dun & Bradstreet offices are located, for four years. The latest match and resulting gifts bring Dun & Bradstreet’s total impact to SMMUSD students to $1,465,831 since 2013.
The vision of EdAhead was to create the nation’s first education savings initiative with a multiple match. The company first matched employees’ contributions to their 529 college education plans, up to a set amount each year, adding the match to each employee’s account on an annual basis. Employee-matched contributions then activated a second match, with the aggregate per office match amount donated to the local public school districts where that office operates.
In addition to the $70,000 matching gift, Dun & Bradstreet donated $30,000 to continue its high school internship and college scholarship program for Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District students during the summer of 2017. Last summer, six high school students participated in the internship program and were given college scholarships.
For more information or to donate, visit smmef.org.
- — Submitted by Ann Conkle, Communications and Events Manager