#AltecGives, Altec

Altec Donation Supports Teaching At-Risk 2nd Graders How to Read


Earlier in the year Altec kicked of its philanthropic campaign for 2018, #AltecGives, to provide a platform for the company and our employees to support national and local charities that we believe are making a change with families and children, education, and health and technological advancements.

We are proud to announce the results of our Change for Change campaign.  Altec employees contributed their spare change and dollars, and with the company matching the amount collected, Altec has made a $650 donation to support a local program, The Literacy Project.

The Literacy Project, whose mission is to remove the impediment of illiteracy from the lives of our most vulnerable children with the help of teachers, volunteers, mentors and role models. The Literacy Project addresses illiteracy at its earliest stage by teaching at-risk second-graders how to read.

The statistics on literacy (from The Literacy Project and DoSomething.org) underscore the critical need to address illiteracy in the United States:

  • Currently, 45 million Americans are functionally illiterate and cannot read above a fifth-grade level
  • Reports show that the rate of low literacy in the United States directly costs the healthcare industry over $70 million every year.
  • Students who don’t read proficiently by the 3rd grade are 4 times likelier to drop out of school.
  • Nearly 85% of the juveniles who face trial in the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate, proving that there is a close relationship between illiteracy and crime. More than 60% of all inmates are functionally illiterate.

“We received an overwhelming positive response from employees to our #AltecGives campaign, and the funds we collected for The Literacy Project support our combined belief that reading IS fundamental to having a creative and successful society,” said April Blankenship, Altec’s Director of Marketing.

For more information about the work The Literacy Project is doing, check out their website at https://www.literacyprojectfoundation.org/