Read Me!

Middle school kids in Boston, Miami, and Tampa take a field trip this fall to see local actors perform the first chapter of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (and Slam by Walter Dean Myers, and Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff). When the plot thickens the actors stop, and the kids go back to school to read the rest of one book themselves, with a tutor or teacher. Six weeks later, everyone who finished a book takes a second field trip to act it out with the performers, present their own story, song, poem, or painting on-stage, and have a party. That’s Coca-Cola marketing dollars at work.

It’s First Chapter, run by law firm Holland & Knight with $50,000 from Coke by way of Reading is Fundamental. Non-profit RIF gave 19 “ingenuity grants” this summer to experimental literacy programs that show promise for national use. Holland & Knight Charitable Foundation has requests from most of its 27 offices to do First Chapter locally; Coke’s money funds the first three cities, with three more pending.

“Kids love the accomplishment of actually finishing a whole book,” says program director Angela Ruth. “Plus, they love the attention.”

Meanwhile, at-risk kindergarteners in rural Kentucky spent two weeks at Camp Readalot (in tents in their classroom) honing skills with Reading Recovery teachers on a $25,000 grant from Coke and RIF. On Fridays, their parents joined field trips to the library and the courthouse’s technology lab, whose computers give residents online access. Families get free subscriptions to the local paper and two kids’ magazines. Camp made the hard work of reading fun, says project director Rebecca Isaacs: “One girl said, ‘I really like this place!’ as if she hadn’t been [in the classroom] before. She didn’t connect it with school.”

Coke funds RIF’s ingenuity grants as part of its $18 million donation to RIF that began last year (timed to Coke’s tie-in with Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) and runs through 2003.

“It’s a huge and episodic addition to our capacity,” says RIF senior vp-chief operating officer Dick Sells. “Elements in that partnership have been on our wish list for a long time.”

Coke chose RIF because its 400,000-volunteer network fits Coke’s bottler network. “We get additional arms and legs, so it’s a local as well as national effort,” says Coke’s Melissa Fahs. “RIF knows reading and we know distribution.”

It’s the most visible literacy tie-in of late, but Coke’s not alone at the bookshelf. Interest has been growing since the late 80s and may accelerate around 2005, when schools don’t meet reading standards set by the No Child Left Behind law of January 2002.

“When schools show up three years from now as failing to make adequate progress, the government, non-profits, marketers, and citizens will all have to step up and help,” says Sells. “There’s a great opportunity for corporate America to help over the long term.”

Literacy is such a widely acceptable cause that it attracts corporate partners more easily than niche or controversial non-profits. That lets literacy programs home in on marketing dollars, not just philanthropic donations, says Kyle Zimmer, president and co-founder of First Book, which gives books to kids via tutoring programs in 700 cities. Washington, DC-based First Book “was designed from the outset to focus on marketing revenues,” says Zimmer. “There has to be a seat for business at the table of social change.”

Still, money has been tight this year. “Corporate foundations are re-evaluating funding as their stock values fall,” says Dale Lipschultz, literacy officer for the American Library Association. “That makes it important for literacy programs to be accountable.”

Some non-profits strive to get books to kids; others focus on teaching reading skills.

“Three years ago corporations just wanted to do book drives. Now they’re more interested in being strategic, and they’ll focus on teaching reading,” says Emily Kirkpatrick, corporate relations manager for the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL).

RIF — the biggest and oldest U.S. program — prefers what Sells calls “multiple-layer engagement” with corporate donations, match of employee donations, and a volunteer program for employees. Verizon, Nestlé USA, and Fidelity Financial are among RIF’s most involved partners. The Washington, DC-based non-profit fields many pitches offering a cut of product-launch profits in exchange for RIF’s name. “We don’t go there,” warns Sells. “We won’t rent RIF’s images to a marketer whose only interest in using RIF’s credibility for a three-month campaign.”

RIF vets potential partners through a series of meetings. It spent six months talking with the Toys ‘R’ Us Foundation, which approached RIF to extend Toys’ donation program to hospitals. The result broke last month in Toys ‘R’ Us’ 700 U.S. stores. Shoppers can add a RIF donation to their total at checkout, and TRU will match it. P-O-P, p.r., and in-store events support the two-month campaign. RIF also linked Paramus, NJ-based TRU to longtime partner Scholastic Books to put a commemorative 35th anniversary Clifford The Big Red Dog book in TRU stores this fall, with a donation to RIF for each copy sold.

Coke first approached RIF in the late 90s as it mulled youth marketing. Talks resumed in late 2000 as Atlanta-based Coke contracted to sponsor Warner Bros.’ three Harry Potter films (June 2001 PROMO). The resulting Reading Takes You Places campaign includes 15 Story Traveler vehicles that will make 500 visits this year. The refurbished Coke delivery trucks — painted with Potter-style graphics — tour schools (coordinated by RIF chapters), kids’ clubs, and retailers (coordinated by bottlers), reading and giving kids books to keep.

“It’s important for our [retail] customers to show their community support,” says Fahs. One supermarket cart pusher asked the Story Traveler staff to help him learn to read, and Coke gets thank-you letters from shoppers.

“People are still surprised that Coke and RIF are working together on such a huge production to stimulate interest in reading,” says Fahs.

“It was perfect, because Harry Potter really re-engaged kids, especially middle-schoolers and young teens,” says Sells, who stresses that Coke’s tie to RIF is separate from its Potter deal.

In fact, Harry Potter has been a hurdle for RIF: Its policy prohibits endorsement of specific books. The literacy link may connect RIF to Harry Potter in consumers’ minds, and RIF is sensitive to complaints that Harry Potter books are about witchcraft.

“We’re partners in an activity, which is literacy,” says Sells. “Coke’s staff and our staff are very direct with each other about managing the issue so we don’t get into a position that detracts from what we’re doing together because of a taint of witchcraft.”

Coke’s Harry Potter tie-in targets families, “especially parents with a passion for Harry Potter,” says Fahs. And Coke/RIF activities have little to no branding, so “it’s not an effort to target children at all.” Coke’s clean-classroom policy keeps its name off the 10,000 classroom libraries that Coke funds. “I’ve surprised RIF several times by saying, ‘Take our logo off,’” says Fahs.

All in the Family

Coke works occasionally with First Book, which gave away 12,000 books and had one partnership its first year, 1992. Last year it gave away seven million via dozens of corporate partners.

This summer Lincoln Mercury and First Book reprised Drive for Literacy, a 10-market tour that sent residents of Del Webb retirement communities driving a Mercury Grand Marquis from one Del Webb location to the next, racking up a donation of five books per mile (30,000 books in all). Consumers who test-drove the Grand Marquis at Del Webb communities triggered a local 10-book donation from partner Random House Children’s Books.

Last year, Lincoln Mercury toured 61 cities to launch Mountaineer, donating $1 million to First Book and hosting local events for the non-profit’s chapters. Lincoln had a broader launch strategy in mind when it approached First Book to be a grassroots partner, but ended up using the Washington, DC-based non-profit as the launch cornerstone. “They saw we were good business partners,” says Zimmer.

She rejects the idea that too many tie-ins risk clutter: “It’s our responsibility to manage our assets and provide differentiation for partners,” she says. “We have a lot of different programs; every effective non-profit does.”

NCFL borrows its partners’ business expertise. Toyota, a patron for 11 years (and $17 million), helped build NCFL’s infrastructure and lends execs to do training. Verizon offers marketing and p.r. prowess, and its three-year-old checkoff program lets customers donate to NCFL (almost $600,000 so far) while paying the phone bill. Unilever’s Snuggle fabric softener collaborates on a multi-year campaign and supported National Bedtime Story Month (April) with p.r. events, a contest, and reading tips at snuggle.com via Unilever p.r. shop Cairns & Associates, New York City. Snuggle also sponsored Zany Brainy’s seven-year-old Summer Reading Club that donates to NCFL for each book sold in Zany Brainy’s 169 toy stores.

This year, Wal-Mart Stores’ charitable foundation launched a $3.3 million national grant program giving $1,000 grants to local literacy and ESL programs in each of its 3,300 markets. Store managers and “community involvement coordinators” choose from non-profits, schools, and governments that apply.

Literacy leaders praise Atlanta-based Verizon for its $22 million Verizon Reads program, an offshoot of Verizon Foundation. Both GTE Corp. and Bell Atlantic supported literacy before their 2000 merger to form Verizon. The wireless company and American Library Association (ALA) run the Verizon Literacy Network, an online directory of literacy organizations (buildliteracy.org), and this fall add Verizon Literacy University to train new volunteers online. (There are only enough trained volunteers now to meet 10 percent of the demand.) Each year Verizon gives ALA libraries bookmarks with info on its literacy network — and 10 minutes of phone time.

Playing the Library Card

The ALA last year began a five-year effort themed “@ Your Library: The Campaign for America’s Libraries” to promote information skills. Morningstar Foods pitched Hershey’s Milk Chug to teens with a Drive to Read @ Your Library essay contest on ALA-recommended books. Winners (and their sponsoring librarians) won a trip to the Miami Speedway to meet NASCAR driver and Hershey’s Chug spokesperson Ward Burton.

Major League Baseball hosted an online trivia contest that used library resources to answer questions; all correct entries went in a random drawing for World Series tickets. This fall, 10 libraries use grants from new multi-year partner Wells Fargo to host home ownership seminars led by Wells Fargo consultants using ALA’s list of resources.

“Many libraries embrace corporate cause marketing — and many don’t. Some say, ‘We’re publicly funded,’ and others want all the help they can get,” says Deborah Davis, manager of The Campaign for America’s Libraries at Chicago-based ALA. ALA’s board vets all partnerships, and programs are voluntary for libraries.

Supporting literacy pleases employees too, says Zimmer: “There’s a basic hunger to do the right thing.”