PITTSBURGH, Pa. – PNC Financial Services Group Inc. is kicking off Great Month, its annual celebration of PNC Grow Up Great and high-quality early childhood education, by announcing new initiatives with two longtime collaborators.
The PNC Foundation announced a $6.2 million grant to Sesame Workshop to support a multiyear school readiness effort focused on outdoor and play-based learning. This initiative will develop new resources to help young children build school readiness skills in science, math and literacy, and will encourage them to explore their interests and form connections that support early learning.
New Sesame Street Muppet videos, printable activity sheets, articles and an outdoor science web-based adult learning app are available this week at SesameWorkshop.org and PNCGrowUpGreat.com. A Sesame Street Go Outside … Grow Outside growth chart will be available Wednesday in PNC branches.
“We know that all experiences can spark learning, especially when a child is curious about what’s around them,” said Sally McCrady, chair and president of the PNC Foundation. “These new resources will help families build on children’s curiosity to learn through simple daily activities, from counting bounces of a ball at the playground to noticing how birds blend into tree branches.”
Additionally, PNC Grow Up Great has fully funded nearly 1,000 DonorsChoose classroom projects totaling nearly $600,000, submitted by public pre-K and Head Start teachers in the communities where PNC employees live and work.
The projects align with the mission and focus areas of PNC Grow Up Great, with supplemental support directed to needs related to health, sports and wellness and warmth, care and hunger. PNC and DonorsChoose, an education nonprofit that allows individuals to donate directly to classroom projects, have collaborated since 2017 to help teachers obtain quality resources and experiences for students in public pre-K, public charter and Head Start classrooms. The $20 million alliance has used flash funds, match offers, DonorsChoose gift codes and jumpstart donations to support early childhood learning.
Throughout April, PNC Grow Up Great and DonorsChoose will spotlight the creativity of early childhood educators who are designing innovative outdoor play and learning experiences. During Great Month, public pre-K and Head Start teachers in PNC communities will be invited to submit outdoor-focused classroom projects through DonorsChoose. Qualifying projects will receive a $500 jumpstart donation from PNC Grow Up Great to help expand hands-on learning and exploration for young learners.
To empower employee volunteerism and participation in PNC’s volunteer grant program, PNC announced that beginning Wednesday, volunteer grants will double for individual and team volunteers. Previously offered as Double the Impact grants, the new amounts range from a $2,000 grant for an individual who volunteers 40 hours with an approved partner to $6,000 for a four- to 10-person team that combines for 100 hours.
PNC’s paid volunteerism policy provides employees up to 40 hours of paid time off each year to volunteer with approved organizations, and volunteers have earned more than $12 million in grants for PNC Grow Up Great partners. This year, employees can support outdoor learning by assembling Discover Math in Nature! activity kits, reading nature-themed books in pre-K classrooms and assembling bird houses, bug hotels and sunshine crafts.
More information is available HERE.