The “Bright Spots and Silver Linings” theme for GLR Week 2021 is resonating. Chosen to reflect the relentless optimism of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (CGLR), our theme and outlook are being embraced widely as communities across the nation look toward a post-pandemic future of resilience, recovery and resurgence. Much the same is the case with our encouragement to name the “keepers” — those pandemic-driven adjustments, adaptations and innovations that should become embedded in the emerging new normal.

Hopefully your calendar will allow you to participate in one or more of the over two dozen state- and community-sponsored events and/or the daily plenary sessions being sponsored by CGLR. As a local Funder you might wish to afford special consideration to Wednesday’s Crucible of Practice “deep dive” exploration of The Patterson Foundation’s “more than money philanthropy” approach to digital equity challenge in the Suncoast Communities and Thursday’s Funder-to-Funder Conversation (co-hosted with United Philanthropy Forum) illuminating an inside philanthropy view on the aspirations for the recently announced Care for All with Respect and Equity (CARE) Fund. (Needless to say, we are honored and delighted to disclose that all four presenting foundations in the two sessions are Enterprise Investors in CGLR.) Please join us if you can.

In many respects, GLR Week 2021 is a capstone for an extraordinary 18 months. In late January, CGLR confirmed its strategic priorities and, just two months later, pivoted to prioritize the activation of its community stakeholder coalitions, especially local funders, to slow and stop the devastating learning loss resulting from the pandemic-driven school closures and to jumpstart what we anticipated would become an equally urgent need to accelerate equitable learning recovery. This activation was accomplished by deploying the full potential of our Learning and Engagement Opportunity (LEO) Framework. A diverse “faculty” of 519 moderators, presenters and commentators contributed to 129 online events for which 28,486 people (10,435 unique individuals) registered. As we intended, that “faculty” included the key decision-makers (chief state school officers, district and school leaders, parents, teachers) and leaders of their respective membership organizations. Thought leaders, subject-matter experts, social entrepreneurs, organizers and advocates were well represented also. That combination explains why we are unsurprised and quite pleased with reports on the tangible decisions and actions resulting from the data-, practice- and science-informed presentations, conversations, options and tools.

CGLR’S NETWORKED LEARNING & ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

RESULTS OF CGLR’S OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT EFFORTS

This work was made possible by our funders that, faced with the unprecedented demands occasioned by the pandemic, continued and renewed their grants to CGLR. Among the most recent, the Bezos Family Foundation, Buffett Early Childhood Fund, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, Heinz Endowments, Heising-Simons, The Patterson Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Moreover, our first-ever appeal elicited support from a number of generous individuals and family funds, most of whom choose to remain anonymous. We are grateful for that financial support and even more so for their valuable advice, guidance and perspective. And most of all, we are deeply appreciative they all understand and share the sentiment that the accomplishment of which we are most proud is that so many local funders — United Ways, community foundations, family foundations, corporate-giving programs and others — have chosen to support the local GLR campaigns in 350+ communities. That is, in every way, a very big deal.

Looking forward,
Ralph R. Smith
Managing Director

The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (CGLR) Appreciates the Generous Support of Our Enterprise Investors From 2012–2021