The Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation (SMMEF) has met Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp.’s challenge to raise $100,000 by Dec. 31 and has secured a $100,000 matching gift from the Malibu-based company.
This is the second year that Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. has contributed a matching gift to SMMEF, for a total of $250,000 to the organization over two years.
The gift will support the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s Vision for Student Success program.
Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. has made this gift through its EdAhead program, which was established to support education initiatives in the communities where Dun & Bradstreet Credibility’s offices are located.
EdAhead is the nation’s first education savings initiative with a multiple match.
The company first matches 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 activate a second match, with the aggregate per office match amount donated to the local public school system where that office operates.
The matching gift was a major incentive for donations from SMMUSD families and community members and resulted in SMMEF reaching its $100,000 goal on Dec. 5, three and a half weeks early.
“We are humbled by the continued generosity of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. to support our public school students in Malibu and Santa Monica,” SMMEF executive director Linda Greenberg Gross. “It is thrilling to see how this gift really motivated our community to donate to SMMEF and we are excited that we are now $200,000 closer to our annual $4 million goal.”
“We are excited to see that our donation to SMMEF galvanized the community to support its students,” said Jeff Stibel, Chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. “It is an honor to support our local public schools through our EdAhead program. I hope this gift will inspire other businesses to do their part, too.”
In addition to the matching gift, funds will be made available by Dun & Bradstreet Credibility for a high school student internship program during the summer of 2015. In 2014, seven high school students received paid internships and were collectively given over $30,000 in scholarships to use towards college by Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp.
