Carriers build givers' networks

What do you get when you take four of the largest telecom powerhouses and assess what they're doing for social causes in the communities they serve? The answer in 2005 was more than 15 million hours of volunteering and $300 million in grants and donations. AT&T, BellSouth, Qwest and Verizon Wireless all have been offering their resources and knowledge to a variety of causes over the years, but this year, all four are putting special focus on the classroom.

“We believe in education, especially in the K-12 space, there are a lot of serious issues — we are not graduating enough kids, they are not learning the right skills to the level we need as a country — so we've decided strategically to align ourselves there,” said Ric Padilla, vice president of corporate responsibility for Qwest. “Hopefully, growing more math majors, science majors and engineers can help with having resources that this country needs for workers in the future.”

One example is Qwest's partnership with the Seattle Seahawks to form the Qwest Leadership Challenge. Students from Washington-area schools are nominated based on their involvement with charitable causes and community service. The winning boy and girl receive a $500 donation to the non-profit in which they are involved, as well as a $5000 scholarship toward their college education.

The BellSouth Foundation also is focusing its volunteer efforts, including more than $60 million, on education, an area that BellSouth Foundation President Mary Boehm said is in great need of attention. “Our statistics are very dismal,” she said. “For us to grow and the economy to grow, we are going to have to improve the education of our students and build better citizens and better employees for the 21^st century.”

To commemorate its 20^th anniversary, the foundation created the BellSouth 20/20 program, a partnership with the nine state departments of education in its Southeast region and state-led virtual schools to bring engaging, rigorous, online instruction to students, particularly low-income minority students who are most at risk. The virtual schools will use broadband to bring high-quality teachers via the Web to students who might not have them otherwise, with the ultimate goal of improving the graduation rate for minorities, currently below 50%.

Upon the close of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth, the companies plan to merge their foundations as well. AT&T has committed to matching or surpassing the amount of giving in former BellSouth states, said Laura Sanford, president of the AT&T Foundation.

AT&T also plans to continue its Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), a public/private federal initiative that helps youth from low-income communities attain a post-secondary education. Since the program was founded in 2004, the AT&T Foundation has provided $10 million to implement it in conjunction with the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships. The foundation has established more than 19 new K-16 education partnerships based on the GEAR UP model, reaching approximately 1.5 million low-income middle and high school students in the U.S.

“The hypothesis was that education today is a very complicated issue,” Sanford said. “Something that it takes all community members to be focused on and working together in the same direction to make real progress.”

Keeping kids in school is a key challenge, said Patrick Gaston, president of the Verizon Foundation. With 40 million kids reading below the average literacy level, some third-graders have as strong a chance of going to jail as they have of graduating, he said. Verizon has focused on early-childhood literacy among its educational initiatives.

“When you have those kinds of statistics presented to our company, which depends a great deal on a very informed and educated work force and an informed and educated consumer base, this is clearly an area of opportunity for us to do something about it, not only because it has emphasis on our communities but also because it has impact on our business and the longevity and sustainability of our business and our community,” Gaston said.