At a time when the demand for Read to Lead is growing among middle school teachers and students across the country, corporations have been stepping up to provide key pro bono support. 

With expertise in strategic planning, public relations, marketing, and digital strategy, teams from Morgan Stanley, NBCUniversal, and PwC have equipped the Read to Lead team with the guidance and tools to help our efforts to scale our impact over the next several years. 

Here is an inside look at how corporate pro bono support has allowed us to strengthen our approach in three vital areas:

Morgan Stanley: A financial modeling framework to support strategic planning

Morgan Stanley volunteers and the Read to Lead team engaged in a half-day ScopeAthon to evaluate our current financial planning process and find ways to align it more deeply with our organizational strategy. As Read to Lead hires a Chief Financial Officer to bring financial expertise in-house, the Morgan Stanley team helped us consider how the new role could effectively facilitate the growth and impact of the organization. With their valuable insights, we also began the process of shaping an internal communications strategy that strengthens the link between increased investment and organizational outcomes. 

NBCUniversal: Impactful storytelling to raise the visibility of Read to Lead 

NBCUniversal invited Read to Lead to participate in a one-day clinic that connected our team with two NBCU experts in marketing and communications. Together, we performed a deep dive into Read to Lead’s rebrand efforts, discussing PR strategies that could help elevate name and organizational recognition among key audiences. Through the brainstorming process, the NBCU team worked with us to create a comprehensive plan that included identifying impactful stories about Read to Lead students and teachers, highlighting engaging infographics and data, and finding opportunities to collaborate with teachers, donors, and other stakeholders. 

“At NBCUniversal, we find skills-based consulting opportunities extremely rewarding for all involved. Not only through the suggestions our skilled employees provide to nonprofit organizations, but through the connections made between our employees and organizations making an impact on their communities. Supporting meaningful causes through skill sharing is a truly collaborative and impactful experience.” – Samantha Cammarata, Sr. Manager, Partnerships & Engagement, Corporate Social Responsibility

PwC: Search engine optimization (SEO) to help teachers discover Read to Lead

During a half-day ScopeAthon, PwC volunteers helped the Read to Lead team tackle the challenge of driving organic search engine traffic to the organization’s website. They worked with us to help outline an action plan, which included identifying external training resources on SEO for staff members, documenting SEO leading practices, and understanding how to improve the user journey for website visitors. With an improved SEO strategy, Read to Lead aims to reach middle school teachers who are looking for an effective literacy tool, but may not be familiar with Read to Lead. 

Read to Lead was able to work with teams from Morgan Stanley and PwC thanks to the Taproot Foundation, a national nonprofit organization that connects social change organizations with passionate business professionals who share their expertise pro bono. Likewise, Read to Lead was a participant in NBCUniversal’s one-day clinic with the support of PYXERA Global, whose mission is to reinvent how public, private, and social interests engage to solve global challenges.