Children from Colorado to Benefit from New York Times’ Holiday Impact Prize

Pulitzer Prize winner and philanthropist Nicholas Kristof spotlights Reach Out and Read as tackling some of society’s “most pressing challenge;” campaign raises millions for honored organizations

DENVER (Dec. 13, 2024) – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof recently awarded Reach Out and Read the 2024 Holiday Impact Prize in the New York Times! Children in Colorado will reap the benefits; Reach Out and Read Colorado is one of 18 Affiliate regions partnering with the national nonprofit around the award.

Reach Out and Read, the only domestic organization honored by Kristof this year, serves 4.6 million children and families (including 128,213 in Colorado) by incorporating early literacy and relationships into pediatric care.

The Holiday Impact Prize, created by Kristof and supported by Focusing Philanthropy, raises awareness of and drives funding to organizations making a difference in the key issues Kristof covers: health, education, climate, human rights, and women’s rights, both in the U.S. and worldwide. Since 2019, the Holiday Impact Prize and the C-19 Impact Initiative have raised more than $42 million and recruited an estimated 4,600 volunteers for the selected organizations.

As a winner, Reach Out and Read will receive $50,000 and be at the center of a critical fundraising drive. Each year, Kristof compiles this “holiday giving guide” to bridge the gap between readers who want to help but don’t know how and the heroic organizations that desperately need resources but may not be known by donors.

“By ‘prescribing’ books during pediatric visits — and giving the books away for free — Reach Out and Read ushers children onto the magic carpet of reading at an early age for an incredibly inexpensive cost,” Kristof said. “The question isn’t, how can we afford to help these kids? It’s how can we afford not to help them?”

There are plenty of children who need that help. In FY24, Reach Out and Read Colorado served 128,213 children at more than 346,000 well-child visits and distributed 317,650 books. Local donations toward the Holiday Impact Prize will go to Reach Out and Read Colorado.

“The Holiday Impact Prize will profoundly impact families across Colorado, providing them with the tools to nurture early literacy and create meaningful connections through shared reading,” said Reach Out and Read Colorado Chief Executive Officer Patty Fontneau. “The generosity of supporters worldwide is helping us build a brighter future for children, one story at a time.”

By partnering with clinicians in all 50 states, Reach Out and Read leverages well-child visits, using children’s books and shared reading, to support parents and caregivers in building language and literacy skills and strengthening healthy relationships with infants and young children. The nonprofit recently announced a goal to reach 10 million children — half of the U.S. population from birth to 5 — by 2030. Reach Out and Read is working to ensure all children, regardless of race, family structure, or socioeconomic background, have access to their evidence-based model to support brain development and Early Relational Health. This is something Kristof has been vocally supportive of for years.

“Too often we invest in our own children but not in children as a whole. So, the kids who most need help don’t get it until they show up in kindergarten or first grade, when most of brain development has already occurred,” Kristof said.

Reach Out and Read works directly with pediatric care providers to share the lifelong benefits of daily shared reading, starting at birth. And that guidance is sorely needed: Only a third (37 percent) of U.S. babies — and barely a quarter (27 percent) of those in low-income households — are read to every day.

“Nicholas Kristof’s recognition is a testament to the unique power of Reach Out and Read: used shared reading to build a world where every child has the relationships and resources to learn and thrive,” said Reach Out and Read CEO Marty Martinez. “With the support of Kristof and his readers, we can not only raise awareness about the life-changing benefits of reading with young children every day but also expand our work to transform pediatric care, giving millions of under-resourced children a better start to life.”

Thanks to the generosity of the Overdeck Family Foundation, the Einhorn Collaborative, the Hearst Foundations, and an anonymous donor, the first $400,000 raised for Reach Out and Read through the Holiday Impact Prize will be matched dollar for dollar.

Learn more about Reach Out and Read and contribute to their meaningful work at reachoutandread.org/holidayimpact. More information about all four nonprofits and the 2024 prize is at KristofImpact.org. Don’t miss Kristof’s holiday giving column in the New York Times here.