Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi Receives Education Innovation Award

Presented by EVERFI at Nasdaq

 Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi was honored at the Education Innovation Awards presented by EVERFI, Inc. at the Nasdaq Marketsite in New York City. The award recognizes the Foundation’s exceptional efforts to strengthen communities and empower students through unique digital learning opportunities. Twenty institutions were honored with this distinction at a ceremony hosted on June 12.

 Honorees were selected based on a set of criteria that included the scale and impact of their digital education initiatives as well as unique student engagement and employee volunteering activities that supplement their programs. The foundation’s Community Digital Scholars program this year involved 25 percent of the 4th-12th grade public school students in its 11-county region. The largest number engaged with the financial literacy segment and, on average, increased their knowledge of personal finance by 91 percent.

“Education is one of the main causes that matters to the Community Foundation’s mission. From our earliest successful efforts to place Internet-accessible computers in all of Mississippi public classrooms, we have used technology to improve education,” said Community Foundation President Tom Pittman. “We appreciate this national recognition of our efforts.”

Since it began with a pilot in Hernando High School in 2010, the Community Digital Scholars program has helped 89,412 students in Northwest Mississippi learn valuable life skills such as personal finance, digital responsibility, and prevention of substance abuse. The web-based program uses the latest in simulation and gaming technologies.

The generosity of a donor who wishes to remain anonymous enables the foundation to provide the Community Digital Scholars program to students at 80 schools with no cost to schools or taxpayers.

The Community Foundation manages 235 donor-established funds and has distributed $18.3 million to support more than 420 charitable organizations and activities recommended by its donors, as well as charitable programs established by the foundation.  Established in 2002 with a generous grant from the Maddox Foundation, the Community Foundation is an independent 501.c.3 charitable organization.

Board Directors of the Community Foundation are Scott Coopwood, Joe Azar, Rev. Bartholomew Orr, Bob Bowen, Kim Brown, Willbert Corley, Wayne Godwin, Tom Gresham, Lillian Hilson, Scott Burnham Hollis, Lucy Janoush, Emily Johnson, Mat Lipscomb, Robert Mehrle, Colie Sanford, Sarah Sawyer, Daniel Vassal, Mike Wagner and Danny Williams. President, Tom Pittman.