ROR Awards and Honors Reach Out and Read Receives Fast Company's Social Capitalist Award In December, Fast Company Magazine and the Monitor Group named Reach Out and Read as one of the winners of their fifth annual Social Capitalist Award. The award recognizes outstanding performance by entrepreneurial organizations in the non-profit sector, and honors our work putting books into the hands of children who need them the most. ROR joins 44 non-profits nationwide who were recognized for using the tools of business to solve the world's most pressing social problems - ranging from substandard healthcare in developing nations to unequal education access, homelessness, unemployment, and substance abuse in the United States - and who have demonstrated a "consistent and unusually large impact on society." For five years, Fast Company has partnered with global consulting firm Monitor Group to identify, evaluate, and recognize top-performing nonprofit organizations. The Awards assess social entrepreneurial organizations of different sizes and ages across social sectors as an effort to further performance measurement and accountability in the social sector in a highly rigorous, data-driven, comparative approach.        ROR Awarded UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy We are pleased to announce that Reach Out and Read received the 2007 Confucius Prize for Literacy, one of the five UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Literacy Prizes awarded this year. The selection was made by the Director-General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, on the recommendation of an international jury. The award recognizes the efforts and dedication of ROR doctors and nurses across the country. In addition to recognition by international media and health and educational organizations, ROR received $20,000, which we have designated for international growth and expansion. Perri Klass, MD, ROR's Medical Director and President, accepted the UNESCO award at a ceremony held on September 10, 2007, in Bamako, Mali, during the African Regional Conference in Support of Global Literacy. She also traveled to Qufu, China, to participate in a ceremony for Confucius Prize recipients. Dr. Klass reflected on the experience, saying, "This was really a remarkable honor and recognition. It's an international prize which is awarded to a program in a particular country which is felt to be doing an extraordinary and effective job - we were being recognized on an international scale as an example for what we do for kids in the U.S." The UNESCO prizes are awarded annually in recognition of particularly effective contributions to the fight against illiteracy, one of UNESCO's foremost priorities. They call attention to the efforts of thousands of men and women who devote themselves year after year to advancing the cause of literacy for all. The theme for this year's prize was "Literacy and Health;" in particular, literacy related to general health care, nutrition, family and reproductive health, and health-related community development. The other projects recognized are located in China, Nigeria, Senegal, and the United Republic of Tanzania. Charity Navigator Awards Reach Out and Read Four Stars for a Third Consecutive Year For the third consecutive year, Charity Navigator has awarded ROR four stars, its highest rating and a distinction earned by only 8% of the non-profits Charity Navigator evaluates. This coveted rating means that ROR outperforms most other charities in America with respect to fiscal responsibility and financial soundness. Charity Navigator, America's premier independent charity evaluator, works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of over 5,300 of America's largest charities. Perri Klass, MD, Honored as 2007 AAP Education Award Recipient ROR Medical Director Perri Klass, MD, received the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2007 Education Award in recognition of the impact her work with ROR has had on child health, her innovative contributions to the field of pediatrics, and her participation in the policy-making arena on behalf of pediatric education. She was recognized by the Academy at their national conference, held in San Francisco in September.   Return