MoneyGram Foundation award grants to six organizations

MoneyGram , a leading global money transfer and payment services company, today announced the distribution of six grants through the MoneyGram Foundation. The foundation, launched in 2012, distributed 14 grants to programs in 10 countries in 2013.

Building on its inaugural year of grants in 2013, MoneyGram's on-going commitment to fund global education initiatives through the MoneyGram Foundation will continue in 2014 and expand its reach in part thanks to a new fundraising program. The foundation has begun outside fundraising from employees, agents and vendors, with MoneyGram matching all employee donations to the foundation 100%.


"I am excited that so many of our employees have chosen to support the MoneyGram Foundation through our new fundraising program and by recommending worthy organizations around the world for grants," said Julia Taylor, president of the MoneyGram Foundation and vice president of corporate strategy at MoneyGram. "The foundation builds on MoneyGram's long history of philanthropic giving. The enthusiasm from our employees for the foundation's work reaffirms our passion for supporting transformational education programs in the communities where MoneyGram consumers live and work."


The MoneyGram Foundation awarded grants to six organizations for its first round of grants in 2014 to fund the following programs:


• Primary and secondary school scholarships and the construction of a new boarding house and computer lab for orphans living at the Maisha house in rural Kenya through the Gracias Foundation


• The operation of three Mobile Science Labs through the Agastya International Foundation. Each lab will travel to 30 schools in rural India and teach children using hands-on science models in physics, chemistry, biology and math. Each lab will impact over 7,000 children.


• A summer reading program for more than 100 children and after-school tutoring for at-risk children in Bentonville, Bella Vista and Rogers, Arkansas through the Boys & Girls Club of Benton County.

• The construction of a kindergarten in the rural Tay Giang district of Vietnam, where less than 47% of children enroll in kindergarten, through Children of Vietnam.


• Project Discovery, a yearlong after school program that brings together a diverse group of teens from underrepresented high schools across North Texas to provide theater arts education and access to professional theater productions at Dallas Theater Center, cultivating them as artists and critical thinkers.


• The research and creation of core files for the 2014-2015 debate season to be used by students in the Dallas, Boston and Minnesota Urban Debate Alliances to prepare for competition. The urban debate alliances serve at-risk students in urban high schools throughout the country. The materials will also be translated into Spanish and Somali language.


"The MoneyGram Foundation is proud to support these great organizations doing important work to ensure children around the world have access to quality education," said Pamela H. Patsley, chairman and chief executive officer, MoneyGram. "MoneyGram believes education transforms lives, and the foundation is privileged to work with worthy organizations that are providing life-changing education programs to those who need them the most."


To learn more about the MoneyGram Foundation and the projects it supports, please visit moneygramfoundation.org.