P&G and Communities In Schools Team up with John Legend to Fight the Nation’s Dropout Crisis and Help Students Succeed in School

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) and Communities In Schools (CIS) today announced the launch of GIVE Education, an inspiring new campaign developed to increase awareness of the student dropout crisis in the U.S. and raise funds to help keep millions of students in school. P&G has improved life for more than 300 million children around the world and focused its efforts on helping children in need get off to a healthy start, receive access to education and build skills for life. GIVE Education will enable P&G to touch even more lives by bringing together the power of P&G's education commitment and reach, CIS' innovative programs, and Grammy Award-winning recording artist and philanthropist John Legend's passion for education.

P&G Give Education Campaign spokesperson John Legend with Communities In Schools students (Photo: Business Wire)

Every nine seconds of each school day, a young person drops out of high school in the U.S.¹, and nearly one-third of high school students fail to graduate on time². GIVE Education will raise awareness of and support for CIS, enabling it to continue channeling much-needed resources to students who are at greatest risk of dropping out.

Consumers can take simple steps to help "School the Nation” – the rallying cry behind the campaign – and help keep kids in school through the redemption of GIVE Education brandSAVER coupons and the use of social media tools designed to support the cause and inspire others to do the same. On Sunday, July 31, the GIVE Education brandSAVER, featuring a note from John Legend, will be distributed in newspapers across the country, with discounts for P&G products, including Puffs®, Bounty®, Crest®, Pantene®, Duracell®, Olay® and Tide®. For each GIVE Education brandSAVER coupon redeemed, P&G will donate two cents to CIS – allowing consumers to give back, while saving money. The P&G uncapped donation will help deliver human, financial and community resources to students and their families, including tutoring, mentoring, individual or family counseling, health services, food bank access, college visits and more. The donation will be based on the number of coupons redeemed beginning July 31 – the more consumers save, the more they give.

"Joining forces with CIS and John Legend allows us to support the incredibly important work they do in empowering students to learn and thrive,” said Jim Leish, P&G North America, director of U.S. Operations. "By focusing our social investments on improving life for children and youth, P&G and our brands are able to focus our attention on an area that is critically important, now and for generations to come.”

CIS is one of the nation’s leading dropout prevention organizations, and one that is proven to increase graduation rates and decrease dropout rates. By connecting at-risk students and their families to critical community resources, CIS served more than 3,400 schools and nearly 1.3 million students and their families during the 2008-2009 school year. Of the monitored students that participated in the program, 97 percent remained in school and 91 percent were promoted to the next grade.

"By investing time and resources in our students, we increase the likelihood that they will make positive life choices, succeed academically and finish school prepared to achieve in life,” said Dan Cardinali, president, CIS. "P&G and the GIVE Education campaign are enabling CIS to touch and impact even more of our nation’s youth, making students’ dreams a reality.”

Campaign spokesperson John Legend joins the initiative to generate additional awareness of America’s dropout crisis and the GIVE Education campaign. With a long track record of philanthropic work and deep commitment to education, Legend will be featured in the campaign’s national television spot, as well as in the dedicated GIVE Education brandSAVER coupon booklet and Facebook page.

"By teaming up with P&G and CIS on the GIVE Education campaign, I can further support a cause of great importance to me – ensuring that all kids receive a quality education, regardless of where they grow up,” said Legend. "All students deserve the chance to learn and succeed, but not everyone has the same resources available to do so. My work with GIVE Education will help provide additional resources to CIS so they can continue to help the students who need it most.”

In order to help spread the word about GIVE Education and the availability of coupons that can help others, visit GIVE Education on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pgmygive. Consumers can share content to encourage friends and family to learn more about the dropout crisis, and inspire others to get involved. Newspapers carrying the GIVE Education brandSAVER can be found here.

Consumers can also visit www.teacherwishlist.com for a separate P&G initiative that will be launched by Bounty® and School Family Media on July 26. The new website will enable parents to easily support their children’s teachers with the supplies needed to ensure a successful school year – another way that P&G is helping to support education.

To learn more about the national dropout crisis, visit www.communitiesinschools.org. GIVE Education is part of the P&G GIVE program, a social sustainability platform designed to inspire and enable people to use their everyday purchases to touch lives and improve life.

About Communities In Schools
Communities In Schools (CIS) is one of the nation’s leading dropout prevention organizations, and one that is proven to increase graduation rates and decrease dropout rates. CIS surrounds students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. Through a school-based coordinator, CIS connects students and their families to critical community resources, tailored to local needs. Working in more than 3,400 schools in the most challenged communities, in 25 states and the District of Columbia, CIS focuses its activities in the most disadvantaged districts, serving nearly 1.3 million young people and their families every year. Please visit www.communitiesinschools.org to learn more about CIS.

About P&G GIVE
P&G GIVE is a social sustainability platform designed to inspire and enable people to use their everyday purchases to touch lives and improve life. GIVE embodies P&G’s deep commitment to social responsibility and is designed to touch lives and improve life through three pillars: GIVE Hope, GIVE Health and GIVE Education. Each pillar is tied to the P&G brandSAVER, where donations from each coupon redeemed are made to a charity partner, making it simple for consumers to give back without having to spend a lot of time or money. By enabling consumers to address critical social issues affecting our communities, GIVE helps P&G fulfill its purpose of touching and improving lives, now and for generations to come.

About Procter & Gamble
Four billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Mach3®, Bounty®, Dawn®, Gain®, Pringles®, Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Oral-B®, Duracell®, Olay®, Head & Shoulders®, Wella®, Gillette®, Braun® and Fusion®. The P&G community includes approximately 127,000 employees working in about 80 countries worldwide. Please visit www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.

¹ Children's Defense Fund, Moments in America for Children, November 2005 Based on calculations per school day (180 days of seven hours each)
² Alliance for Excellent Education IssueBrief, August 2009; sourced from Editorial Projects in Education, "Diplomas Count 2009: Broader Horizons: The Challenge of College Readiness for All Students,” Education Week 28, no. 34 (2009).

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