MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: PNC BANK HELPS KIDS GROW UP GREAT

April may only have had 30 days, but it was still a “Great” month, especially for PNC Bank. This April PNC celebrated 19 years of its PNC Grow Up Great program. Launched in 2004, PNC Grow Up Great is built on the idea that education is a powerful means for economic and social mobility. PNC supports programs that help to prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life.

“PNC learned early on that it’s important to get involved in children’s lives, especially in that birth to age 5 range. It’s critical to help kids have a better-balanced future,” said Kyle Myers, regional president and head of Corporate Banking. “Because we’re bankers, not educators, we’ve collaborated from the start with education experts at the local and national level to develop resources and programs that help children grow.”

Over the past 18 years, PNC Grow Up Great has contributed $225 million through grants and education programs supporting more than 8 million children. Employees have contributed more than 1 million volunteer hours and helped raise $9 million for partner organizations.

In Kansas City, PNC Grow Up Great supports six partners: EarlystART, El Centro, Growing Futures, Operation Breakthrough, The Family Conservancy, Science City at Union Station. PNC was able to support each partner this April through “Great Month” – a month-long focus on its service efforts by facilitating supply drives, school visits, special programs, volunteer events and more. Employees collected garden supplies for spring lesson kits, read books in schools and helped give Growing Futures something it had never had before: a school library.

 “We’re proud to be involved in changing the future of Growing Futures,” said Myers. “They were formed in 1965 and they’ve never had a library before. This will give them access to books, and that’s what PNC Grow Up Great does. It provides kids with access to things they might not normally have access to.”

Myers said PNC wants to make sure teachers don’t feel alone. “More than 100 PNC employees recently put together 150 kits that will go to four of our early education partners to help their teachers, so they don’t feel overwhelmed. It’s another resource PNC has that can support them.”

PNC also supported teachers through a surprise flash funding of pre-K and Head Start teacher requests at DonorsChoose, funding 10 projects locally at more than $19,000. But it hasn’t stopped there. Now through May 31, the PNC Foundation will also match, dollar for dollar, donations that support pre-K and Head Start projects listed here. The match is designed to encourage others to help support preschool programs in public or charter schools and Head Start classrooms.

Grow Up Great has had a measurable impact in Kansas City. Since launching here in 2017:

• KC PNC employees volunteered a total of 11,838 hours.
• $80,500 has been earned for Grow Up Great organizations through PNC’s Grants for Great employee volunteer hours program. 

Beyond the Great Month of April, Kansas Citians can see the impact of Grow Up Great year-round at the Kauffman Center for the performing arts. In 2018, PNC partnered with the Kauffman Center to create the Grow Up Great Gallery in the Plaza Lobby. It showcases hundreds of handprints created by students at Growing Futures and EarlystART. "We've been doing this for several years and we have kids who come back and they go find their handprint on that wall located in a world-renowned performing arts center. It's incredible to see the smiles and confidence in the kids when they see their handprints still there," said Myers. "That confidence is limitless, and what it does for us here in Kansas City is giving us brighter leaders for the future."