NBC SPORTS ATHLETE DIRECT AND READING PARTNERS LAUNCH NILE COLLEGE STUDENT-ATHLETE CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE EARLY LITERACY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 30, 2022

NBC SPORTS ATHLETE DIRECT AND READING PARTNERS LAUNCH NILE COLLEGE STUDENT-ATHLETE CAMPAIGN TO PROMOTE EARLY LITERACY

Fifty student-athletes will participate in the NIL campaign by highlighting their summer playlist on social media to drive community engagement and promote literacy

STAMFORD, Connecticut / OAKLAND, Calif. – August 30, 2022 — NBC Sports Athlete Direct, the name, image and likeness (NIL) platform of NBC Sports, and Reading Partners, a national nonprofit early literacy organization that recruits volunteer tutors to work one-on-one with thousands of Students in disadvantaged communities are joining forces with a NIL campaign to promote early literacy, it was announced today.

NBC Sports Athlete Direct is a platform that connects college student-athletes and advertisers through a trusted marketplace, allowing student-athletes to monetize their name, image and likeness. Student-athletes participating in the Reading Partners campaign will post messages to their Instagram feed encouraging reading and highlighting the work Reading Partners is doing with elementary students in communities across the country.

Student-athletes participating in the campaign, which is now live, will highlight a book from their own summer reading list in a post on their Instagram feed, tagging the book directly in their post. Anyone viewing the student-athlete’s Instagram feed will be able to purchase the book by clicking a link in the student-athlete’s Instagram bio. Book orders will be fulfilled by Bookshop.org, which sources its supplies from a network of independent local bookstores. A portion of the proceeds from all book sales will go to Reading Partners.

NBC Sports Athlete Direct will also promote the opportunity for individuals to volunteer to tutor with Reading Partners. For more than 20 years, Reading Partners has helped students across the country succeed in reading and beyond by engaging community volunteers to provide effective one-on-one literacy tutoring. Reading Partners offers in-person tutoring and launched an online tutoring program called Reading Partners Connects in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2021-2022 school year, Reading Partners delivered over 138,000 one-on-one literacy tutoring sessions and since its inception in 1999, Reading Partners has delivered over 2.5 million tutoring sessions to dozens of thousands of students facing economic hardship.

“NBC Sports Athlete Direct is an innovator in the way they use NIL to create both financial opportunities for student-athletes as well as outreach opportunities for non-profit organizations that do crucial work in communities around the world. across the country,” said Adeola Whitney, CEO of Reading Partners. “There are few fundamental issues more important to our long-term individual and societal success than early literacy, so we are honored to partner with NBC Sports Athlete Direct on this initiative.”

“We are delighted to collaborate with Reading Partners on this important initiative to promote early literacy and volunteering,” said Damon Phillips, SVP, NBC Sports Strategic Initiatives. “This NIL campaign is an opportunity for college student-athletes to learn the importance of community service and how to use their voice and platform for causes that align with their personal value system.”

Community involvement will allow Reading Partners to maximize student support:

The past success of Reading Partners has been fueled by the generous participation of thousands of volunteers and community donors. During the 2022-23 school year, Reading Partners will provide direct literacy tutoring and support to more than 9,000 students nationwide in its various learning environments.

To volunteer with Reading Partners, please visit readingpartners.org/volunteer and to financially support Reading Partners’ mission centered on educational equity and opportunity for all students, please visit readingpartners.org/donate.

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About reading partners

For more than 20 years, Reading Partners has helped students succeed in school and beyond by engaging community volunteers to provide one-on-one, proven literacy tutoring. Since its inception, the national nonprofit organization has mobilized more than 75,000 community volunteers to deliver more than 2.5 million one-on-one literacy tutoring sessions to more than 70,000 elementary students in nearly 470 sub-schools. funded in ten states and the District of Columbia. Visit readingpartners.org to learn more about the impact of our program and the innovation of our online Reading Partners Connects program, or connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Reading Partners is a proud AmeriCorps Service Partner and has been endorsed by The New York Times.

About NBC Sports Athlete Direct

“NBC Sports Athlete Direct”, a platform connecting college student-athletes and advertisers through a trusted marketplace, launched in April 2022 and allows student-athletes to monetize their name, image and likeness. Student-athletes from participating universities who sign up for NBC Sports Athlete Direct are offered Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities from advertisers that include monetization of their social media followings in various ways. Through NBC Sports Athlete Direct, NBC Sports works with participating universities to create content for student-athletes focused on NIL best practices. Additionally, NBC Sports and CNBC, the world’s leading business and financial news provider, provide personal financial resources to help student-athletes.