By Jennifer Van Pelt
An image of the City National Bank logo, which features a latter and the tagline "The way up."
Words Alive's signature fundraising event is the Annual Author's Luncheon & Fundraiser. Celebrating its 15th year, the Author's Luncheon has featured world renowned authors such as Salman Rushdie, Jodi Picoult, and Isabel Allende.
Taking place each fall, the Author's Luncheon is attended by over 600 patrons that include book lovers, philanthropists, educators, civic organizations, and people invested in creating a more literate and thriving San Diego. This intellectual, elegant, and fast-paced fundraising event helps Words Alive raise over $200,000 annually, funds that make up a considerable portion of what Words Alive needs to continue serving thousands of children and families each year.
This event would not be possible without the support of our sponsors, the generous people, companies, and organizations who know how important literacy is for a successful and thriving community, and support our mission of opening opportunities of life success by inspiring a commitment to reading.
An image of Words Alive Executive Director, Patrick Stewart, and Volunteer Program Manager, Christina Meeker, with representatives from City National Bank.
City National Bank is a Southern California based company with 71 offices nationwide that offer banking, trust, and investment services. Their commitment to highly personalized service and corporate social responsibility has quickly brought them to the top. They have been recognized for excellence in business banking for more than 10 consecutive years.
Their company culture and values support diversity and involvement within the company and for the community around them. Through several company-wide drives, community service days, and donation matching, they give back in numerous ways to foster economic and community development.
City National Bank has a corporate literacy initiative to empower children and adults in the community to provide more access to books and education. They not only provide numeracy and financial programs for the community, but they also have established a Reading Is The Way Up program of which they invest and reinforce the benefits of reading to better the communities around them. Through the program, they gift books to K-12 school libraries, invest in grants to K-12 schools to assist the literary efforts, and reward their employees with three hours of paid time off each month to read during the workday to local students. Their investment in turning reading into a passion for future generations complements Words Alive’s mission to achieve the same in San Diego.
“We are so proud to partner with Words Alive and provide them with some of the financial support they need to help children and families in San Diego develop a love of reading,” said Bernadette Bach, San Diego regional executive for City National. “Educational outreach is a huge part of our overall community support and the mission of Words Alive is closely aligned with the goals and objectives of our literacy programs.”
Since launching its literacy program 16 years ago, City National has donated more than 800,000 books to school libraries in six states, awarded over $1.5 million to teachers in elementary, middle and high schools in eight states, launched an award-winning financial literacy program called Dollars and Sense, instituted an author visit program with schools in five states, and so much more. City National colleagues also provided thousands of hours of volunteerism each year reading to students, teaching financial literacy, building literacy gardens and more.
As an Impact Sponsor, City National Bank not only has the opportunity to introduce the moderator or MC at the luncheon and be recognized on our Words Alive bookmarks, but they are also contributing to Words Alive’s commitment to provide high-quality literacy programs to thousands of students and families in San Diego.
We have many sponsorship opportunities still available! If you, or the company you work for, believes in the importance of literacy and is interested in helping Words Alive foster a more literate community, check out sponsorship details here. We have benefits available from social media promotion, to recognition on centerpieces, to the opportunity to announce our featured author, Mary Kubica, at the event!