You can BE THE CHANGE... 

With the recent violence that has tragically polluted Chicago's public schools, the need for positive role models and educational programs has become abundantly clear.

Now, more than ever, someone has to stand up for Chicago's youth. It is time to stand up for their education, their safety, and ultimately their futures. The time is now; and we believe that WITS can be a positive force for change. We invite you to join our inaugural Annual Giving campaign and to help WITS give a voice to those in need.

Help us continue to give students the one-on-one attention they need and deserve while encouraging each child to discover their potential. We cannot continue expanding our outreach without the generous support of friends like you. Please consider making a donation at one of the following levels. Together, we can Be The Change.

2009 Annual Giving

All donations will be funded for implementation and continuation of WITS Programs.

Field Trip Guide
$500-999

Educational field trips are a great way to enhance the WITS tutoring programs. Funding a trip to a local museum, theater performance, library or park district event is a great way to expose our students (and their volunteers) to the city's resources around them. For so many of our students, field trips and explorations beyond their neighborhoods are incredibly rare. And unfortunately, our schools often do not have the resources to fund these trips, thus WITS is always in need of Field Trip Guides. Feel free to jump on the bus with our students and volunteers on the day of the trip, too. Our students would be delighted to have a special WITS friend join them!

School Bus Director
$1,000-4,999

One of the most important, and coincidentally expensive, aspects of our programs is the transportation of students and volunteers to and from schools and corporate offices. Our Power Lunch program requires a school bus to pick up corporate volunteers downtown dropping them off at a nearby school for tutoring while our Workplace Mentoring program brings students from school to loop offices. Regardless of the program, these school buses full of students and volunteers are a major expense for WITS and can often be the deciding factor in whether we have enough funding for a new program. As a School Bus Director, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are making a real difference providing the transportation for a bus full of students or volunteers in our programs. Because of you, our students will have weekly reading buddies who are easily accessible by our bus service.

Library Leader
$5,000-9,999

Books, books, books. Our programs and services would not exist without these magnificent story-telling, imagination-driving objects. A single book can have the power of inspiring a student to become a lifelong reader. Understanding how important it is to have engaging, colorful, award-winning children's books in our programs, WITS is constantly ordering more titles to enhance our existing collection. Working with CPS reading specialists and Barnes & Noble, WITS will provide thousands of hardback books for our programs this year. But the buck does not stop there! As a Library Leader your contribution will also ensure that our students receive several books throughout the year, so they can enjoy reading from home as well.

Program Ambassador
$10,000+

How would you like to sponsor your very own WITS program? As a Program Ambassador, rest assured your contribution is making an immense IMPACT on one classroom in Chicago Public Schools. Whether it's with the Early Childhood youngsters or the third grade Power Lunchers, your donation will directly fund a program for WITS! That's at least 30 new students and roughly 60 volunteers (they pair up to alternate reading each week) who will have the opportunity to participate in WITS literacy programs because of YOU. This sponsorship is the whole kit & caboodle - providing a bus, program coordinator, healthy snacks for students, school chaperones, books, training materials and hours upon hours of literacy tutoring.

Legacy Society

Have you ever thought about including WITS in your will? As a member of the Legacy Society, you have the choice of whether your contribution will go directly into our endowment or to a particular program fund. Thus, you will truly be giving a gift that keeps on giving for decades to come. Be among the first to include WITS in your planned giving arrangements. Our Development officer is ready to assist you in this process and answer any questions you may have. There is no threshold donation amount just the guarantee that you will feel good knowing you have directly funded the future of WITS.