On International Corporate Philanthropy Day [16], we at IREX salute our corporate partners by recognizing the important roles that businesses can play in making a better world. Whether through fully funded programs, innovative public-private partnerships, direct technical assistance, or a combination of all three, corporate support is a vital complement to our mix of foundation and government funding [17].
Fully funded initiatives, like our Tech Age Teachers [18] program sponsored by Tengizchevroil [19] (TCO), make a deep impact in local communities, in this case the Atyrau region of Kazakhstan where TCO operates. Through our multi-year partnership, we are poised to build the technology capacity of every secondary school in the greater Atyrau area.
Event sponsorship, like Intel’s [20] support of our recent Tech Age Girls [21] boot camp in Manila, helped us to train even more young women in technology leadership from all three of the Philippines’ major regions. Public-private partnerships, like our work with Visa Europe [22], extended the benefits of their financial literacy course to more than 2,300—and counting—Romanians through our network of library partners.
With shared values and clear communication about common goals, corporate support is not only valuable but essential for sustained development.