Contest fronts $100,000 to fight for child literacy

Franke Foundation last ran
contest to help fight hunger

The Franke Foundation is fighting for another cause.

Four years ago, the La Crosse group offered a $100,000 prize to a coalition of community members that came up with the best plan to fight hunger in the Coulee Region.  

Once they completed that project, the foundation came up with another goal aimed at getting citizens to work together.  

Now, there’s a contest to find ways of improving childhood literacy with, again, $100,000 in seed money at stake.

“We’d like to see something collaborative and comprehensive,” Franke director Mel Hoffman said. “Something that will help raise the test scores in the fourth grade and high school.”

Coalitions that want to be considered for the funding have until Dec. 31 to submit applications to the foundation.  

The money will be awarded next March.

“There’s a lot of organizations in the community who deal with education, literacy and the like,” Hoffman said. “Our hope is that they’ll get together and form collaborative groups, I guess, like we did the first time with our food-for-all.”

Hoffman expects non-profit organizations to join together in hopes of winning the Coulee Collaboration award.