Motorola Mobility Foundation Announces Empowerment Grant Recipients, Reaches One Million Dollars in Funding

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., June 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Motorola Mobility Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Motorola Mobility, announced today recipients of the 2012 Empowerment Grants – a unique funding initiative that supports U.S.-based nonprofit organizations in the development of mobile applications to enrich the communities they serve. The program addresses four critical areas of focus: education, health and wellness, community and arts and culture.  Combined with other grant-making programs this year, the Motorola Mobility Foundation has provided one million dollars in funding for digital, social, and mobile technology programs that expand awareness and engagement in communities across the country.

This year, 25 non-profits receiving Empowerment Grants will focus on developing new mobile applications that not only foster innovation, but address challenges facing their constituencies. These Empowerment Grant recipients will also become members of Motorola Mobility Foundation's Apps For Change network – an Android™ application development and launch program developed specifically for nonprofits.

"This year's Empowerment Grant recipients are all exceptional organizations that will use the funding in innovative ways to infuse technology into their communities," said Eileen Sweeney, director of the Motorola Mobility Foundation. "We are proud to continue our commitment to empowering people through mobile technology and we thank all of the Empowerment Grant applicants for submitting their inspiring ideas."

Empowerment Grant recipients engage in a wide variety of outreach activities, ranging from technology-literacy education and app boot camps to collecting data for research projects to peer mentoring for students through the use of technology. Among the 2012 Empowerment Grant winners are Horizons for the Blind, The Fred Rogers Center, World Wide Workshop for Children's Media Technology and Learning, Chicago Academy of Sciences, CK-12 Foundation and Just Harvest Education Fund.

This year's largest grant was awarded to the Center for Mobile Learning at the MIT Media Lab.  The year-long collaboration between MIT and the Motorola Mobility Foundation will create a signature curriculum based on App Inventor, a simple tool for building Android applications.  It will focus on empowering young learners in the world of mobile computing by giving them the ability to create and personalize their own mobile applications, with an emphasis on creativity in interacting with the environment around them, as well as with the larger environment of information.

View the complete list of this year's Empowerment Grant winners.

For more information about the Empowerment Grants program, email [email protected].

About Motorola Mobility Foundation
The Motorola Mobility Foundation is the charitable and philanthropic arm of Motorola Mobility. With employees located around the globe, Motorola Mobility seeks to benefit the communities where it operates. The company achieves this by making strategic grants, forging strong community partnerships, fostering innovation and engaging stakeholders. The Motorola Mobility Foundation focuses its funding on education, community, health and wellness and disaster relief. For more information, on Motorola Mobility Corporate and Foundation giving, visit motorola.com/give.

About Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility, owned by Google, fuses innovative technology with human insights to create experiences that simplify, connect and enrich people's lives. Our portfolio includes converged mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; wireless accessories; end-to-end video and data delivery; and management solutions, including set-tops and data-access devices. For more information, motorola.com/mobility. 

Media Contact:
Becki Leonard
847-738-1923
[email protected]
Motorola Mobility

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC. Android is a trademark of Google Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2012 Motorola Mobility, Inc. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Motorola Mobility Foundation