Music Empowers Foundation & Kris Allen Partnership To Help Needy Music Classrooms Already Exceeding Expectations

NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2011 The Music Empowers Foundation revealed today that its most recent initiative to support music education programs in public schools is already surpassing goals.  The Double Your Impact program was launched on November 14 and was expected to fund classroom music projects that would benefit over 10,000 children. After just two weeks, nearly 100 projects have been funded and it is estimated that almost 19,000 children will benefit.

The Double Your Impact program is a partnership between Music Empowers and platinum recording artist and American Idol winner, Kris Allen, to provide a major grant to DonorsChoose.org. This national online charity matches individual donors to project requests from teachers in public schools.  Funds provided by the Double Your Impact grant will be used to match contributions made by individual donors to eligible classroom music projects under a DonorsChoose.org program. In other words, when donations to a project total 50% of the cost, Music Empowers funds the other 50%.

"Kris and I are really excited about how quickly people have stepped up and supported this program by contributing to a project," said Andy Davis, founder of the Music Empowers Foundation. "Only a portion of our grant has been used so we'll be able to help fund hundreds more projects."

One major factor contributing to the early success of this initiative may be Mr. Allen's announcement that he is growing a mustache for a month to get his fans' attention and gain their support.  According to Music Empowers, not only are Kris Allen fans donating, but many have also added "staches" to their Twitter icons to increase awareness and encourage others to help fund a project.

To contribute to a project supported by Music Empowers and Kris Allen, go to: www.donorschoose.org/KrisAllenStache.

ABOUT MUSIC EMPOWERS
Music Empowers Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit that provides financial support to nonprofits that offer music education programs to communities with limited or nonexistent programs.  Since its inception in early 2010, it has awarded nearly half a million dollars in grants to organizations such as The Dr. Phil Foundation, Little Kids Rock, Berklee City Music, Artists Corps of America, The Quincy Jones Musiq Consortium, and DonorsChoose.org.  For more information on Music Empowers please go to www.musicempowersfoundation.org, become a fan on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

ABOUT KRIS ALLEN
Since winning American Idol in 2009, Kris Allen has become a household name.  After releasing his self-titled debut album in 2009 on 19 Recordings/Jive Records, Kris toured the U.S. opening for Keith Urban, Maroon 5, The Barenaked Ladies, and Lifehouse, as well as headlining his own club tour.  His first single "Live Like We're Dying" has sold over 1.6 million copies to date.  Kris currently is recording new material for his second album.

ABOUT DONORSCHOOSE.ORG
Founded in 2000, DonorsChoose.org (www.donorschoose.org) is a nonprofit website where public school teachers describe specific educational projects for their students and donors can choose the projects they want to support.  After completing a project, the donor hears back from the classroom they supported in the form of photographs and teacher thank-you letters.  To date, 198,000 public and charter school teachers have used the site to secure funding for $91 million in books, art supplies, technology and other resources that their students need to learn.  Through DonorsChoose.org, individuals from all walks of life have helped 5.4 million students.

Contact: Andrew Davis
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Music Empowers Foundation