Tipping Point Community Holds Eighth Annual Awards Breakfast

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Three Bay Area nonprofits working to create opportunities for thousands of individuals and families to break the cycle of poverty were honored at Tipping Point Community's 8^th Annual Awards Breakfast this morning.

"After almost 10 years of doing this work, I remain an optimist," said Daniel Lurie, Tipping Point Founder + CEO. "Last year our grantees served more than 133,000 people. But programs like these don't just change one life – they change entire families and communities. They stop a cycle of poverty in its tracks."

Center for Employment Opportunities, Reading Partners and Upwardly Global were recognized this morning for their service to Bay Area residents and each honoree received a grant of $50,000. Tipping Point also honored the 20 founding partners of SF Gives for their leadership and commitment to invest $10 million in life-changing services for the 1.3 million Bay Area residents too poor to meet their basic needs. Tipping Point Board members Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins and Zachary Bogue and Leadership Council member Sara Recktenwald were on hand to present the awards.

The 2014 Tipping Point grantee honorees:
"This morning there are seven million children in the U.S. waking up with a parent in prison, jail or on supervision, and those children are about 6 times more likely to end up in the justice system themselves," said Sam Shaeffer, CEO of Center for Employment Opportunities. "There is a lot that can make you hesitant about committing your career to prisoner reentry. Numbers, especially. The statistics can be overwhelming and discouraging. But they also make you feel like you have to do something."

"To land a job in the U.S. especially, it's not a linear approach," said Siavash Fahimi, a former Upwardly Global client. "It's not one decision that leads you to a job. It's a combination of so many different things, meeting different people. Without Upwardly Global, it would have been trial and error. It would have taken so much time…time that I did not have to spare."

"At Reading Partners, our goal is simple: to close the 4th grade reading achievement gap," said Michael Lombardo, CEO + Founder of Reading Partners. "We do that by unleashing the slumbering giant of human capital that is volunteer service in America to provide an army of tutors for children struggling with reading."

The 2014 Tipping Point partner honoree:
SF Gives started as a 60-day $10 million corporate challenge launched by Tipping Point and 20 leading local businesses to fight poverty in the San Francisco Bay Area. The founding members are Apple, Box, Comcast Ventures, Dropbox, Google, IfOnly, Jawbone, Jelly, Levi Strauss & Co., LinkedIn, Lookout, Microsoft, Okta, Partner Fund Management, POPSUGAR, RPX Corporation, Salesforce Foundation, SV Angel, Workday Foundation, and Zynga.org.

About Tipping Point Community: Since 2005, Tipping Point Community has raised more than $80 million to educate, employ, house and support nearly 365,000 Bay Area people in need. Tipping Point screens nonprofits rigorously to find, fund and partner with the most promising organizations helping low-income people achieve self-sufficiency. 100% of every dollar donated fights poverty. www.tippingpoint.org 

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SOURCE Tipping Point Community

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