Oklahoma City Metro Literacy Coalition

The Oklahoma City Community Foundation facilitated the beginnings of the Oklahoma City Metro Literacy Coalition in 2006, uniting community organizations that could collaborate to counter the community’s increasingly low literacy levels.

Former Community Foundation employee Mary Surbeck used her IRA Charitable Rollover to create the coalition’s endowment fund that supports our community’s literacy efforts in perpetuity. Mary’s gifts, paired with Kirkpatrick Family Fund matching grants, a strong reinvestment strategy and additional gifts from literacy champion Marion Jowaisis, have grown the fund to ensure the coalition can strengthen its stability and continue to improve literacy for youth, adults and those who speak English as a second language.