Operation Literacy is a literacy non-profit that understands the importance of the physically written word in helping our non-profit meet the needs of its audience, and in marketing our services to our target population. Our mission is to elevate children's literacy with an emphasis in reaching underserved populations by inspiring a love of reading, fostering creativity, and providing young writers with the tools they need to tell their own stories. Every year we host a literacy conference at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. We invite children K-12 and educators to this conference. In the past, we have used print in five specific ways to help us with this conference and our other charitable work.

The first way is we have always had printed programs for the attendees of our literacy conference. We intend to continue to do that this year. Our programs are an essential part of the magic that happens at StoryCon. We provide activities in the age-appropriate programs, such as networking challenges and scavenger hunts. Our programs also highlight our guest authors and the books they have written, so participants can easily identify books they may want to read after meeting the authors.

Second, we use printed flyers in libraries, schools, and bookstores. We want to meet our audience where they are already at. This is especially important for schools that want to increase participation in writing and reading. Our colorful flyers are used by teachers to excite and encourage their students to come to StoryCon. As a result, many teachers, committed to promoting literacy and creative writing, bring their entire classes to our conference. We have done this in the past and will continue to do it again this year.

Third, we use printed maps and signage at the Salt Palace during our literacy conference.  We want everyone to have the best time at our conference, and our signage helps with that. Signage prevents confusion and creates a sense of brand unity that affirms our non-profit as a trusted part of the literacy community. We intend to use this method even more this year than we did last year.

Fourth, we use print for our pitch decks and end-of-year reports. We send these to our sponsors to let them know how their money is being used responsibly. We print and mail some of these and email others. We love to keep our sponsors up to date on what our non-profit is doing to support the literacy of underserved children.

Fifth, we have used print to create informational handouts for our attendees, including a variety of worksheets and handouts used during breakout sessions and a guidebook for our alumni. This interactive aspect of printed materials helps us engage our many different audiences. We intend to continue to do this every year.

Operation Literacy is consistently looking for new ways that we can use print and mail to reach our audience and assist children and teens in need around the United States. Our CCO and marketing team are constantly learning from other non-profits on how best to utilize these amazing tools. If we receive this grant, we know it will help us reach children in underserved areas and provide them with a fun and high-quality experience during our literacy and writing conference.