For more than 100 years, The McGraw-Hill Companies has been dedicated to our customers, our employees and our shareholders alike. All along, the Corporation has been guided by an enduring commitment to improving the quality of life in the larger community.

In 1958, we formalized our philanthropic efforts. Then, in 1979, The McGraw-Hill Companies Foundation was created as the umbrella. Through the Foundation, the Corporation offered a wealth of broad-based support.

Now we have transitioned from the Foundation to Corporate Contributions and Community Relations, which offers a more strategic, more focused and more visible program for the Information Age and beyond.

Corporate Contributions and Community Relations has been endowed with a mission in many ways as crucial as the Corporation's bottom line: to channel both our financial and human capital into the support of innovative programs that foster the development of new skills and nurture human potential in our communities and in our world. So that, ultimately, more people have the tools and the capabilities to get more out of life.

Going forward, we are earmarking our support strategically. And where we can integrate our employees as volunteers, that would be better still. Because increasing volunteerism within our ranks is also a priority.

The McGraw-Hill Companies will support innovative programs that increase the abilities of people around the world to learn, to grow intellectually, to master new skills and to maximize their individual talents for school, work and community.