Voya Financial Announces Third-Quarter 2016 Grant Recipients

NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2016  /PRNewswire/ -- Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced today the nonprofit organizations selected in the third quarter to receive grants through Voya Foundation, the company's charitable giving arm. Voya Foundation supports local and national nonprofits whose missions align with its focus on children's education and financial literacy. Voya invests in programming to help foster healthy, sustainable communities.

Below is an overview of the third-quarter 2016 grant recipients:

Be a Leader Foundation (Arizona) - Be a Leader Foundation utilizes a unique model of peer mentorship to improve graduation rates and college access for at-risk Phoenix-area youth. Voya Foundation's grant to Be a Leader Foundation supports the Be a Leader Parent Club, which engages parents in high school academics and provides resources and guidance to support their exploration of post-high school academic options. Most important, the program reinforces the importance of a high school degree to students and their parents as a crucial first step toward success as a young adult.  Be a Leader Foundation was one of two winners of Voya Foundation's first request for proposal (RFP) focused on parental engagement in education.      

BestPrep (Minnesota) – For the seventh consecutive year, Voya will partner with BestPrep to educate young people in the Minneapolis community on the basics of personal finance and to encourage underserved youth to pursue careers in business and finance. Voya and BestPrep are excited to expand this partnership for 2016 to include in-person and distance mentoring programs to improve the reach of one-on-one education programs at BestPrep and to further amplify the impact of Voya Financial volunteers. 

Citizens' Committee for Children (New York) – Building on a partnership that began in 2013, Voya will fund Keeping Track Online, a web-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tool that houses Citizens' Committee for Children data and makes it freely available and usable for the public. Keeping Track Online enables users to view and sort city blocks, census tracts, and entire boroughs based on such indicators as hunger, health, education and various other important metrics that represent New York children.

Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School (Georgia) – Voya will support the Corporate Work Study program, which places students in corporate internships for five days per month during the academic year. Funded by corporations, the program provides students the ability to contribute to their tuition while teaching them business skills, lifelong learning behaviors and techniques to navigate the work environment. This program also marks the second year that interns have worked at the Voya Financial office in Atlanta.      

Nashville Financial Empowerment Center (Tennessee) – Grant funding will be used to support Nashville Financial Empowerment Center's Opportunity Now initiative that will target an estimated 2,500 young people with internship opportunities and real-world business experience and financial education. The internship and coinciding educational curriculum teach youth about credit, affordable housing, savings and other financial essentials.

Institute of Technology (New York) – Voya will continue funding for the New York Institute of Technology Voya Financial Simulated Trading Floor, which serves as a resource to improve access to modern technology and give students studying business or finance more real-world training in the industry.

New York University (New York) – As the second of two winners of Voya Foundation's first request for proposal (RFP) process, New York University will use grant funding to support its Metro Center Saturday and Summer College Prep Academy. This partnership includes components to increase the high school graduation and college access rates of disadvantaged New York City students by providing them with afterschool and weekend learning opportunities and guidance through important milestones like graduation and the college application process. Voya's grant will support parental engagement in the program, including academic guidance and support for the college application and financial aid process. Additionally, Voya's support will enable the creation of distance components for parents who work nontraditional schedules so that they can remain engaged with the program and their child's academics.

Through its charitable giving, Voya Foundation supports innovative programs in the areas of financial literacy and education to help individuals gain the skills needed to succeed in the workforce and beyond. Voya Foundation board of directors and the Voya Community Investment Review Committee review applicants and distribute grants on a quarterly basis.

As an industry leader and advocate for greater retirement readiness, Voya Financial is committed to achieving its vision to be America's Retirement Company™ and fulfilling its mission to make a secure financial future possible — one person, one family, one institution at a time.

Media Contact:

Mary Beth Conklin   
Voya Financial   
Cell:  (423) 596-1449   
Marybeth.conklin@voya.com

About Voya Foundation

Voya Foundation's mission is to improve the quality of life in communities where Voya Financial^® operates and its employees and customers live. Voya Foundation provides grants and establishes signature partnerships in the areas of financial literacy and children's education and fosters employee engagement to deepen our positive impact on the community. For more information, visit www.voyafoundation.com.

About Voya Financial^®

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), helps Americans plan, invest and protect their savings — to get ready to retire better. Serving the financial needs of approximately 13 million individual and institutional customers in the United States, Voya is a Fortune 500 company that had $11 billion in revenue in 2015. The company had $466 billion in total assets under management and administration as of June 30, 2016. With a clear mission to make a secure financial future possible — one person, one family, one institution at a time — Voya's vision is to be America's Retirement Company™. The company is equally committed to conducting business in a way that is ethically, economically, socially and environmentally and responsible — Voya has been recognized as one of the 2016 World's Most Ethical Companies^® by the Ethisphere Institute, and as one of the Top Green Companies in the U.S., by Newsweek magazine. For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook and Twitter @Voya.

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SOURCE Voya Financial, Inc.