For Use Upon Receipt

Date: November 24, 2003

Contact information:
Seth Kirshenbaum
The City School
614 Columbia Road
Dorchester, MA 02125
617.822.3075 x14
617.822.3073 fax
seth@thecityschool.org
www.thecityschool.org

Dorchester's City School Chosen for 2003 Catalogue for Philanthropy

(Boston, MA) Boston based City School has been selected as a Massachusetts 2003 Catalogue for Philanthropy charity. The Catalogue, conceived and supported by the Ellis L Phillips Foundation with help from other foundations and corporations, profiles 69 of Massachusetts' outstanding cultural, environmental and human service agencies. The City School was chosen from a total applicant pool of over 200 organizations.

The City School, a non-profit youth development organization, unites over 400 young people ages 14-18 each year to learn about issues of social justice in after school hours. The City School seeks to develop the leadership skills and critical thinking of diverse youth while helping to connect these students across lines of class, race and sexual orientation.

The Catalogue, first published in 1997, has raised over $12,000,000 in gifts and pledges for individual charities, and has played a leadership role in increasing charitable giving in Massachusetts and New England. Now independently incorporated, the Catalogue intends to provide donor-friendly systems to increase charitable giving nationwide. Catalogue-based systems are planned for 2003 in Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, MO, among other places. The Catalogue also originated the national Generosity Index, using IRS data to rank states according to their combined ranks in charitable giving and income.

According to George McCully, President of the Catalogue, "The Catalogue is designed to be a showcase for Massachusetts philanthropy and a one-stop-shop for a family's charitable giving. A single check, electronic transaction over the web (www.catalogueforphilanthropy.org) or stock transfer can be allocated to as many charities as the donor pleases, and because the Catalogue is sponsored and paid-for by its philanthropic sponsors, 100% of every donation goes to the designated charities."

The City School was chosen in rigorous competition by senior professional grantmakers. "Charities are selected for general excellence, cost-effectiveness, and teaching value about philanthropy," McCully said.