Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Employees “Get Inspired, Get Involved” During Third Annual Volunteer Week

BOSTON – Employees of global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) dedicated nearly 5,500 hours of service to community projects during the Company’s third annual Volunteer Week last week. More than 1,200 employees from 18 offices across the globe took on a variety of hands-on and virtual projects in their local communities, ranging from a job readiness clinic for refugees in Chicago to non-profit board service to web-based service projects for schools, museums and other organizations around the world.

HMH Volunteer Week is an annual Company-wide initiative designed to engage employees and local communities around HMH’s shared values and corporate citizenship pillars: giving voice to under-served populations; promoting access to ideas; and removing barriers to academic and individual success. Since its inaugural year in 2012, the Volunteer Week campaign has become a cornerstone of HMH’s corporate citizenship program and a highly anticipated opportunity for employees to collectively share their talents and passion to make a positive impact.

“This year’s Volunteer Week theme, Get Inspired, Get Involved, really captures the goals of the program: to enable and encourage employees to use their time and expertise to make a difference in their local communities,” said Mary Cullinane, Chief Content Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs, HMH. “The week’s events provide a shared experience and a critical, real-world perspective on HMH’s mission to change people’s lives by fostering passionate, curious learners.”

Volunteer Week 2014 encompassed 140 projects, addressing a variety of community needs across the Company’s global office network, including:

• A flagship event at Cradles to Crayons Boston where CEO Linda Zecher, executive leaders, and employees sorted and packaged donated clothing, books and school supplies for families in-need.
• A friendly competition between three Chicago-area HMH offices culminating in almost 400 homemade blanket squares (more than 26 blankets' worth!) for Project Linus, a nonprofit organization that provides blankets to critically ill children.
• A day of sustainable planting, harvesting and weeding at the Austin chapter of Urban Roots farm.  
• Community engagement projects at libraries, playgrounds and local nonprofit organizations in Puerto Rico, Beijing, Dublin and beyond.

The employee volunteerism program is just one part of a dedicated corporate citizenship effort at HMH, which includes a multimillion dollar annual book donation program, employee gift-matching and Community Investment Councils – employee committees in major HMH office locations dedicated to creating opportunities for positive impact on the community.

HMH employees benefit from two days of paid time-off per year to engage in volunteerism activities of their choice. Over the last 12 months, HMH employees have tracked over 9,000 volunteer hours across nearly 400 non-profits and community organizations.




About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (NASDAQ:HMHC) is a global learning company with the mission of changing people’s lives by fostering passionate, curious learners. Among the world’s largest providers of pre-K–12 education solutions and one of its longest-established publishing houses, HMH combines cutting-edge research, editorial excellence and technological innovation to improve teaching and learning environments and solve complex literacy and education challenges. HMH’s interactive, results-driven education solutions are utilized by more than 50 million students in over 150 countries, and its renowned and awarded novels, non-fiction, children's books and reference works are enjoyed by readers throughout the world. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com.

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Media Contact
Emma Doherty
Corporate Communications Director
617-351-5473
emma.doherty@hmhco.com