The Michaels Organization Educational Foundation has awarded over 200 college scholarships worth a record $575,000 for the 2015/2016 academic year to residents of The Michaels Organization, a top affordable housing owner and developer. With these latest awards, the total amount of scholarships awarded by the Foundation during the past 25 years now stands at more than $4.6 million.
“The most important gift you can give someone is the gift of education,” said John J. O’Donnell, president of The Michaels Organization, which is a family of companies dedicated to excellence in affordable, mixed-financed, military, and student housing. “We are very grateful to our business partners who have supported our scholarship foundation through private donations and we are delighted to be able to make a real difference in our residents’ lives through these scholarships,” O’Donnell said.
Created by The Michaels Organization’s founder and CEO, Michael Levitt, The Michaels Organization Educational Foundation has been helping high achieving but often economically disadvantaged students achieve their dreams of higher education for the past quarter century. In the past seven years, the amount of money and number of scholarships bestowed has more than tripled, spurred in part by the many residents who now apply that live in communities owned or managed by Michaels Military Housing.
Each year, all residents who live in The Michaels Organization’s affordable, mixed-income or military housing communities are invited and encouraged to apply for scholarships. The scholarship funds, which are paid directly to the educational institution, can be used toward higher education at any accredited college, university, or vocational training program in the country, and students can reapply every year of their education.
Michael Levitt and his wife Pat Levitt contribute $2 for every dollar raised in private donations to the
Foundation.
“As an organization, we have spent more than 40 years creating housing opportunities, but with this scholarship program, Mike and Pat Levitt have also created a legacy of empowering educational opportunity,” O’Donnell said. “We are very proud of that legacy.”
Scholarship celebrations are being held in cities across the country this summer as well as on each of the seven military installations where Michaels owns or manages the family housing.
About The Michaels Organization Educational Foundation
The Michaels Organization Educational Foundation is a non-profit affiliate of The Michaels Organization that administers educational scholarship programs open to residents of all affordable and military housing communities owned or managed by companies of The Michaels Organization. Now in its 25th year of awarding scholarships, The Michaels Organization Educational Foundation was the first of its kind in the affordable housing industry when it was established by Michael and Patricia Levitt in 1991.
