Businesses can now donate directly to K-3 reading programs in Utah elementary schools, including those in Granite School District, through a new statewide initiative with a direct Millcreek-area tie.

Utah Community Builders, a program of the Salt Lake Chamber Foundation, announced Literacy Match on Oct. 13. The program pairs donors with specific reading needs submitted by elementary schools. The Granite Education Foundation, the district's philanthropic arm, is already a partner. The two organizations assembled 6,000 literacy kits for students in June.

Salt Lake Chamber president and CEO Derek Miller said in the announcement that Literacy Match gives employers of every size a direct way to support early readers.

The statewide data driving the effort is sobering. In 2025, only 50.3% of Utah's third graders met grade-level literacy expectations, according to the Chamber's announcement, which cited figures across all 41 school districts and charter systems serving more than 183,000 K-3 students. First graders scored lower, at 48.2%.

Those figures use a different benchmark than a separate measure reported by the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, which found 70.5% of third graders reading on grade level, as the Salt Lake Tribune reported in June. The two assessments use different scoring thresholds, and no Granite-specific breakdown appears in either data set.

Granite School District Board member Julie Jackson, who represents Precinct 1 covering Holladay and Millcreek, told the Millcreek Journal in June that additional funding would go toward literacy initiatives impacting K-12 in the district. Jackson, in her sixth year on the board, said the district is working to increase English and math literacy by 1%.

Utah has spent heavily on the problem. A state audit cited by the Tribune in June found no sustained improvement in K-3 reading scores over most of the last decade, despite $18.5 million allocated under the 2022 Early Literacy Outcomes Improvement Act (SB 127). The state did hit that law's 70% third-grade proficiency goal. A newer law, SB 241, raises the target to 80% by 2030. The Chamber's own Utah Rising plan aims for 100% by that same year.

Literacy Match offers tiered investment levels. A $100 donation buys a classroom set of phonics-based books. A $1,050 contribution funds a reading intervention package for one grade level at a school. At the high end, $13,000 sponsors a part-time literacy paraprofessional for a year, and $80,000 funds a full-time literacy educator, according to the program's investment menu. Schools report back to donors on how funds were spent.

Businesses can reach Utah Community Builders through the Salt Lake Chamber's website to sign up.