American Idol

This year Idol Gives Back is helping Save the Children's U.S. Programs, which fights to ensure that every kid in America — including the 1 in 5 living in poverty — gets a fair chance in life. The two-hour fundraising event aired on Wednesday, April 21 on FOX.

This is the third year that Idol Gives Back will benefit Save the Children, which previously used the $10 million received from the Idol Gives Back Foundation for our early education, literacy, nutrition and fitness programs in rural America.

1 in 5 Kids Don't Get a Fair Chance in Life

• 60 percent of low-income families don't own a single book.
• There is only one book for every 300 kids in low-income neighborhoods in places like Clay County, Kentucky and California's Central Valley. There are 14 books for every kid in places like Manhattan and Malibu.
• Four-year-olds in low-income families are 18 months behind other four-year-olds developmentally.

We Make a Difference for Thousands of Kids

Our programs give kids a fairer start by speeding babies' brain growth, helping kids learn to read books like Goosebumps, and feeding kids healthy food like bananas and yogurt instead of chips and soda.

U.S. Programs provides early education, literacy, nutrition and fitness programs to more than 50,000 kids each year in some of the poorest, most remote communities in the United States.

It Works!

• Last year over 60 percent of our kids improved on a key reading test.
• The percentage of kids reading at grade level almost doubled.
• On average, kids in our programs read 69 books last year, despite coming from neighborhoods where there is one book for every 300 kids.
• Young kids in our early education program achieved the national average on a picture-vocabulary test, despite coming from severely disadvantaged backgrounds.

What You Can Do:

• Visit U.S. Programs' new campaign, k2kusa.org, where kids advocate for fairness for all kids. Become a Facebook fan or take our Fairness Quiz and send a book to a school that needs it.
• Donate to Idol Gives Back.
• Support Save the Children's U.S. Programs.
• Find out about sponsoring a child.