Vision To Learn will receive $380,000 award plus reader donations and up to $2.5 million from Ford Philanthropy and an anonymous donor
Bloomberg Philanthropies will match all reader donations to the 2025 Holiday Impact Prize campaign, benefiting three honoree organizations
NEW YORK, November 22, 2025 – Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist, announced Vision To Learn will be honored as a recipient of this year’s Holiday Impact Prize. Kristof’s annual holiday columns have helped bridge a philanthropic gap between readers who want to help but don’t know how and heroic organizations that need resources but are off donors’ radars. Vision To Learn is proud to be recognized for providing vision care to kids in low-income communities all at no cost to the children or their families.
“More than 3 million children across the country go to school every day without the glasses they need,” says Austin Beutner, Vision To Learn’s Founder and Chairman. “When children go to school hungry, we feed them. We make sure they have the books and school supplies they need. Why not glasses? Every child in every school, everywhere in the country, should have the glasses they need to succeed in school and in life.”
Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist presenting the award stated, “Too often, children’s dreams are limited by something as easily solvable as poor eyesight. In many low-income classrooms, you’ll find kids struggling to see the board—some disruptive, others falling behind—simply because they lack glasses. Vision To Learn fixes that with mobile clinics that come to schools, provide free exams, and hand out glasses. Since 2012, they’ve reached millions of students across 18 states, giving children a chance to focus, learn and thrive. It’s a low-cost intervention with enormous evidence showing that seeing clearly transforms not just education, but opportunity and confidence.”
As one of three honorees, Vision To Learn will receive an initial cash award of $380,000 plus donations from readers, who helped raise more than $17 million collectively for last year’s honorees. For the first time in the prize’s history, Bloomberg Philanthropies will generously match all reader donations to the Holiday Impact Prize campaign through January 31 to help these three remarkable organizations further their impact.
In addition, several organizations have generously agreed to match the first $2.5 million donations to Vision To Learn, including Ford Philanthropy and an anonymous donor.
“Transportation to a doctor’s office should never be the reason a child cannot see the chalkboard,” said Joe Provenzano, Director of Mobility and Volunteerism at Ford Philanthropy. “We believe mobility is more than just vehicles and transportation – it’s about overcoming barriers to essential services. Our partnership with Vision To Learn directly addresses this by bringing mobile vision clinics to schools in states like Michigan and Ohio, ensuring children have the clear sight essential for classroom success.”
Since 2009, Kristof’s annual “holiday gift guide” in The New York Times has raised the profiles of little-known organizations making an impact on issues he covers — health, education, climate, human rights and women’s rights.
Over the past six years, the annual appeal has raised more than $59 million for those nonprofits and created transformative impact for over 2.1 million people around the world who have benefited from their services.
Learn more and donate at www.visiontolearn.org/kristof or KristofImpact.org
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About Vision To Learn
Vision To Learn, a non-profit charity, started in Los Angeles in 2012. The program has helped kids in over 860 underserved communities across the nation. Vision To Learn serves the needs of the hardest-to-reach children; about 90% of kids served by Vision To Learn live in poverty and about 85% are kids of color. Since its founding in 2012, Vision To Learn has helped provide more than 3.6 million children with vision screenings, 710,000 with eye exams and 600,000 with glasses – all free of charge to children and their families. For more information on Vision To Learn, please visit www.visiontolearn.org.
About the Holiday Impact Prize
Since 2009, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has written an annual “holiday gift guide” column to bridge a philanthropic gap: readers who want to help but don’t know how, and nonprofits that are not on most donors’ radar but deliver high impact and can do much more if they have the resources. The column has helped raise the profiles of organizations that work on the very issues he covers in his journalism—health, education, human rights and women’s rights, both domestically and abroad.
Since 2019, Kristof has awarded a Holiday Impact Prize to the nonprofits he showcases. The prize includes an initial cash award plus donations from readers who have helped raise more than $59 million over the past six years.
Anyone looking to join in and make a difference can donate through January 31, 2026 by visiting KristofImpact.org.
About Bloomberg Philanthropies
Bloomberg Philanthropies invests in 700 cities and 150 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on creating lasting change in five key areas: the Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation, and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s giving, including his foundation, corporate and personal philanthropy as well as Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consultancy that advises cities around the world. In 2024, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $3.7 billion. To sign up for our Impact Newsletter, please visit bloomberg.org/newsletter. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Focusing Philanthropy
Focusing Philanthropy, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that finds and funds high-impact, scalable programs around the world, provides the platform for this initiative by processing readers’ contributions, monitoring and reporting on results, and replenishing credit card transaction costs of donations made on KristofImpact.org so that 100 cents on the dollar will support the winning organizations.
Bloomberg Philanthropies Recognizes Vision To Learn’s Work