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Wayfair Joins Forces with UNCF During Black History Month to Support Students Attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Partnership to uplift students of color towards degree achievement

In recognition of Black History Month, Wayfair is expanding its partnership with UNCF (United Negro College Fund) to help more students of color get to and through college, and ensure they can reach their fullest potential. Since 2021, we have proudly partnered with UNCF to empower our customers to donate at checkout and support UNCF in enabling students to thrive, graduate, and become leaders in their communities.

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This year, Wayfair is honored to make a minimum $100,000 gift to UNCF to support HBCU students through customer donations at checkout and a company match. Throughout the month of February, customers will be encouraged to support our partnership with UNCF by donating at check out and having their contributions matched dollar-for-dollar.

In addition to financial resources, we know that having a comfortable space to study, learn, relax and recharge is also important to a student's wellbeing and academic success. That is why we will also plan to help more than one hundred HBCU students enhance their dorm rooms or study spaces at home with Wayfair products this fall. In 2023, we will also be partnering with UNCF to provide programming for students interested in learning more about various career pathways at Wayfair.

UNCF works in partnership with HBCUs to increase the number of African American college graduates through scholarship support and programming focused on college readiness, persistence, and graduation. Since its founding in 1944, UNCF has assisted over 500,000 in obtaining their college degrees and continues to provide over $100 million in scholarships to deserving students annually.

We are delighted to partner with Wayfair to launch a charitable campaign during Black History Month to support our mission and provide scholarships for HBCU students. The financial gifts from Wayfair customers will support our work toward realizing our vision of a nation where all Americans have equal access to a college education.
Diego Aviles, UNCF vice president for the Northeast

Wayfair is home to several HBCU alumni and we are proud to partner with UNCF — not just during the month of February, but throughout the year — to ensure students feel at home, whether that’s at school or in their careers. In fact, to many HBCU alumni at Wayfair, the opportunity to engage with the next generation of HBCU students is personally meaningful given the impact that their HBCU education has had on their career trajectory.

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CJ Mitchell, a Senior Project Manager on the Supplier Fulfillment team who attended Howard University for undergrad and Clark Atlanta University for his MBA shared, “My great grandfather wanted to go to college but there weren’t any colleges that accepted Black students at the time. Since he shared his story with me, I made sure to only attend HBCUs but had to navigate my education and scholarships on my own. Now, it’s important to me that today’s students have access to resources and get the best education they can possibly get.

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To Lakeesha Branch, an Associate Director with Talent Management Sales who graduated from Albany State University, advancing Black representation in the corporate sector is what drives her as a human resources professional. She shared, “I want to normalize Black students having equal access to amazing, professional opportunities at companies like Wayfair, if they so desire. You can only feel at home when you are reflected by those that are in that place. Creating equal access to engage with and gain professional experience and knowledge within a company like Wayfair is critical to progression. Our partnership will make this a reality by normalizing opportunities to ensure Black students feel supported to go after them.

Throughout the month of February, we encourage customers to support our partnership with UNCF by donating at check out. Wayfair will match all donations made to UNCF, dollar-for-dollar, up to a $100,000 minimum contribution. To learn more about UNCF and get involved, visit www.uncf.org.

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