History
20 years building bridges
ReachingU was founded in New York in 2001. A group of young professional Uruguayans who were then living in the USA, decided to create a charitable organization through which to channel donations to Uruguay.
Today, and more than than 100 people bigger, we are still driven by the same spirit: that of being a transparent and plural organization, were people of various backgrounds work unselfishly to improve the education of the most disadvantaged Uruguayans.
The beginnings
Our first fundraiser was an auction of art and crafts in New York. That was back in 2002. That same year we launched our website.
Volunteers started to get organized in other cities in the US, like Miami and DC.
In 2003, ReachingU was granted the legal status of “non-profit organization” according to rule 501c3 of the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) which allowed for all donations to ReachingU in United States to be tax-deductible.
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The reason for our name
The name ReachingU expresses our intention to “build” a bridge between the Uruguayan population in USA and the people and organizations in need of our support in Uruguay.
The concept of ‘asking for help’ was reflected in the English expression “to reach out to you”. The U clearly represents the presence of Uruguay, but also when you pronounce it in English it refers to “you”.
This is how we found a name which included all the parts that make up this project: we were both reaching projects in Uruguay with our support and reaching the donor (you) to help us to strengthen them.
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