As part of our relaunch, Mattel and the Mattel Children's Foundation launched its Global Signature Partners Program. Recognizing the importance of strategic partnering, we sought organizations that serve children in need with a global or national reach.

Through product donations, financial support and global volunteer opportunities, Mattel and the Mattel Children's Foundation will help these organizations fulfill
their mission of helping children around the world. Throughout the year, more information about these partnerships will be available on this website.

Mattel, Inc. and the Mattel Children's Foundation have partnered with Special Olympics to expand the involvement of children with intellectual disabilities in Special Olympics activities around the world. Through support of three programs – the Young Athletes Program which will engage youth ages two through seven with intellectual disabilities, the Special Olympics Get Into It™ school-based curriculum which will teach understanding, acceptance and involvement, and Team Mattel which engages Mattel employees as volunteers around the world and creates the largest global corporate volunteer team in the history of the Special Olympics movement. Funding for the first year will total $1 million.

Special Olympics is an international organization dedicated to empowering individuals with intellectual disabilities to become physically fit, productive and respected members of society through sports training and competition. Special Olympics offers children and adults with intellectual disabilities year-round training and competition in 26 Olympic-type summer and winter sports. Special Olympics currently serves almost 1.4 million persons with intellectual disabilities in more than 200 programs in 150 countries. The Mattel Children's Foundation will provide financial support to Special Olympics, as well as global volunteer opportunities for Mattel employees.

Save the Children is the leading global nonprofit creating real and lasting change for children in the U.S. and around the world. As a member of the International Save the Children Alliance, an association of 27 independent organizations that together serve children in more than 100 countries around the world, Save the Children provides child-oriented emergency response, development assistance and advocacy of children’s rights to ensure the well-being of children. Save the Children has improved the lives of millions of children who have better health, nutrition, literacy, safety and hope as a result of their programs.

The Mattel Children’s Foundation has partnered with Save the Children to support literacy programs in 10 pilot sites throughout Appalachia (rural Tennessee and Kentucky), Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina; the expansion of Reading for Children, a literacy program to 10 locations in Uganda, 15 schools in the Philippines, and 20 schools in Guinea; the creation of new community schools in Mali and Malawi; and expansion of school readiness in five elementary schools in Afghanistan. With Mattel’s support, Save the Children will touch the lives of more than 10,000 children globally.

The National Association of Children’s Hospital’s and Related Institutions (NACHRI) is the only association of children’s hospitals, large pediatric units of medical centers and related intuitions, including rehabilitative care centers for children with serious and chronic or congenital illnesses. Representing 220 organizations throughout the United States and Canada, NACHRI promotes the health and well-being of all children and their families and works to ensure all children’s access to health care and children’s hospital’s continuing ability to provide services needed by children.

Mattel and the Mattel Children’s Foundation are entering into a unique partnership with NACHRI through which 220 member hospitals and related facilities will receive Mattel toys. The donation, valued at nearly half a million dollars, is of toys specific for use in hospital settings and includes Fisher-Price as well as Barbie and Hot Wheels brand toys. In addition, a grant will be provided to NACHRI to support expansion of the NACHRI Children’s Hospitals Injury Prevention Cooperative, an initiative that allows children’s hospitals to share injury prevention resources and tools in order to reduce the number of preventable injuries nationwide.

The Children Affected by AIDS Foundation (CAAF) was founded by Joe Cristina, a Mattel executive whose desire to help children was inspired by the outpouring of support he received when he disclosed his own HIV+ status . CAAF strives to make a meaningful difference in the lives of children infected with HIV and affected by AIDS. In 2005, Mattel is providing funding to support CAAF's global program expansion to address the growing epidemic of HIV orphans.

In addition, Mattel continues to support CAAF through its active participation in CAAF's annual fundraising event -- Dream Halloween®, a magical night of Halloween-fantasy aimed at entertaining children and their families. Dream Halloween® events take place each October in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York and raise more than $2 million in a single week. Mattel has rallied the support of its employees as volunteers for this event and in some years as many as 300 Mattel employees have volunteered to make Dream Halloween® a reality.

Mattel began a unique partnership in November 1998 when it announced that the Mattel Children's Foundation had pledged $25 million in a multiyear commitment towards the construction of a new children's hospital at UCLA. The hospital, renamed the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, serves hundreds of children every year from around the world who come to this nationally recognized leader in providing care and treatment to children. Mattel will continue its support through its toy donations, volunteers at the Child Life/Child Development Program and sponsorship of the hospital's annual fundraiser, among a number of other activities. For more information click here.

Mattel Chairman and CEO Robert Eckert recently said that this partnership “represents not only a sincere commitment to supporting children in need but also reflects just how crucial these services are to families in the surrounding communities, and beyond. Our relationship serves as a model for corporate involvement in the community and demonstrates how effective relationships can have a positive impact on the lives of children.”

Make-A-Wish Foundation®: Added as a Signature Partner in 2007, the Make-A-Wish Foundation will work with Mattel to grant American Girl®, Barbie and Hot Wheels wishes for children facing life-threatening medical conditions. To help Make-A-Wish volunteers make immediate connections with the children in an effort to best ascertain their true wishes, Mattel created one-of-kind Make-A-Wish Barbie and Hot Wheels toys, not available for sale, to be given to newly identified wish children nationally. The Mattel Children’s Foundation also funds both national and international Make-A-Wish Foundation work.