WASHINGTON - Gary Perlin, Chief Financial Officer for Capital One Financial Services announced the company's three-year $1.25 million commitment to team up with Reading Is Fundamental® (RIF), the nation's oldest and largest children's and family literacy organization, and equip more educationally at-risk children with the reading tools they need to prepare for success in school during RIF's annual Gift of Reading Awards Gala. RIF will use the grant to help more than 56,000 children and families through its Family of Readers® program, which supplies free books, parent workshops and literacy resources to at-risk students from birth through 8 years of age and their families at RIF sites nationwide.

A new partner and supporter of RIF, Capital One is dedicated to providing opportunities for children and families to reach their potential through volunteerism, financial and in-kind initiatives, collaborations with community partners, and community lending and investments. Capital One focuses its outreach program on supporting children and families, community development and financial education.

"Capital One is privileged to partner with Reading Is Fundamental to promote the important role families play in developing young children's literacy skills," said Gary Perlin, Chief Financial Officer for Capital One. "Like RIF, we recognize that helping to build strong and healthy communities by focusing on our most precious resource - our children - benefits us all."

"Research shows that family involvement in a child's earliest reading is critical to raising lifelong readers," said Carol H. Rasco, President and CEO of RIF. "We are proud to join with Capital One to promote the important role families play in developing young children's literacy skills, and we look forward to providing even more books and literacy resources to the children and families who need them most."

RIF's Family of Readers program, which helps parents and other family members take a leading role in encouraging their children's literacy development, each year reaches more than 130,000 children and their families, many of them enrolled in Head Start, Even Start and GED programs across the country. Through the program, RIF encourages parents to engage young children in fun reading activities that will help them develop important literacy skills.

Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), founded in 1966, motivates children to read by working with them, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life. RIF's highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8. Through a national, grassroots network of community volunteers at 21,000 program sites, RIF provides 5 million children with 17 million new, free books and literacy resources each year. For more information and to access reading resources, visit RIF's website at www.rif.org.

About Capital One: Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose principal subsidiaries, Capital One Bank, Capital One, F.S.B. and Capital One Auto Finance, Inc., offer a variety of consumer lending products. As of June 30, 2005, Capital One's subsidiaries collectively had 48.9 million accounts and $83.0 billion in managed loans outstanding. Capital One is a Fortune 500 company and, through its subsidiaries, is one of the largest providers of MasterCard and Visa credit cards in the world. Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "COF" and is included in the S&P 500 index.

Reading Is Fundamental

Reading Is Fundamental

Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), founded in 1966, motivates children to read by working with them, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life. RIF's highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8. Through community volunteers in every state and U.S. territory, RIF provides 4.5 million children with 16 million new, free books and literacy resources each year. For more information and to access reading resources, visit RIF's website at www.rif.org.

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