PARIS – March 4, 2008 –The State Street Foundation, Inc., the grant-making arm of State Street Corporation, the world’s leading provider of financial services to institutional investors, today announced it has signed a partnership agreement, along with Microsoft, Randstad and ECDL to support and foster the work of Force Femmes, an organization created in 2005 by women business leaders.

This initiative is the first adaptation in France of the Skills for Employability Alliance, a program launched at the European level. Its objective is to develop a comprehensive process to help underserved audiences in order to assist them by providing professional training in new technologies and to offer guidance on career advancement.

The innovative feature of this program is its reliance on the commitment of several companies working jointly within an Alliance, in order to focus their efforts and offer complete support to organizations on the ground.

In France, the Alliance chose to support the work of Force Femmes, whose mission consists in helping women over 45 years of age to identify and secure employment opportunities. Women in this age group indeed face challenges demonstrated by a higher unemployment rate statistics.

The partnership between the Alliance and Force Femmes will allow more than 1,500 women supported by the organization to benefit from a genuine path back to employment: from information technology training, provided by Microsoft and State Street, to training certification (ECDL), and matching with potential employers through Randstad.

“We are proud to be one of the founding members of the Alliance and to support Force Femmes, said Jean-François Shock, p resident of State Street Banque.

..“The program is important to State Street as it provides the necessary training and counseling to assist women with career advancement opportunities, which will only make our local communities stronger,” he added. At the European level, the Alliance partnership aims to provide 20 million people with the education, skills and information technology training that they need to succeed, by 2010. State Street and its Alliance partners have already implemented such plans in six countries: German, United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

Each year, State Street contributes a portion of its pre-tax profit to the State Street Foundation in order to better respond to the needs of local communities. Grants are awarded by 32 local committees to charitable organizations in many countries where State Street operates. Last year, the Foundation supported the local efforts of nonprofit organisations $15.7 million in grant support.

“Our Foundation noted an increase in grant requests over the past year, and we have been lucky to be able to respond to those critical needs in our communities,” said George Russell, president of the State Street Foundation. “As in the past, we have continued to focus our efforts on those organizations that serve underprivileged populations, whether it is to provide basic needs, encourage education or develop professional skills.”