Literacy

Technology companies tend to couch their products not as businesses for profit, but as gifts to humanity. The HBO comedy "Silicon Valley" so thoroughly mocked this impulse that I heard companies in the valley ordered their spokespeople to stop using the phrase "making the world a better place." For the biggest tech giants, faux philanthropy…

For the third year in a row, more than 1 million Macy’s customers sprung into action to support Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation’s largest children’s literacy nonprofit. From June 24 – July 31, Macy’s customers donated $3 through the Be Book Smart campaign to provide a book for a child, and Macy’s donated 100 percent of every $3 to RIF for a total donation of $4.9 million. The organizations partnered with the goal of giving 1 million books to children.

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) has been working to support children’s literacy and fight this discrepancy since 1966. RIF has partnered with Macy’s in the latest “Be Book Smart” campaign to raise 1 million books for underserved children across the country.

Macy’s customers can donate $3 at any register to help provide a book for a child and receive a $10 off coupon through July 31. Macy’s will donate 100 percent of every donation to RIF.

Kids Can Press will donate 50 percent of its profits from the sales of "This Child, Every Child: A Book About the World's Children in North America" to ONEXONE, a nonprofit foundation committed to improving the lives of children. The donation will be used to deliver books to children in Haiti and will be distributed in a variety of ways, including donations to libraries at two new schools: L'cole Nouvelle Zoranje and L'cole Nouvelle Royal Caribbean.

America SCORES Seattle, a nonprofit after-school soccer and literacy program, will be the beneficiary of the Sounders FC Guest Bartender Night at The Great Nabob on Tuesday January 18th at 6pm. This fun event will feature Sounders FC players off the pitch and behind the bar, all to support SCORES.

Reach Out and Read CEO Earl Martin Phalen discusses his organization and its fundraising techniques.

Thanks to the generosity of Verizon customers in Virginia who participated in the company's Check Into Literacy program, 32 literacy-focused nonprofit organizations throughout the commonwealth received grants totaling $45,787.

The Check Into Literacy program allows Verizon landline telephone customers to support literacy by checking a box on their monthly phone bills to make a $1 tax-deductible donation to promote literacy.  Verizon then distributes these donations to local literacy organizations that serve the individual states in which the customers live.

A dollar a month may not seem like much, but it can go a long way to improving literacy skills in communities across New Jersey while also giving people the opportunity to succeed. Thanks to the generosity of Verizon customers in New Jersey who participated in the company's Check Into Literacy program, 51 nonprofit organizations throughout the state received $250,000 in grants to support literacy programs.

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2010—Hundreds of children's literacy supporters attended Reading Is Fundamental's Gift of Reading Gala on May 26th at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. For more than 43 years, RIF has helped children discover the joy of reading by bringing books to life. This year's event raised more than $410,000 to benefit children's literacy programs nationwide.

The gala brought together distinguished policymakers, as well as corporate and community leaders who share RIF's vision of a literate America. Award-winning host of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, Liane Hansen, was master of ceremonies at the gala. During the ceremony, stories from RIF alumni demonstrated the power that being able to choose a new book can have on children.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Even as audio versions of best-sellers fill store shelves and new technology fuels the popularity of digitized books, the number of titles accessible to people who are blind or dyslexic is minuscule.

A new service being announced Thursday by the nonprofit Internet Archive in San Francisco is trying to change that. The group has hired hundreds of people to scan thousands of books into its digital database - more than doubling the titles available to people who aren't able to read a hard copy.

Brewster Kahle, the organization's founder, says the project will initially make 1 million books available to the visually impaired, using money from foundations, libraries, corporations and the government. He's hoping a subsequent book drive will add even more titles to the collection.