Literacy Charities for 2025

Each year, Shanahan on Literacy recommends literacy charities that I hope you might consider. I know that, like me, you have deep commitments to children’s reading success. It makes sense to include in our charitable giving organizations that distribute books to kids or that support their reading education in other ways, too.

Annually, I consult Charity Navigator (U.S.) and Charity Intelligence (Canada) to identify the top-rated literacy charities (4-stars in U.S., and 5-stars in Canada). You can be sure that the charities listed here:

• Are international, national, or multi-regional in scope,
• Focus entirely or mainly on providing books and literacy instruction to populations in need,
• Provide these services directly to children,
• Are transparent in their reporting, and
• Spend all or most of their donations on their missions rather than overhead.

I have no connections to any of these charities. Donations to any and all of these organizations make good literacy things happen for lots of boys and girls.

I am pleased to point out that there are literally hundreds of local, state, and provincial charities that meet all but the first of my criteria. There are too many of these more localized efforts for me to evaluate. If you are more interested in local giving than taking a regional, national, or international focus, those can easily be identified with Charity Navigator or Charity Intelligence. Please support some of these local charities, too!

Of course, the major purpose of this entry is to encourage financial support for these valuable institutions. However, it could be used in a couple of other ways as well.

For instance, I know that many readers of this blog work in schools that serve children from economically distressed families – the types of kids that many of these charities serve. This list might be useful for identifying potential sources of support or partnership for your schools or for some of the children that you serve.

Also, I know some of you may not be in a position to make a financial contribution to these fine organizations, but many of them indicate that they need volunteers to help out, and this list may give you a starting point on identifying organizations in your community that would love your assistance.

I’m recommending these charities today, but will keep these listings on the charity page of my website through the coming year: Shanahan Charities 

Book Trust is a national early literacy nonprofit increasing book access, choice, and ownership for thousands of students. Providing all children equitable access to books of their choice to promote reading motivation and engagement. In the past year, they have delivered 632,313 books to 58,106 students in 15 states, engaging almost 3,000 teachers from 194 schools. Over the past two decades, they have distributed more than 10 million books to children.

Books for Africa. Most African children who attend school have never owned a book of their own. In many classrooms, 10-20 students share one textbook. Books For Africa supplies sea containers of books to rural school libraries, orphanages, adult literacy programs, and community resource centers (containers hold about 25k books). Founded in 1988, Books for Africa collects, sorts, ships, and distributes books to children in Africa. Books donated by publishers, schools, libraries, individuals, and organizations are sorted and packed by volunteers who carefully choose books that are age and subject appropriate. They send enough good books for whole classes to use. In the past year, they have provided more than 4 million books.

Children’s Literacy Initiative. This program provides professional development and resources aimed at improving early literacy instruction and learning. Their efforts provide coaching for teachers, workshops and seminars, and they stock classrooms with books. They help educators serving high-need student populations to learn high-impact instructional strategies aimed at school improvement. Currently, the Initiative serves about 250 schools in 6 states with more than 100,000 children. Over the past 12 years, CLI has helped more than 30,000 teachers deliver quality PK- 5 early literacy instruction.

Curious Learning works with partners to curate, localize, and distribute free open-source apps in 69 languages that empower everyone to have the opportunity to learn to read. They work to empower users with the resources and tools to activate learning and engagement, from the individual child that wants to learn to read, to the parent who wants more for their children, and to the teacher striving to help many. This year their technological resources have reached 3.5 million children around the world, including serving more than 100,000 children in Ukraine. 

Ferst Readers' mission is to strengthen communities by providing quality books and literacy resources for children and their families to use at home during the earliest stages of development. Their efforts focus on children in low-income communities. They ensure that children have age-appropriate books in their homes and that their parents have the literacy resources needed to support early learning and book sharing. By mailing a new book every month to enrolled children, birth to five, Ferst Readers is committed to providing early learning opportunities. They have distributed more than 7 million books over the past 24 years (about a half million each year now in 11 states)!

First Book is dedicated to ensuring that all children, regardless of their background or zip code, can succeed, by removing barriers to equitable education. They reach 6.5 million kids each year in low-income communities across North America, providing books and resources through a powerful network of more than 600,000 educators, the largest online community of its kind. By infusing high-quality resources into classrooms and programs nationwide, they help ensure that children are ready to learn.

Reach Out and Read was founded in 1989 to help families make reading a part of their routines, and to supply the books they need to get started. They are now in all 50 states, with 6,200 program sites that provide 7.1 million books each year. Their pediatric network provides families at routine check-ups with the knowledge and tools they need to make reading a part of their daily routine. Currently, they reach 4.4 million children across the country — more than three-fourths of whom come from low-income families.

Reading is Fundamental was founded in the 1960s with the purpose of making books available to children growing up in poverty. This year alone they have distributed almost 5 million books and other literacy resources, and their efforts reach 91 percent of all elementary schools in the United States (serving 24 million children).

Reading Partners. Founded in 1999, the mission of Reading Partners is to help children become lifelong readers by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction with measurable results. They do this by focusing on children from low-income communities; giving one-on-one instruction at the student's reading level; recruiting and training community volunteers to work with children; partnering with high-need elementary schools to offer free services on the school campus; and providing a way for volunteers to give a small amount of their time to make a huge difference in a child's life.

Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in developing countries by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Working in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments, they develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the relevant life skills to succeed in school and beyond. The literacy programs that they support around the world have served 35 million children and they have distributed more than 39 million books.

United Through Reading unites military families facing physical separation by facilitating the bonding experience of reading aloud. In more than 200 locations worldwide on land and at sea, it offers military service members the opportunity to be video-recorded reading books to the special children in their lives. More than 2 million families have used the United Through Literacy app. Services can be accessed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. When service members read to children they love and send the video recordings and books home: family morale is boosted; separation-related stress is reduced; family reading routines are maintained; children remain connected to their service members, making family reintegration easier; and children's literacy and language skills develop.

Canadian Charities

CODE promotes every child’s right to read. It works in partnership with locally based organizations to promote local literacy education efforts around the world. They have helped more than 10 million children to gain access to better reading and writing education, providing teacher education, supporting literacy programs, research initiatives, and literacy awards. CODE’s literacy efforts provide teacher professional development and equip teachers with culturally relevant children’s books and learning materials to nurture reading and writing skills in young students. 

First Book Canada. Over the past 15 years, First Book Canada has distributed more than 10 million high-quality age-appropriate books to kids in need who would not have access to books otherwise. Their programs focus on getting books into the hands of children growing up in poverty. The program reached more than 130,000 children this year.

Please be generous!

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