Room to Read Fact Sheet

THE CHALLENGE 758 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE ILLITERATE 2/3 ARE WOMEN AND GIRLS 250 MILLION CHILDREN AREN’T LEARNING IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

OUR RESULTS Room to Read believes that World Change Starts with 11.5M CHILDREN Educated Children.® We envision a world in which all BENEFITTED children can pursue a quality that enables from Room to Read’s programs since 2000. them to reach their full potential and contribute to their community and the world. 8M BOOKS CHECKED OUT Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in low-income countries by by children on average each focusing on and gender equality in education. Working in collaboration with local year from our 17,500 school communities, partner organizations and governments, we develop literacy skills and a habit of libraries. reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the relevant life skills to succeed in school and beyond. MORE THAN 18M CHILDREN’S BOOKS DISTRIBUTED including more than 1,100 original Room to Read titles, OUR PROGRAMS donated English- and local- language books. Our Literacy Program enables Our Girls’ Education Program primary school children to become supports girls to complete secondary MORE THAN independent readers. school with the skills necessary to 10,000 TEACHERS negotiate key life decisions. Room to Read focuses its efforts on TRAINED developing reading skills and the habit of Room to Read focuses on girls transitioning on average each year in literacy and reading best reading in primary school aged children to or in secondary school because that is practices. because literacy is the foundation for all where the biggest –and most permanent– future learning. We do this primarily by gaps in gender equality in education MORE THAN establishing libraries, increasing access to age- take place. We do this primarily through 38,000 GIRLS appropriate and culturally relevant reading supporting girls to attend school, providing SUPPORTED materials (including publishing our own female mentoring and creating more by Room to Read’s Girls’ original children’s books), and improving the girl-friendly school environments. We have Education Program and child friendliness of the school environment. recently added more emphasis on teaching 93% either remained in the We have recently increased our support life skills to girls so they will finish school and program or graduated from for reading instruction including creating maximize their opportunities. secondary school in 2014. materials and providing training for teachers.

World Change Starts with Educated Children.® | www.roomtoread.org RECOGNITION WHAT DIFFERENTIATES US?

FISCAL EXCELLENCE for the child to catch up. To us this means Room to Read has achieved 11 4-star a child develops both the skills and the ratings from Charity Navigator since habit of reading which we believe together 2007, indicating that Room to Read contribute to lifelong learning. We also outperforms most other charities in concentrate efforts during a girl’s transition America. into secondary school in 6th and 7th grades LEADER IN LITERACY when she has a high risk of dropping out Won 2014 Library of Congress of school because we know that wages for Literacy Award’s David Rubenstein girls increase by 15–25% for each additional Prize for our outstanding year a girl remains in secondary school. commitment to literacy, and the UNESCO 2011 Confucius Prize for We use data to evolve and improve our Literacy recognizing excellence and programs each year. Room to Read is inspiration in the literacy field. committed to measuring our results and reporting these results to our stakeholders SOCIAL INNOVATOR as we consider transparency central to Chosen as Twitter’s first Corporate our success. This includes developing Social Innovation partner and won rigorous methods for determining results the Skoll Foundation’s Award for Room to Read targets two critical through regular data collection against key Social Entrepreneurship ten times. milestones during a child’s school years indicators at more than 3,500 sites annually. HIGH-IMPACT GIVING that can dramatically impact a child’s life and their future generations. We We create long-term systemic change. Recognized in Barron’s magazine concentrate on literacy learning during We hire locally and work closely with our 25 Best Givers list, 2009, 2010; The government partners to scale our programs Global Journal’s Top 100 NGOs in 1st and 2nd grades because we know that the World, 2012, 2013; and Great once a child reaches 3rd grade without and ultimately impact and benefit more Nonprofits Top Rated list, 2013, 2014. basic literacy skills, it is extremely difficult children.

PRESS OUR REACH

Room to Read has received significant Room to Read has benefited 11.5 million children around the world. global media coverage, including:

• ABC • BBC • Buzzfeed • CBS • CNN •

• Financial Times • The New York Times • O U T S H • Newsweek • Radio National • Vogue • A S I A • The Wall Street Journal Jordan R I C F A A T H E A PARTNERS U S O S I A T S A Room to Read receives support Rwanda from leading global companies and Indonesia foundations, including:

• Atlassian • Burger King McLamore Foundation • Citi • Credit Suisse • Dubai Cares • Echidna I B B E Giving • Fossil Foundation • Goldman Sachs A R A N C Room to Read Operations (Active and Inactive) • Lee Foundation • Tatcha • Townsend Press Grenada • UBS Optimus Foundation • U.S. Department of Room to Read Accelerator Agriculture & Catholic Relief Services Room to Read Operations and Room to Read Accelerator

465 California Street, Suite 1000 • San Francisco, CA, 94104, USA • Voice: +1 415 839 4400 • Fax: +1 415 839 4303 [email protected] • www.roomtoread.org • twitter.com/roomtoread • facebook.com/roomtoread

World Change Starts with Educated Children.®