Bookish Charities

'Tis the season for giving; so I've put together a list to help make it easy to give to some wonderful and deserving charities. Whether it's a gift of a book to a child in need, promoting adult literacy or supporting sustainable reading all you have to do is click and give.

Thanks and Happy Giving!

Books For Africa - Books For Africa. A simple name for a simple organization with a simple mission. We collect, sort, ship and distribute books to children in Africa. That's all we do. Our goal: to end the book famine in Africa.

Building with Books - Building with Books (BwB) is a non-profit organization that empowers primarily urban U.S. high school students through in-class and intensive after-school programs. In addition to tremendous contributions of community service in their own cities and neighborhoods, BwB youth actually build schools and bring literacy to children and adults in developing countries around the world. BwB programs are designed to build confidence and real-world capabilities in American youth while also empowering communities world-wide to overcome the crippling cycle of illiteracy, poverty and low expectations by opening the door to education.

Eco-Libris - A green business and our partners in sustainable reading, their mission is to plant a tree for every book made, thus balancing out the environmental impact on the planet. They work with "planting partners" to plant trees in developing countries where the trees provide significant value for both the environment and the local communities.

First Book - Twice the Giving! First Book provides books to children in need this holiday and throughout the year. Thanks to Random House Children's Books your donation will be matched book-for-book through December 31st. First Book is a nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. They provide an ongoing supply of new books to children participating in community-based mentoring, tutoring, and family literacy programs.

Literacy Assistance Center - Literacy is more than the ability to read a book. It is the ability to open new worlds. The Literacy Assistance Center is entering their third decade of service to New York’s literacy programs for adults, out-of-school youth, and families. Over 800 programs across the state provide free and low-cost programs in English for speakers of other languages, adult basic education, and GED preparation. Their mission is to support the work of these programs to help adults and families become more confident, productive, and active members of their communities.

Reach Out and Read (ROR) - Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a national non-profit organization that promotes early literacy by giving new books to children and advice, in pediatric exam rooms across the nation, to parents about the importance of reading aloud. Doctors and nurses know that growing up healthy means growing up with books. The ROR program provides the tools to help promote children's developmental skills and later school success.

Room To Read - Partner with local communities throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating local language children's literature, constructing schools, providing education to girls and establishing computer labs. Room to Read's Students Helping Students initiative was launched in 2005 after an overwhelming response from students wanting to help rebuild schools and libraries after the devastating tsunami in Sri Lanka.

United Through Reading - What began as one woman's vision for military families has now benefited almost 500,000 people, both military and non-military families, through the power of reading aloud.