About Us - Partners

Room to Read's partners are a huge factor in our success. Our key corporate partners, in-kind partners, and grassroots partners provide us with generous financial and organizational support. They also raise awareness of our mission and help further our goal of providing the lifelong gift of education to millions of children in the developing world. Please note that our in-country partners are listed on the individual country pages. If you are interested in becoming one of our in-country partners, please read How do we form a partnership with your organization? in the Programs & Countries section of our Frequent Questions.

Corporate Investors

Our generous corporate investors are critical to our success and our ability to expand within existing countries and into new geographies. Furthermore, they are integral to our growth as an organization as they often provide invaluable unrestricted funds and capacity building support. The following are our most generous corporate investors, having donated at least US$50,000:

Accenture has been our greatest corporate sponsor to date, with the organization and its employees contributing over US$1 million to our capacity building initiatives and our projects throughout Asia. Better World Books supports Room to Read financially by selling donated textbooks online, then donating the proceeds. We are one of their four primary global literacy partners.
The Goldman Sachs Foundation is contributing US$1 million over three years to establish libraries, build local capacity, and support monitoring and evaluation in India. The Credit Suisse Foundation and Credit Suisse employees have been fantastic patrons of our work in India and Sri Lanka, contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to our programs.
CB Richard Ellis has provided extensive funding for our schools and libraries in Sri Lanka. Dow Corning has been a fantastic supporter of our School Room Program in Sri Lanka.
ING Asia Pacific continues to be one of our most supportive partners, funding schools, libraries, and our organizational capacity building in Sri Lanka. Prudential Holdings has formed an exciting partnership with Room to Read, funding projects in Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
XL Capital made a very substantial and generous multi-year commitment to our work in Sri Lanka. Boeing International Corporation India is a great sponsor of our Reading Room Program in India.
Since our inception, support from Microsoft and its employees has been integral to our success, contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars in unrestricted funding and to projects throughout the developing world. The Big Moo, Do you Zoom Inc., Squidoo Inc. and other Seth Godin ventures have collectively raised thousands of dollars for our work throughout the developing world.

In-Kind Partners

In-kind contributions of books, software, and services are key to our success in providing educational opportunities to children in the developing world. The following are our largest in-kind supporters to date:

Scholastic Inc. and its subsidiaries have been extremely supportive of our Reading Room Program. We've received over 600,000 English children's books, which were either donated or purchased at an extremely low cost, for our network of libraries. They have also provided us with invaluable strategic and publishing advice. Chronicle Books has been a wonderful patron of our Reading Room Program in Laos, India and Cambodia, donating thousands of books and flashcards to our network of libraries.
Brother's Brother has been a generous supporter of our Reading Room Program though the donation of over 150,000 children's books. Harper Collins has been a fantastic patron of our Reading Room Program, donating nearly 20,000 children's books to our network of libraries.
Readers Digest has been a generous contributor to our Reading Room Program, donating several thousand books to our network of libraries. Microsoft has made considerable contributions to our organization's communications infrastructure, helping us build a world-class technology platform for our future growth.
The Asia Foundation has graciously provided us with warehouse space to store children's books that are shipped to our partner countries, as well as shipping and logistical support. MercyCorps has been invaluable in providing shipping and logistical services for thousands of books that have been sent to our partner countries for use in our libraries.
Riverdeep Inc. has been a benevolent contributor to our Computer Room Program, providing a variety of software applications for use in our computer labs in India, Cambodia, Nepal, and Vietnam. We partnered with The Learning Innovation and Technology Consortium, a group that specializes in creating customized educational materials, to develop lesson plans for our Students Helping Students initiative.
SNP Corporation has been a generous supporter of our Reading Room Program, donating over 30,000 books to our network of libraries in Nepal. Google has provided us with a generous grant that allows us to use Google AdWords to increase our web hits on their search engine.
DHL has generously provided a grant that allows us to ship packages around the world, thereby allowing more of our dollars to go to our programs and to the children in the developing world.  

Grassroots Partners

Our grassroots partners are making a world of difference by providing innovative ways to donate to Room to Read. By using these organizations to do some of the daily tasks you already perform - like dialing long distance, using a credit card, reading a magazine, or searching the web - you can raise thousands of dollars for Room to Read and promote this new breed of organization.

ChangingThePresent.org seeks to help nonprofits capture a small but growing portion of the US$100 billion Americans will spend on gifts this holiday season. ChangingThePresent.org has over a thousand donation gifts covering every cause you can think of. For very little money people can choose to buy books for children, save an acre of the rainforest, buy an hour of a cancer researcher's time or feed a hungry family. And you can make a donation gift in someone's name and send them a personalized card. It's a wonderful way for both of you to share a very good deed over the holidays! The Motley Fool communicates common sense money management skills and superior investment ideas in plain English. The company is committed to using its voice to help those with money as well as those without it. The company's "Foolanthropy" program invites readers to nominate the charities to which they'd like to contribute. Since 1997, The Motley Fool and its community have raised almost US$2.5 million for many charities across the nation.
Working Assets offers long distance, wireless and credit card services that donate a portion of customers' charges to progressive organizations, including Room to Read, at no extra cost. Since 1985, they have raised over US$50 million for worthy causes — including US$50,000 for Room to Read! Sign up for one of their products at www.workingassets.com and look out for Room to Read on the Working Assets' ballot in the near future. Better World Books connects us with thousands of students at hundreds of colleges throughout the US through on-campus book drives. There are several ways on campus to support Room to Read through Better World Books: run a book drive, donate books to your campus' drive, purchase used books from their site. Proceeds from all sales benefit global literacy programs, including Room to Read. Learn more, and shop for used books, at www.betterworldbooks.com. Book drives for Better Lives!
GOOD Magazine provides an "entertaining, thought-provoking, cultural platform for those who want to do well by doing good." Sign up for their magazine and they will donate the subscription fee (US$20 per year) to the partner organization of your choice, including Room to Read. Subscribe at www.goodmagazine.com. Everyclick.com is an internet search engine making a big difference - it donates 50% of its revenues to various charities including Room to Read Register at www.everyclick.com select Room to Read as your charity, and tell your friends to do the same.

Become a Partner!

As you can see, we have some fantastic partners, but we continue to need more as we expand. Here is how you can help:

Other Ways to Get Your Company Involved

  1. Did you know that many companies will match your donation dollar for dollar? Get Room to Read added to your company's list of approved non-profit organizations. This enables employees to select Room to Read as the designate for their charitable giving and to receive corporate matching donations. Please read our page on Matching Donations for more information.
  2. Start a corporate fundraiser. Many individuals working in both small and large corporations have decided to launch fundraising campaigns to support one of Room to Read's projects (for instance, a school in Nepal, a computer lab in India, or a new Khmer children's book). These campaigns can center around the holidays or perhaps a summer outing. Once the fundraising goal is reached, everyone who participated gets the satisfaction of seeing the final Room to Read report on the given project complete with photos of the children directly impacted by the new school or computer lab. Visit our Adopt a Project page for more information.
  3. Hold a Used Book Drive. Working with our partner, Better World Books, you can run a book drive in your offices to benefit Room to Read. Your company can collect used books that will then be sold by Better World Books with all profits (after their expenses) coming to Room to Read. Better World Books handles all the logistics of receiving and sorting, tracking, and selling the books - all you and your company have to do is collect them! For more information please visit their website at www.betterworldbooks.com and mention Room to Read. You can also contact them directly by emailing info@betterworldbooks.com.

These are some of the more popular ways in which people choose to get their companies involved with Room to Read, but if you have another idea, please let us know! Send an email to donate@roomtoread.org if you need additional information or have an idea on how you want to get your workplace involved with Room to Read.