Raising A Reader (RAR) is a national non-profit organization founded in 1999 focused on early child literacy and family engagement. Our mission is to engage caregivers in a routine of book sharing with their children from birth through age eight to foster healthy brain development, healthy relationships, a love of reading, and the literacy skills critical for school success. We offer three bilingual (English and Spanish) programs, our Classic Red Book Bag Program since 1999, and Super Summer Learning Adventures and Family Shared Reading Program since 2020. We maintain a diverse collection of over 3,000 books in 13 languages that reflect the lived and shared experiences of the children and families we serve, over 75% are from low-income backgrounds and identify as people of color.
RAR was one of the nation’s earliest venture philanthropy enterprises and remains one of the few cost-effective and scalable nonprofit organizations with an earned revenue model that has sustained its operations for more than twenty years. Approximately 50% of our budget is through earned revenue and the other 50% comes from contributed revenue from individuals and institutions.
RAR optimizes a train-the-trainer Affiliate model to maximize our impact. We equip local community-based organizations with tools, training, actionable steps and ongoing support to empower families and improve kids’ reading skills.