About Us

We Believe that World Change Starts with Educated Children®

Founded in 2000, Room to Read’s mission is to nurture foundational learning skills in children. Our contextualized approach develops children’s literacy and life skills in a dignified and gender-equal way. We nurture these essential skills in children by training and coaching educators, creating quality learning materials and spaces, strengthening education systems, and delivering programs directly and with partners — all while honoring the dignity of every child.

Quality education is an inherent human right and yet:

• More than 773 million people cannot read; two-thirds of these individuals are women and girls.
• Among 10-year olds living in low and middle-income countries, seven out of ten cannot read and understand a simple text and are considered to be living in learning poverty.

Strategy (2025-)

Room to Read will improve literacy, life skills, dignified learning and gender equality outcomes for more children, more quickly.

Through this strategy, we will institutionalize Room to Read as a leading implementer with a globally recognized and trusted brand. We will leverage our literacy and life skills programming toward accelerating learning outcomes for more children, more quickly. As a result, Room to Read will be respected as a valuable partner of choice for government, other system and program partners, as well as investors focused on education.

READ HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR STRATEGY

Over the next three years, we will:

• Double the number of children we serve each year
• Double the number of communities we support each year
• Double the number of partners we work with

Room to Read's Theory of Change

25 Years Of...

Help us benefit more children, more quickly

Be part of a best-in-class non-profit on a steep growth trajectory worldwide. We will not stop until every child has access to a quality education.