Children's Futures

Children's Futures was established in 2001 to serve Mercer County, NJ, and ensure that all children and families get off to a healthy start in life. They aim to increase opportunities for health and wellness, and to ward off health and social problems that can lead to a lifetime of illness and dependency.

The organization's mission is to improve health and development outcomes for children and their families. To achieve this mission, they formally collaborate with schools, social service providers, healthcare agencies, faith institutions, civic associations, employers and others around school readiness and success strategies that have the greatest positive impact on children's immediate health needs, as well as long-term development.

Children's Futures provides services in the following areas:

• Health Education and Outreach
• Prenatal Care Services
• Nurse Home Visiting
• Case Management
• Quality Child Care
• Health Literacy
• Family Support Services
• Professional Training & Technical Assistance

Additionally, the organization hosts conferences and forums, provides training and technical assistance to area agencies, produces reports and advocates for policy changes. Their programs focus on: strengthening parenting, improving primary care systems, improving child care systems and integrating community support.

For more information please visit the Children's Futures website.

Better World Books

Better World Books (BWB) was founded in 2002 by three college friends who started selling textbooks online to make money and ended up forming a pioneering social enterprise- a business with a mission to promote literacy. They believe education and access to books are basic human rights. BWB uses the power of business to change the world. They collect and sell books online to donate books and fund literacy initiatives worldwide. There are over 8 million new and used titles to purchase.

All books are shipped free, and in case you're concerned about your eco-footprint, every order shipped is carbon balanced with Green-e Climate certified offsets from 3Degrees, a leading green power and carbon balancing services firm.

Impact:

To date BWB has:

• donated over 7,048,615 books
• raised $13,446,219.11 for literacy and libraries
• reused/recycled 97,959,917 books

So far, 58 million books have been converted into $10.4 million in funding, and over 40,000 tons of books have been saved from landfills. Books are collected through a network of 2,300 college campuses and 3,000 libraries.

Programs:

• Book for Book - for every book purchased, BWB donates a book to someone in need. 

• LEAP (Literacy & Education in Action Program) - funds literacy and educational nonprofits and libraries for specific projects- the frontline of the fight to reduce global poverty through education. Several times a year, BWB invites literacy-focused organizations to apply for grants to support high-impact literacy projects. Then BWB selects the projects they feel "have the biggest bang for the buck." Projects are funded through BWB's General Literacy Fund, which means they make grants in addition to the regular stream of revenue earmarked for libraries and their nonprofit partners.

• Donations - BWB sells new and used books, so you can donate your books (via one of their drop boxes or mail) and they will be sold online to help raise funds for nonprofit literacy organizations.

Partners:

BWB's four primary literacy partners:

• Books for Africa
• Room to Read
• Worldfund
• National Center for Family Literacy

I urge you to visit Better World Books' website to review their mission and values, read about their impact and buy some books! (They even have gift certificates).

If You Give a Kid a Book

BookEnds

In 1993, 8-year-old Brandon Keefe believed he could make a difference. By 1998, he was, forming BookEnds as nonprofit organization in Southern California that is about kids helping kids. The organization recycles children's books through student-run book drives and places them in schools and youth organizations in need of books. They believe that a literate child is the foundation of a thriving community. By providing access to books, children are given the resources to develop literacy skills and to experience the joy and imagination of reading.

Recipients of the BookEnds program include:

• Inner City Schools
• Youth Centers
• Homeless Shelters
• Family Literacy Centers
• After-school Enrichment Programs
• Children's Group Homes
• Juvenile Detention Facilities

For recipient organizations the ratio of books to kids is 3 to 1; the national average is 22 to 1.  Each dollar donated to BookEnds results in more than five dollars worth of books for kids.

BookEnds believes in the power of community service. Through Bookends students have the opportunity to change their lives and the lives of others through community service. Student volunteers collect, sort and personally deliver donated books to quality libraries and inspire a passion for reading.

The Stats to Date:

• 22,000 student volunteers
• 585 empty libraries filled in the Greater Los Angeles area
• 2.1 million books delivered
• Serving over 520,000 at-risk children

For more information please visit BookEnds.

GreaterGood

Background

GreaterGood is a network of websites that offer the unique opportunity to support causes you care about, with no cost to you. The organization partners with and funds leading nonprofit organizations around the world in order to alleviate poverty and hunger, promote peace, address cancer and other widespread health problems, foster literacy and education, preserve vital habitats in peril, and provide protection and care to vulnerable animals.

GreaterGood accomplishes this mission by:

• Alleviating and addressing the root causes of world hunger and food insecurity and promoting peaceful co-existence.
• Early detection and treatment of breast cancer and other widespread health concerns, particularly in women.
• Preventing and treating childhood illness, disease and other children's health and well-being concerns.
• Promoting children's literacy and education.
• Protecting and restoring the environment.
• Providing care and feeding of rescued animals in shelters and sanctuaries and addressing the root causes of their conditions.

How it Works

Each person's daily click on the Click to Give sites displays sponsor advertising. One hundred percent (100%) of sponsor advertising is paid as a royalty through GreaterGood.org. Supporters can also contribute directly to charity by purchasing Gifts that Give More, where 100% of the donations are given to charity, or by purchasing one of the over 4500 products they carry. There is a 5-30% charity royalty paid on every item purchased from any of the GreaterGood network of online stores.

Results

Last year GreaterGood  gave over $3.07 million to charity. And how's this for transparency, you can view exactly where the money went. The organization's website provides a breakdown of every charity they donated to, and the amount of money it received. Site visitors can even look at GreaterGood's giving from the last three years. The IRS 990 forms filed by GreaterGood are also easily accessible.

For more information please visit GreaterGood.org.

First Book

First Book provides new books to children in need, addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy: access to books.

Founded in 1992, by Kyle Zimmer, the organization has gone from distributing 12,000 books in year 1, to approximately 8 millions books in 2008. To date, First Book has distributed more than 60 million free or low cost books in thousands of communities.

First Book operates out of the U.S. and Canada, securing books from publishers. The organization doesn't take individual book donations, but at $2.50 per book, your dollar goes far.

For more information on First Book please visit their website. 

Dave Eggers

Today's nonprofit tidbit focuses on philanthropist, advocate, and author, Dave Eggers. 

Eggers is a pretty busy guy, he's a novelist, launched an independent publishing house, which publishes books, a quarterly journal (McSweeney's), and a monthly magazine (The Believer), and spends his free time founding non-profits. 

826 Valencia  is a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 by Dave Eggers and Ninive Calegari. Their mission is to help students ages 6 to 18 develop their writing skills and help teachers get their students excited about writing and the literary arts. This is achieved through one-on-one tutoring, field trips, in-school programs and workshops- for free. Since it's founding, 826 has expanded to seven locations known collectively as 826 National.

Once Upon a School developed from Dave Eggers TED Prize wish, this website collects the stories of private citizens who are engaged in their communities by helping their local public schools. Not only can site visitors submit stories, but it also helps match donors with school projects. "The site helps you find a creative way of supporting local public school."

Voice of Witness  is a nonprofit oral history book series, which "seeks to illuminate human rights crises by humanizing the victims.  By allowing them to tell their stories, we seek to engender greater understanding." It's aim is "engaging readers of all levels- from high school to college students to policy makers."

I urge you to visit Dave Eggers' page at Ted  and learn more about his work. It's a great opportunity to hear more about Dave Eggers' work in his own words. More importantly, I urge to check out these organizations.