About
Room to Read is an international education nonprofit headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2000, the organization works to nurture foundational learning skills in children, using a contextualized approach that develops children's literacy and life skills in a dignified and gender-equal way. Room to Read is active across 29 geographies in Asia and Africa, with staff present in 19 countries.
Mission
Room to Read's mission is to nurture foundational learning skills in children. The organization addresses both access to education and the quality of education, with a particular focus on literacy and gender equality.
What they do
- Literacy programming that builds children's foundational reading skills — Grade 2 students in Room to Read schools read more than twice as many correct words per minute as students in comparison schools.
- Gender equality programming that supports girls' education.
- Life skills development integrated with both classroom and out-of-classroom learning.
Scale and impact
According to the organization, more than 60 million children have benefited from its work since its founding in 2000 — on average, about three children served per minute. Among surveyed alumni five years after completing its programs, 80% were either in tertiary education or employed. Room to Read reports that it has deployed over 1 billion dollars toward improving foundational learning globally, and it has earned 18 four-star ratings from Charity Navigator.
People and governance
Room to Read maintains a geographically representative workforce of over 1,200 staff across 19 countries, with nearly 90% of staff employed locally in the regions where they work; local nationals lead community-based operations. Per its IRS filings on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, the organization is led by CEO Geetha Murali, with Shari Freedman serving as CFO.
Financials
According to ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (EIN 91-2003533), Room to Read has been recognized as a 501(c)(3) educational organization since 1999. For fiscal year 2025 it reported total revenue of 74,017,388 dollars, total expenses of 64,573,259 dollars, and total assets of 90,560,414 dollars. The organization relies almost entirely on contributions for its revenue and reports no professional fundraising fees.