* Note: These documents are constantly evolving and are offered to you as an additional tool to use in
your fundraising efforts. You may have stronger sections that we encourage you to use and share with
us so that we can integrate them and share with other coalitions.
Date
Name
Foundation
Address
City, State, Zip
Dear XXX,
On behalf of Reach Out and Read’s Board of Directors and staff, and all the parents and
children that we serve, Reach Out and Read [state/coalition] is pleased to submit this letter of
inquiry and to introduce ourselves to [the XYZ Foundation]. Reach Out and Read is a
pediatric literacy program educating [insert # of children served by your coalition] children
annually at [insert # of sites] clinics and health care centers in [city/state]. It is our mission to
ensure all young children enter school ready to learn and equipped to fulfill their tremendous
innate potential.
With the approval of this letter, we wish to request a [type of support] grant of [$X]. Your
grant will allow us to [insert a brief description of your request – i.e., expand to serve 1,000
additional children next year and ensure parents are more deeply engaged in their child’s
education].
Organizational History and Background
Reach Out and Read prepares America’s youngest children to succeed in school by partnering
with pediatricians to prescribe books and encourage families to read together. We are one of
the few early literacy organizations with both evidence and scale. Our innovative model
recruits pediatric care providers to make literacy a standard part of well-child visits for children
ages 6 months through 5 years. Providers distribute books to children at each visit, advise
parents on the importance of reading aloud, and offer literacy strategies for all developmental
stages. Volunteers model good literacy practices by reading aloud to children in pediatric
waiting rooms. Fifteen published studies have shown that our model achieves its goals as
children in our program have larger vocabularies, higher comprehension levels and highly
engaged parents who read aloud to their children more often and experience more enjoyment in
reading activities.
Our founders recognized early childhood as a critical time for literacy intervention. Because
90% of brain development occurs between birth and age 5, the learning deficits accumulated
before kindergarten are almost impossible to make up. Our founders realized that pediatric
care providers have a unique opportunity to intervene. By recruiting pediatricians as our
advocates, we gain unparalleled access to young children, especially those ages 3 and under.
According to a report by the nonprofit research organization Child Trends, 90% of children
ages 6 months through 5 years visit their pediatric care provider regularly. Our pediatric
approach to early literacy capitalizes on this advantage, as well as the unique trust between
parents and pediatricians, to ensure that children are on the right track from the start.
Need and Target Population
Although all families with young children are welcome to participate in Reach Out and Read,
we focus our outreach on parents and children living at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty
Level. Numerous studies demonstrate that children from low-income families are at especially
high risk for reading failure, due to a sizable “language gap”—a deficit in their vocabulary
skills prior to kindergarten, in comparison with their more affluent peers. In fact, a recent study
by Stanford researchers found that this vocabulary difference may emerge as early as age 18
months.
In their Reach Out and Read applications, we ask clinics to describe their patients’ literacy
challenges. The excerpts below illustrate the specific obstacles faced by our participating
families:
[Insert two or three anecdotes from Reach Out and Read applications specific to your
state/coalition. For example:
“We have many young, recent high school graduate parents who need encouragement to read
to their children. Many of them have multiple kids and do not have the financial means to buy
age appropriate books.”
-
Pediatrician, McDonald Army Health Center, Dept. of Pediatrics (Fort Eustis)
“We [serve] a very diverse population . . . We have 62 languages spoken at our clinic. We are
trying diligently to encourage our parents to read to their children. Language is part of the
barrier, but finances to buy books are another.”
- Medical Staff, Manchester Community Health Center (Manchester)]
Key Achievements
Our program has earned accolades both in [state/coalition] and nationally. At a Clinton Global
Initiative meeting in June 2014, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a
partnership between the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Scholastic, Too Small to
Fail, and Reach Out and Read. Our shared goal is to raise awareness among parents about the
importance of early language development. To that end, for the first time ever, the AAP
published a formal policy statement promoting books and literacy guidance as essential
components of childhood wellness. We see the AAP’s announcement as a real milestone for
Reach Out and Read, since it confirms the health and literacy messages we have been
advocating since our founding.
In September 2013, Reach Out and Read received the Library of Congress’s top literacy award,
the David M. Rubenstein Prize. The Rubenstein Prize honors individuals or organizations that
have been doing exemplary, innovative, and replicable work in the field of literacy over a
sustained period of time. During the winter of 2013, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times
columnist Nicholas Kristof selected our organization as one of four nonprofits featured in his
annual holiday giving guide.
[Insert a paragraph about awards and honors received by your state/coalition – i.e. major
grants, special partnerships, etc.]
Funding
Your [type of support] grant will support [insert project details]. Some current donors include
[X Foundation, Y Foundation, Z Corporation]. We also receive support from other local and
national foundations and individuals.
I would welcome the opportunity to provide further details in a proposal, and to host a
foundation representative on a site visit at one of our program sites. Enclosed with this letter,
please also find a general information packet on Reach Out and Read and its impact. If you
need any additional information or have any questions, please contact me at (XXX) XXXXXXX or [email address]. Thank you very much for your consideration.
Sincerely,
NAME
TITLE