About Us - Frequent Questions - Donations

Do you accept used book donations?

We appreciate your interest in donating used books to Room to Read. One of the main reasons our organization has been able to impact so many children's lives is because of the generous involvement and support from people like you. Unfortunately, we DO NOT accept used book donations. After reviewing our individual book donation program, we have found that it actually costs Room to Read more time and money to sort and ship the donated books, than shipping new books donated directly by children's book publishers or by buying new books within our partner countries.

Instead, Room to Read has formed a very successful relationship with an organization called Better World Books, which collects and resells used books to benefit our programs. They are well equipped to handle the logistics and make it incredibly easy for donors to send the books to them by paying for shipping! For more information, please visit their website at www.betterworldbooks.com and mention that Room to Read sent you. You can also contact them directly by emailing info@betterworldbooks.com.

Can I donate new books?

Room to Read accepts new children's books in partnership with The Asia Foundation. (Please note that The Asia Foundation WILL NOT accept any used book donations). We ask that you consider donating new books only if there is a minimum of 50 books, as the logistical cost of accepting smaller shipments greatly reduces the cost efficiency of the program.

The following are some general guidelines for collecting NEW children's books for our program.

Books that are needed in the developing world and will be accepted by Room to Read:

Certain materials and subjects are NOT accepted by Room to Read, including:

If you would like to make a new book donation and your books meet the above requirements, please contact gifts.in.kind@roomtoread.org and we will provide the appropriate next steps and notify The Asia Foundation of an expected shipment.

What does it mean to "Adopt a Project" and how can I go about doing so?

Room to Read is committed to transparency and treating our donors as investors in our organization. As a result, we have developed an "Adopt a Project" menu whereby donors either finance or raise funds for a particular project. Our projects include building new schools, establishing libraries and computer & language labs, publishing local language children's books and funding girls' scholarships. There are a variety of projects to choose from. Please visit the Adopt a Project page for more information.

I just tried donating online and it didn't work. What is wrong?

Room to Read employs a 3rd party vendor to process our credit card donations. Because of this, certain fields must be populated in order for the transaction to be processed. If you are experiencing any problems while attempting to make a donation to Room to Read, please refer to the following tips below:

If you are still having problems making a donation, please email finance@roomtoread.org with your phone number and the best time to reach you so that we may help you troubleshoot the problem via the phone.

We thank you for your patience with any troubles encountered while making a donation to Room to Read and greatly appreciate your support!

How do we know that our funds are going to the intended projects?

Room to Read values transparency in all aspect of our operations. As a result, we provide many reports on the projects that our donors sponsor. For instance:

For more information on how to adopt a project, please see the question above or visit our Adopt a Project page.

Donors who have not adopted a specific project can still share in our results by visiting the Results page and downloading some of our sample reports.

Can I sponsor a particular girl as part of your Girls' Scholarship program? Can I get letters from her?

It is Room to Read's philosophy not to establish a direct one-to-one relationship between our donors and individual students. We feel that forcing our students to maintain a relationship with a person they have never met is unfair, particularly due to the fact that a number of our students are quite young and not yet literate in English.

Of equal importance is that we want the children to feel that they are being helped by their own local people, in this case the local Room to Read teams. Having them communicate with a person overseas may have the effect of convincing them that the solution to their problems lies outside their own community, and will therefore foster a culture of dependence.

Instead, we ask donors to contribute to a general scholarship fund that is administered at a local level by our in-country staff. In order to allow our donors to learn more about the girls on scholarship, we publish an annual Girls' Scholarship Yearbook. This yearbook includes general information on the program, photos and letters from the girls, and program results.

For more information on the program or to download our latest yearbook, see our Girls' Scholarship page.

Can I donate stock?

We are happy to accept gifts of stock. The IRS provides one of its most significant tax breaks for donations of appreciated securities. To make a stock gift to Room to Read, please follow this two-step process:

  1. Download our Stock Donation Form (Adobe PDF, 81kB), complete the form, and fax it back to Room to Read at +1 415-591-0580. This will ensure that we have the necessary information to properly acknowledge and credit your gift.
  2. Notify Room to Read of the transfer by contacting Pam Joyce, Development Director at +1 415-561-3331 or donate@roomtoread.org.

How can I donate to Room to Read? Do you have a preferred method of donating?

You can donate via check, credit card, PayPal, wire transfer, or stock. We will accept donations in any of the formats but prefer checks as they incur no processing fees. All other forms of donations incur processing fees from third parties.

Checks should be made out to: "Room to Read" and sent to the Global Office mailing address listed on our Contact Us page.

You can also donate online via Credit Card or PayPal.

For wire transfers, please contact finance@roomtoread.org to obtain a copy of Room to Read's account information to initiate the transaction. Also, be sure to include your name, address and any special instructions regarding the gift in your email so that we can properly identify your funds when they arrive in our account. Please note that wire transfers arrive with little information from the bank, so your email is a necessary step to identify and record your gift.

Can I donate from a foreign country or in a foreign currency?

Yes! You can donate both from a foreign country and in a foreign currency. The most cost effective way to donate is via check, and Room to Read can process both donations received in US dollars and foreign currency. Please note that donations received through our global office will be receipted with US tax receipts.

To make a donation from the United Kingdom or Canada and receive a tax receipt for these countries, please follow the appropriate link under "International Donations" on our Donate page.

If you wish to donate via credit card, you can donate in US dollars online via Room to Read's Credit Card donation page. Please be advised that large donations from foreign countries are sometimes declined by the cardholder's credit card issuing bank. In these cases, it may be necessary for you to speak with your credit card issuing bank to advise them that you would like to authorize Room to Read to charge your card. Lastly, Room to Read can accept wire transfers from foreign locations. Please contact finance@roomtoread.org to obtain further directions!