Legacy Giving

When you include a gift for Room to Read in your will…

Your generosity becomes the words that girls will use to express themselves and build lives of their own choosing. Your compassion becomes the stories that young learners will hold in their hearts and share with their own children. Most importantly, your thoughtfulness becomes a better life for every student, family, and community that we reach, both now and for years to come.

Your support is their success. Their triumph is your legacy.

 

Stories from our Legacy Community

Stories from our Legacy Community

"If you are looking for a way to have a profound, positive impact on global education, that costs you nothing now, I highly recommend including Room to Read in your will. It is the most impactful way to invest in a brighter future for all and with Room to Read offering supporters a free tool to create or update their will, I found it to be very rewarding and surprisingly easy."

- Craig Herb, Room to Read supporter since 2007

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Need Assistance? Just ask.

Establishing Your Legacy is Easy

With charitable gift planning, you can create a legacy gift that will extend your support for years to come. It's simple to structure your gift to maximize its benefits in a way that is most favorable to you, your loved ones and the organizations you choose.

For assistance please contact Caitlin Nagel, our Legacy Giving Manager, at legacy@roomtoread.org or follow the steps below.

Step-by-Step Guide to Legacy Giving

Creating a legacy gift allows you to designate your investment to the work you are most passionate about. Most of our supporters choose to invest in our greatest need.

To learn more about your investment options, please e-mail Caitlin Nagel, our Legacy Giving Manager at legacy@roomtoread.org.

If you choose not to designate your investment, it will go towards Room to Read's Future Fund, ensuring your gift is used for maximum possible impact as part of our operational reserves that strengthen our ability to continue our mission in an unpredictable future. The Future Fund enables our organization to be nimble, ensures protection against the unexpected and gives us the financial flexibility to identify, test and invest in new, even more efficient approaches to delivering our programs to the children who need them most.


A bequest, or gift made through your will, is the most common type of legacy gift.

Gifts in Wills – One of the simplest and most effective ways you can ensure that education endures for children experiencing deep educational and economic inequities – not just now, but always – is by including Room to Read in your will or trust.

A gift in your will can be a percentage of your estate or a specific dollar amount and your gift may be in the form of cash, stocks or bonds.

We have partnered with FreeWill to make it easy and accessible to make plans for your will and create a legacy gift. Their free service allows Room to Read supporters who are based in the US to create a will at no cost, plan for their loved ones and establish a legacy of impact in the process. Create your will and legacy gift here for free.

If you are donating outside of the US, please visit our Ways to Give page and select the country you are donating from to find information about Legacy Giving in your country. If you are based in Hong Kong, please visit our partnered platform at Forever Gift to create your will for free.

Suggested language for adding a gift in your will:

“I give, devise and bequeath to Room to Read, a nonprofit corporation, organized and existing under the laws of the State of Washington, with its principal place of business address at Room to Read, 465 California Street, Suite 1000, San Francisco, CA 94104 and tax ID number 91-2003533, [the sum of $_____________] or [_________% of my estate] for its general purposes”

Beneficiary Designations – Your retirement plans, life insurance policies and annuities can all help bring quality educational opportunities to the children who need them most. You can designate Room to Read as the primary beneficiary for a percentage or specified amount of the policy or name us as a contingent beneficiary. If you are donating from the US, click here to plan your beneficiary designations for free.


Consult your financial advisor or, if you are donating from the US, visit our trusted partners at FreeWill to create your legal will for free.


Make sure to tell us that you have included a gift for us in your will!

In honor of your investment in Room to Read’s future, we would love to show our appreciation by recognizing your gift and including you in our exclusive legacy benefits. However, we understand if you prefer to remain anonymous.


Download the Legacy Giving Guide

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Contact Us

legacy@roomtoread.org

 

To notify us of a gift or ask questions about Legacy Giving, please contact us.

Stories from our Legacy Community


Martyn, you have been a tremendous partner to Room to Read for 15 years. What inspired you to get involved? 

One of the drivers of my life has been the knowledge that my mother, who was born in the early years of the 20th century, was taken out of school by her father at the age of 13 because he didn’t think that girls should be educated. My mother never expressed any resentment of that fact, even though she had been doing extremely well at school, but she determined that her children would never be in the position she was put in. She went to enormous lengths to make sure that my three siblings and I had the benefit of the education she missed out on. That is why the whole concept of Room to Read and its work around gender equality really resonated with me.  

You spent your career as a solicitor, helping people with their estate planning. When it came to writing your own will, what factors did you take into consideration? 

The factors that I considered in creating my will were my individual circumstances, as well as my wife’s. Most importantly, we wanted to determine the needs of our family and make sure they were protected. We have three sons and six grandchildren, so they were at the forefront of our minds. At the same time, we are very conscious of how lucky we have been in the way life has panned out for us and so we wanted to include gifts to charities whose missions resonated with us most. We knew we couldn’t benefit every cause, so we decided to prioritize education and we selected Room to Read because we believe very passionately in what they are doing and how they are doing it.  

While everyone’s situation is different, one thing that is constant is that everyone ought to make a will. As a solicitor, I would say this, but it’s true. A will is necessary to protect everyone and everything you care about. The positive side of this is that there is an appropriate option for nearly everyone to support the causes they care about by including a gift to charity in their will. It gives everyone the opportunity to invest in their vision for a better future.  

Speaking of the future, what excites you about Room to Read’s future? 

When I think about the future, I feel both excited and frustrated. Room to Read has reached more than 32 million children, which is truly remarkable, but we live in a world that has more than 7 billion people, hundreds of millions of which are illiterate. I truly believe that we will get to a place where Room to Read will no longer need to exist, but it isn’t going to happen in my lifetime. I take real confidence in knowing that Room to Read has a plan to keep growing and expanding access to education. Gender equality in education is so important, especially in societies that are very patriarchal, and I am heartened by the progress we have made so far. These changes don’t happen overnight, and I am hopeful for the future knowing that organizations like Room to Read exist and will keep advancing progress for girls and students around the world until a quality education is something that everyone can take for granted. 

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