Read To Them

What Read To Them does

Read To Them is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, founded in 2003 to promote family literacy through school-wide reading programs. The organization serves individual elementary and middle schools, school districts, and state education departments across all 50 U.S. states, with 3,900+ participating schools and 4.6 million books placed into home libraries to date. Its core offering is a portfolio of turnkey, shared-reading programs, including One School, One Book, One District, One Book, States Read One Book, and the nationwide One Book Connects US initiative, supplemented by Picture Book Companions for pre-school readers, the annual Read Aloud to a Child Week event, and an early-childhood literacy partnership as the City of Richmond affiliate of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

The organization operates a peer-reviewed catalog of 150+ titles selected for school-wide reading, paired with educator-created resources, family engagement materials, and two digital platforms: the Client Portal for participating schools and the Beyond-the-Book Nook, launched in February 2026, which delivers 15 days of family activities, interactive reading maps, and educator discussion forums for States Read and OBC-US participants. Technology is positioned as a content delivery and coordination layer rather than a data- or AI-driven system.

Read To Them generates revenue through three streams: quote-based annual program fees paid by schools, districts, and states for books and program materials; individual and organizational donations solicited to subsidize participation for schools that cannot afford fees; and grants pursued via a dedicated Marketing Copy and Grant Writing Specialist. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and varies by program size and title selection. Distribution is entirely direct, with no resellers, channeled via website quote requests, conferences such as VAASL, email outreach, and regional representatives in Florida, New York, and Michigan. Day-to-day operations are run by a lean team of approximately 20+ staff, and the organization is governed by a board drawn from companies including CoStar, Truist, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, and Amazon.

Name

Read To Them

Legal name

Read to Them, Inc.

Website

https://readtothem.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Read To Them is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that delivers turnkey, school-wide shared reading programs (One School, One Book, One District, One Book, States Read One Book) to 3,900+ schools across all 50 U.S. states, placing 4.6 million books into home libraries since 2003.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Educational Literacy Programs

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Literature & Book Clubs / Guided Reading Groups (EDAMAJAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Library, Reading Motivation & Independent Reading Programs (EDAMAJAO), Early Literacy & Reading Intervention Programs (EDAGAAAD)

Keywords

• School reading programs
• Family literacy programs
• Read aloud initiatives
• Educator-created resources
• Literacy nonprofit services

Headquarters

HQ city

Vausseroux

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Program Fees: Schools, districts, and states purchase Read To Them programs (One School, One Book, One District, One Book, States Read One Book) which include books, resources, and materials. Pricing is quote-based and varies by program size and title selection.
2. Donations and Charitable Contributions: As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Read To Them receives donations from individuals and organizations to support their mission and help bring programs to schools that cannot afford them.
3. Grants: The organization receives grant funding as evidenced by the Marketing Copy and Grant Writing Specialist position.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Read To Them is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that delivers turnkey school-wide, district-wide, and state-wide reading programs where an entire school community reads the same book together over a designated period. Programs include books for students to keep, educator-created guides, family engagement resources, and digital platforms such as the Beyond-the-Book Nook. The organization serves individual schools, districts, states, and nationwide through One School One Book, One District One Book, States Read One Book, and One Book Connects US. Supporting offerings include Picture Book Companions for pre-school readers and the annual Read Aloud to a Child Week event.

Product overview

Read To Them is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization offering a suite of school-wide, district-wide, and state-wide reading programs centered on the transformational power of reading aloud. The core product portfolio includes One School, One Book (individual school programs), One District, One Book (district-level), States Read One Book (state-level), and One Book Connects US (nationwide). Supporting offerings include the digital Beyond-the-Book Nook platform, Picture Book Companions for pre-school readers, the Client Portal for resource access, and the annual Read Aloud to a Child Week event. The organization also partners with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library as the Richmond affiliate. Programs provide books, educator-created resources, and family engagement tools to over 3,900 schools across all 50 states.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• One School, One Book: A school-wide reading program where the entire school reads the same book together
• One District, One Book
• States Read One Book
• One Book Connects US (OBC-US)
• Virginia Reads One Book (VAROB)
• Read Aloud to a Child Week
• Picture Book Companions
• Beyond-the-Book Nook

Products and services

• One School, One Book
• One District, One Book
• States Read One Book
• One Book Connects US (OBC-US)
• Virginia Reads One Book (VAROB)
• Picture Book Companions
• Beyond-the-Book Nook Digital Platform
• Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Program

Quantifiable outcome

• 4.6 million books added to home libraries
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Dolly Parton's Imagination LibrarycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRead To Them serves as the City of Richmond affiliate for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, bringing early childhood literacy programs to young children in Richmond, VA. The Imagination Library provides free age-appropriate books to children from birth to age five.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Reading Partners: Reading Partners is a national literacy nonprofit that provides volunteer-powered tutoring to struggling elementary readers. It overlaps with Read To Them as a literacy nonprofit serving Title I schools and families, though its primary mechanism is individualized tutoring rather than shared school-wide reading events.

Broad incumbents

• Scholastic Book Clubs: Scholastic Book Clubs is a long-running, school-based book club operated by Scholastic that delivers curated children's books to classrooms through monthly flyers. It is a broad incumbent with the same shared-reading/book-club concept, but at far greater scale, with deeper catalog and publisher relationships than Read To Them.
• National Education Association (NEA) Read Across America: NEA's Read Across America is a national reading-motivation and literacy-awareness program operated by the largest U.S. teachers' union. It is a broad incumbent that promotes shared reading events and family engagement, comparable to Read To Thems Read Aloud to a Child Week and shared-reading programming.
• Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program: Barnes & Noble's annual Summer Reading Program is a free, incentive-based reading program that rewards children with free books for completing reading journals. It is a broad-incumbent peer that overlaps with Read To Thems' family literacy and reading-motivation objectives at a far larger commercial scale.

Direct peers

• Reach Out and Read: Reach Out and Read is a 501(c)(3) that partners with pediatricians to distribute books and promote family literacy at well-child checkups. It is comparable as a family-literacy nonprofit that places books into homes through trusted institutional partners and targets the same birth-through-elementary literacy outcomes.
• Reading Is Fundamental (RIF): Reading Is Fundamental is a long-established 501(c)(3) that provides books and literacy resources to under-resourced K-12 students through school-based programs. Like Read To Them, RIF operates supplemental literacy programs purchased by schools and districts, with comparable mission, customer base, and book-distribution model.
• First Book: First Book is a nonprofit social enterprise that distributes low-cost books and educational resources to programs serving children in low-income communities. It is a comparable peer because it sells curated book bundles and literacy materials to schools and community programs, addressing the same Title I family engagement use cases as Read To Them.
• Dolly Parton's Imagination Library: Dolly Parton's Imagination Library mails free, age-appropriate books to children from birth to age five. It is a direct peer because Read To Them itself is the City of Richmond affiliate, and both organizations operate book-delivery and family-literacy programs targeting school-aged and pre-school children in the U.S.

Others

• Library of Congress Center for the Book: The Library of Congress Center for the Book promotes reading, libraries, and literacy through affiliated state centers nationwide. It is adjacent rather than directly competitive, but operates in the same family-literacy and reading-promotion space and coordinates many of the same schools and state education departments as Read To Them.

Regional players

• BookTrust: BookTrust is a UK children's literacy charity that provides free books and reading resources to children and families. It is a regional peer with a comparable book-gifting and family-engagement model, though it operates primarily in the United Kingdom rather than the United States.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/1school1book
• Facebookfacebook.com/ReadToThem
• Instagraminstagram.com/readtothem/?hl=en
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/read-to-them

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Read To Them