First Book & The Philly Book Wish Program
Infusing Philadelphia communities with brand-new, relevant books.
> Our Partners > First Book & The Philly Book Wish Program Celebrating Our Impact
The Philly Book Wish Program (2022–2025)
Thanks to the support of the William Penn Foundation, First Book, Read by 4th, the Philly Book Bank, and Literacy and More partnered to ensure that local Philadelphia programs had the books they needed to engage families and inspire a love of reading. From 2022 to 2025, we worked with community organizations to distribute more than 80,000 brand-new, culturally relevant books throughout low-income neighborhoods across the city.
Launched in November 2022, the Philly Book Wish Program invited literacy champions across the region to apply for up to $5,000 in books. Educators and program leaders serving Title I-eligible schools or working with populations where at least 7 in 10 children came from low-income families were eligible to apply. After three successful years, the program concluded having supported more than 200 Philadelphia-based organizations and reaching over 250,000 children citywide.
Book Wish Impact
Over the program’s three-year run, we reached meaningful milestones across the Philadelphia area.
Background
Expanding Access to Books for Kids Across Philly
Access to books is critical to a child’s learning and development, and access to books that represent the many faces of our society, is a key to unlocking curiosity, empathy, and a love of reading. High-quality, new books are expensive at retail, which often means that children and families from low-income communities miss out on the opportunity for equal access to the very books that engage and inspire children the most.
In a recent survey of Philly organizations focused on book access, only 26% of all books distributed between September – November 2021 reflected the community of the children who received the books. The Philly Book Wish Program aims to increase that percentage to at least 50% on an ongoing basis, for all participating organizations. This initiative makes high-quality, relevant content affordable and accessible for kids and families in Philadelphia so that more children can see themselves as heroes in the stories they read.
This collaboration exemplifies a strategy that shifts philanthropic dynamics, prioritizes coalition building for collective impact, and aligns complimentary skills and resources to maximize partnerships. Philanthropic funding doesn’t have capacity to support every disparate social sector project, but layered partnerships offer an opportunity to efficiently utilize funding dollars by breaking down competitive, grant-seeking barriers. First Book and its Philly partners are enacting a community-driven and locally focused impact plan that leans heavily on the bandwidth and systems of a national organization, while relying on local expertise and knowledge to lead the vision.
Our Solutions
To learn more about how the program, watch our informational webinar or view the slide presentation here.
For questions about partnering with First Book, email us at npppartnerships@firstbook.org
About the Partners
About First Book
Education transforms lives. First Book is building a world where every child has access to a quality education. We work to remove barriers to education and level the playing field for kids in need. At the heart of our work are the 600,000+ members of the First Book Network, the largest online community of individual educators, professionals and volunteers dedicated to supporting children living in low-income communities across North America. This Network is the key to creating lasting change. Through our research arm, First Book Research & Insights, we conduct studies that aggregate their voices to identify challenges, needs, and solutions. To address their needs, we provide free and low-cost books, resources and access to leading experts through the First Book Marketplace, which uses aggregated buying power to support their work. Founded in Washington D.C. in 1992 as a nonprofit social enterprise, First Book is dedicated to eliminating barriers to learning and inspiring young minds.
About The Philly Book Bank
The Philly Book Bank is part of a non-profit organization called Reading Recycled, a 501(c)3 located in the Delaware Valley area. The Philly Book Bank strives to eliminate children from growing up without books in their homes. This is accomplished by collecting new and gently used books and distributing them through the Book Bank to teachers and others serving children.
About Read by 4th
Read by 4th is a citywide coalition of parents and partners protecting every child’s right to read. Convened and managed by the Free Library of Philadelphia, this collective impact campaign works to create conditions at both the systems and grassroots level that will lead to a significant increase in the number of students in Philadelphia entering the 4th grade at reading level.
About the William Penn Foundation
The William Penn Foundation, founded in 1945 by Otto and Phoebe Haas, is dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Greater Philadelphia region through efforts that increase educational opportunities for children from low-income families, ensure a sustainable environment, provide inclusive and equitable public spaces and arts and culture experiences, and advance philanthropy in the Philadelphia region.
