First Book - Indianapolis

First Book is a nonprofit organization that provides children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. Working with existing community-based tutoring, mentoring, and family literacy programs, First Book provides ongoing book distributions to at-risk children, enabling them to build their own home libraries. Since the only behavior measure that correlates significantly with reading scores is the number of books in the home, First Book targets this need by providing children from low-income families with books they can take home and keep.

First Book plays a critical role in transforming the quality of preschool and after-school programs nationwide. First Book works to increase the quality of these programs across the country by providing high quality books and educational resources that enhance their overall effectiveness. New books chosen by program leaders working directly with children are incorporated into program lessons, and then given to the children to take home and keep. All books distributed by First Book are brand new and are provided at no cost to the child or the program. In addition, the First Book model leverages the efforts of local heroes who work with children participating in these preschool and after-school programs.

First Book focuses the power of the private sector on public change. First Book is a nationally recognized leader in the field of cause-based marketing and promotions. First Book successfully uses a range of valuable non-cash assets, including distributions through the First Book National Book Bank, celebrity involvement, author and illustrator contributions, and opportunities for corporate employee involvement, to create cause-based marketing campaigns that reach from the national to the local level across the country.