John Wood, Room to Read

Do we dare to dream big?
Core belief: World CHange Starts With Educated Children
To reach Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal: 10 million children by 2010
70% of Nepal is illiterate, suffering from poverty of opportunity.
John rented Zag the yak to carry the library of books from one village to village.
GDP is linked with education.
Purchasing Power Parity (economy) is linked with education.
Infant mortality is linked with female literacy.
110 million children of primary school age are not enrolled in school.
880 million people around the world cannot read or write. 2/3 of these groups are girls and women.

SOLUTIONS:
To work with government to supply teachers
To enlist parents to build the school rooms
To build reading rooms - learn their own language and english
To publish local language books
Long-Term Girls Scholarship - funded by Don Valentine
"Educating girls yields a higher rate of return than any other investment available in the developing world" The World Bank
Room to Read fund raise.

BUSINESS MODEL:
1) Hire strong and entrepreneurial local teams - not to send volunteers or expat
2) Engage the Community - We call them "Challenge Grant" - catalyze creation of schools, give them ownership.
"You can only help ppl who wants to help themselves"
3) Be nimble and act quickly, no excuses - Team opened 39 schools in post-tsunami area in one year even though no present operations there.
4) Invest heavily in human capital - training teachers and librarians
5) Invest heavily in monitoring and evaluation - 84% Laos librarian is confident to train new librarian.
They published books in Hindi, Sinhala, Nepalese - 10,000copies per books. Authors include 10, 15-year-olds.
6) Have an Intense Focus on Results
"What gets measured, gets done"
7) Makes efficient use of donor's money - instituted no Land Rover policy - can't open 25 libraries, can't open 4 new schools in Nepal.

Run a social business:
Low overhead ensures the money goes where it's needed most
87% Program services
Rated 4 Star by Charity Navigator.

8) Create a World-wide movement of "Super Empowered Individuals"

"Go Big or Go Home!" on philantropy. Scale up
"If Starbucks can do it"

Low prices alllow everyone to "Be the change"

What is the most image can you imagine? - potential or kinetic - take action.