2019 was truly magical. In only our third year as an active all volunteer organization, we doubled the number of families we had reached the prior year, putting books in the hands of 3,173 mothers of newborns through our twelve delivery partners. In only three short years we have created more than 6,500 newborn libraries and are currently on pace to add another 3,500 in the coming year.
From our kick off in January 2017 we have now delivered 26,000 books and are scheduled to deliver at least 14,000 more in 2020. We generated our most significant annual surplus while raising >$89,000 from 116 supportive donors. Thanks to our wonderful volunteers, who contribute 100% of the time and talents required to do what we do, the vast majority of the funds we received will get converted into books and bookbags that find their way into the hands of the people we serve.
We established important fundraising sources by building relationships with two multi-year grant making organizations and by hosting our first incredibly successful, family friendly annual charity event Beers, Brats & Books with an Oktoberfest theme. It raised >$40,000 and we believe it can generate a significant percentage of the funding we need for existing programs in years to come.
We also bega n talks with two organizations who work on literacy with older children in the hopes that we can collaborate to hand “our kids” off to them as they age. And we are nowhere close to done. Based on the interest our work has generated in organizations outside the City of St. Louis’ boundaries, with a little luck and a few more donors we are sure you’ll be reading about new and expanded programs in the months and years to come.
As we said, a truly magical year. And one that makes us grateful for how truly blessed we are,