Hey guys! Hope you’re enjoying the start of the weekend! Just wanted to post a quick update on our campaign for Room to Read. Their Financial Times dollar-matching continued through today, so to maximize the donation value we have donated the money we’ve received so far. However, we are still raising money for Room to Read through Feb 9 and are able to dollar-match up to $50 more in donations. To donate, please see our previous post about Room to Read.

We were able to donate $204.40 ($210 minus Paypal fees) to Room to Read today. Thank you so much for your support! Here’s an ecard about the donation (you can also view it here):

There are plenty of charities out there, but one that has caught our attention is Room to Read, an organization devoted to bringing literacy to developing countries. In 2000, Room to Read began after founder John Wood, a senior executive at Microsoft, returned from a trip to Nepal. He had visited several schools with students eager to learn, but lacking the resources to achieve. Wood quit his high-paying job and focused on building a global team together to work in these rural communities to help meet their educational and literacy needs.

Now, almost a decade later, they have built 832 schools, 7,526 libraries, published 334 books, distributed over 6 million books, given 8,786 girls scholarships, and benefited over 3.1 million children all over the world. Check out Room to Read for more information on their amazing programs and efforts to help bring literacy to the world.

In 2010, their goal is to bring their number to libraries built to over 11,000 and we’ve decided to help. From January 9-February 9, readheadreviews.com is pledging to match the total amount of donations made through our page up to $250. For more information, check out our ChipIn site here. And the best part? Room to Read was selected as a Financial Times 2009-2010 Charity Partner so thanks to the generosity of a few corporate supporters, donations made through mid-January will be matched up to $1.4 million. So we’re going to be making two separate donations to Room to Read: one on January 14 and one on February 9. So any donation made until January 14 will be triple matched! Can you think of a better way to start off the New Year?