About Book Wish
Book Wish Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity providing high-impact reading aid for people in crisis, with a current focus on refugees from Darfur and AIDS orphans in Ghana. We give some of the world's neediest readers the books they wish for, taking requests for specific titles and subjects. This helps ensure the books will be matched to the needs of the readers, and appropriate for their reading level and culture. We typically do not accept generic book donations from the public because they do not match the requests we receive. We do not hold book drives. The books that are most useful in a refugee camp might not be best-sellers in New York.
The populations we aid have very limited resources and are facing immense challenges for the foreseeable future. For them, books can play an especially large role in education, mental health, and job training. We search for the readers who will get the most out of our books because they have so little to begin with.
Maximizing the impact of books also means maximizing the number of readers, so we will provide reading glasses, vision screenings, support for literacy programs, solar-rechargeable lighting where there is no electricity, or any other aid that can effectively increase the audience for our books.
Book Wish Foundation was created in October 2007 by the mother-and-son team of book lovers Lorraine and Logan Kleinwaks, who cannot imagine what it must be like to have no books to read. We read an article in the The Washington Post about a refugee who fled Darfur with just a few books and spent years reading them over and over again in a refugee camp, because he did not have access to anything else. The mental anguish he suffered moved us greatly, and our initial goal was just to send him the types of books he asked for when interviewed by the Post reporter. However, we soon learned about the larger reading needs of 250,000 Darfuris living in 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad. Despite the genocide in Darfur, and despite the immense challenges of living in refugee camps in the desert, they still saw hope in education and were asking for books to turn that hope into reality. How could we not help? When we saw the first Darfuris smiling with our books in their hands, we were amazed that anyone could smile in those circumstances and knew we had found a way to make a difference.
Book Wish Foundation is staffed entirely by unpaid volunteers, and we keep our overhead low, about 5%, by seeking pro bono services and in-kind donations from our supporters.
Public documents of the Foundation are posted on our website and can conveniently be viewed here. In compliance with State charitable solicitation laws, we are required to display the following statements for certain States where we are registered to solicit:
New Jersey: INFORMATION FILED WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL CONCERNING THIS CHARITABLE SOLICITATION AND THE PERCENTAGE OF CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED BY THE CHARITY DURING THE LAST REPORTING PERIOD THAT WERE DEDICATED TO THE CHARITABLE PURPOSE MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY BY CALLING 973-504-6215 AND IS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET AT www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/ocp/charities.htm. REGISTRATION WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT.
New York: A copy of our most recent annual report is available from the Office of the Attorney General at New York State Department of Law, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway - 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10271, or from Book Wish Foundation at 11606 Brandon Hill Way, Reston, VA 20194-1215.
Virginia: A financial statement is available upon written request from the Office of Consumer Affairs of the State of Virginia.
