Room to Read participated in the Clinton Global Initiative back in September – check out this video of John Wood & Erin Ganju (Room to Read’s CEO & COO) on stage with Bill Clinton at the event [thanks to the Clinton Global Initiative for use of this video]. John commented on the experience:
At the Clinton Global Initiative, we had an amazing amount of exposure to over 1,000 philanthropic leaders (a great mix of funders and other NGOs). Bill Clinton called Erin and I on stage to announce Room to Read’s commitment to grow our Reading Room program to 10,000 by EOY 2010 and to double our geographic footprint to 15 countries, and to print at least 3.5 million new local language books to add in with the big commitment Scholastic is making. And, in a ‘stage whisper’ that I will always remember, Bill said “I really loved your book”. The next day, we were featured on an education panel with Andre Agassi (nothing like a little star power to draw a crowd), along with the leaders of Escuela Nueva and BRAC, two of the world’s most respected NGOs doing work in education. Those latter two are also 25 and 30 years old, so for a 7 ½ year old organization to be alongside them says a lot for the regard with which the CGI Education panel holds our work.
We were very surprised that during his closing comments, former President Clinton repeated once again his respect for our work. Two shout outs from Bill on subsequent days ain’t a bad thing! Lisa, Erin and I were mobbed with constant meetings, and we met a lot of potential funders, and also dozens of other NGOs that want to partner with us. We will be deluged with follow up for the next few weeks – nice problem to have!
