Ladies, I really hope you don't mind me adding my two cents.
I am conflicted. I was a child who benefitted from RIF books.
But I am also a non-profit professional. I have looked at RIF's form 990 from 2005 and I think the organization relies too heavily on federal funds. National non-profits scare me, especially ones that rely heavily on federal funding -- when the funding is cut, there are a lot of people out of jobs.
BUT....even more concerning to me.... the Executive Director earned $182,223 in 2005. I saw three other officers making over $140,000.
Now, looking deeper into the 990, it says that 20,000,000 go to books for the book distribution. My question is this.... couldn't book companies become partners with RIF to make a certain percentage of their books (.01?) available for donation?
I guess I'm not sure that I want tax dollars to pay for books that the industry ought to be donating to the poor in the first place.
Good luck with this drive and I hope it all works out!
ETA: I was able to view RIF's 990 (a self-reported tax form) through
www.guidestar.org. It's free and legal.