History, Growth, Goals

The Serimus Foundation piloted Book Trust in three Colorado schools in 2001. Its purpose: to give children marginalized by poverty the chance to own books, addressing one of the ‘opportunity gaps’ they face.

Children, families and teachers so loved the program that in 2004 we began to seek outside donors to bring Book Trust to other communities.

In 2006, after several years testing the Book Trust model and its impact, we became an independent nonprofit organization in order best to expand the Book Trust program and facilitate its replication.

During the 2008/2009 school year, Book Trust reached nearly 24,000 students and 1,700 teachers in 144 schools in eight states.

In our steady growth towards becoming a national program, we are targeting schools with very high eligibility for free/reduced lunch. We are currently focusing on deepening our presence in currently participating regions, expanding around those centers, and reaching several additional urban areas with large populations living in poverty.

Book Trust is a donor-driven program, and we generally set our schools budget in spring for the coming school year.  If you’re interested in bringing Book Trust to a school or starting it where you teach/work, please read our ‘want Book Trust’ page.

Our goal is to reach a meaningful percentage of the fifteen million children living in poverty in the United States.