Pathways to the Love of Reading
BookSpring is proud to unveil our new five-year Strategic Plan: Pathways to the Love of Reading, a bold roadmap to deepen and expand our work across Texas from 2025 to 2030. This plan reflects months of thoughtful collaboration between our Board, staff, and community partners, all guided by a simple but powerful goal: to ensure more families in under-resourced communities across Texas experience the joy and power of reading together.
Why This Matters Now
Research tells us that having books at home and reading together are among the strongest predictors of school readiness and long-term academic success. But today, only 1 in 4 Texas families report reading with their children daily or owning 20 books or more at home. Book deserts—communities with limited access to books or libraries—continue to threaten the literacy and educational equity of our state’s youngest learners.
We believe we can—and must—change that.
Our Vision: A World of Families Reading and Succeeding Together
BookSpring’s mission is to ignite a love of reading by providing no-cost, high-interest books and supportive literacy programming to families with young children, especially in economically distressed communities. Over the next five years, we are committing to four clear “Pathways” that will shape our efforts and amplify our impact.
The Four Pathways to the Love of Reading
1. Strengthen Impact
We aim to:
- Triple the percentage of parents reading daily with their child, from 25% to 75%.
- Ensure that at least half of the families we serve have home libraries of 20+ books.
- Pilot new tools like “The Reading House” to help parents track early literacy milestones.
- Keep our “Love of Reading” score—how much joy kids and parents report from reading—above 80%.
Read more insights from our 2024 Texas Reading Survey.
2. Inspire Engagement
We will:
- Serve 150,000 children annually by 2030 through schools, clinics, home deliveries, community events, and as a book bank.
- Aim to serve enrolled children consistently with an average of 4 books per year.
- Grow our digital reach from 650,000 to 1.5 million reading interactions per year through platforms such as B3 Books, our free digital reading app designed for families.
- Offer fresh, age-specific newsletters, weekly literacy tips, and programs like Bibi’s Weekly Themes and Penny’s Rapid Reads to keep families engaged and inspired.
3. Advance Innovation
We’re expanding our creative efforts by:
- Publishing more original, Texas-relevant books in English and Spanish for ages 0–12.
- Enhancing our mobile reading app and online platforms with feedback from real families.
- Designing and piloting a new open-access home reading program rooted in research and family routines.
- Hosting community co-creation events like our Makers Workshop to develop culturally relevant content with local authors and illustrators.
4. Optimize Sustainability
To ensure we can deliver on these promises, we will:
- Grow our annual budget from $1.8 million to $3 million by 2030.
- Double the number of books distributed—from 300,000 to 600,000 per year.
- Expand our base of individual donors, foundations, corporate sponsors, and public support.
Partner with us to reach more families!
What Success Looks Like
By 2030, BookSpring will serve under-resourced children and families where:
- 150,000 children are served with print books through trusted partners and home deliveries.
- 1.5 million views supporting families to read together daily, with open access, fun, multi-lingual, and culturally relevant digital literacy content.
- Digital and print resources work together to create joyful, lasting literacy habits.
- With your continued support, we’re building a world where every child in Texas has the tools, encouragement, and love they need to grow up reading—and thriving.
Join us on the journey. Let’s build these pathways to a love of reading together.
