Amazon Launches Kindle Reading Fund To Promote Digital Reading

Technology giant Amazon announced a fund Wednesday that aims to promote reading — specifically, digital reading — globally. Starting out with four programs, the Kindle Reading Fund “will donate Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets and Kindle eBooks to further reading around the world.”

Outlining the reasoning behind the initiative, Dave Limp, senior vice president for Amazon’s devices and services division, said in a statement: “Our vision has always been to make every book in the world available to our customers in less than 60 seconds but with this vision, we recognize that not everyone has access to the books they want or need. That’s why today we are excited to announce the Kindle Reading Fund, a program that seeks to make books more easily available to communities around the world through digital reading.”

The four programs the fund has initial partnerships with include Worldreader, which, over the last six years, has “helped more than 4 million readers around the world access a library of both global and local books.” Donations of e-book readers and tablets to local schools and libraries is another component, and similar activity with hospitals and nonprofit organizations is the third program. The fourth partnership is with the National Parent Teacher Association — Kindle is its official e-reader — through which the company hopes to get families more involved in children’s reading.

Information for organizations looking to benefit from Kindle Reading Fund can be found here.