Read to Succeed Buffalo (RTSB) announced today that the organization has been awarded $75,000 from the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo. The funding will support RTSB literacy coaching in child care, preschool and high impact tutoring in early elementary grades. 

In the fall of 2025 RTSB will be implementing literacy programs at five licensed childcare sites serving 100 infants and toddlers and 16 adults, five Say Yes Little Scholar classrooms serving 70 3-year-olds and 15 adults, and 15 elementary schools serving 420 students, from Kindergarten to 3rd Grade, with 140 trained older adult literacy tutor/mentors.

“This funding is critical,” said RTSB Executive Director Anne Ryan. “We are extremely grateful to the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo for their continued support of the critical early literacy work we do.”

RTSB’s continuum of community alignment for reading excellence (CARE) programs is a quality improvement literacy infusion strategy ensuring that the environments where children, primarily economically disadvantaged children, spend the majority of their day: licensed childcare, preschool and the early grades in Buffalo and Niagara Falls are as high quality and literacy rich as possible. In addition, RTSB also administers Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a free book gifting program for children under 60 months of age. RTSB’s Imagination Library is currently providing age-appropriate, high quality read-alouds to nearly 5,000 infants, toddlers and preschoolers throughout Erie County.

The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo maximizes philanthropic impacts in education, racial equity, the environment, and arts and culture. The organization plays a crucial role in the education of local students across Western New York. Dating back to 1998, the Community Foundation and other local nonprofit organizations came together to strategize on how to improve educational outcomes for at-risk children, this initial alliance resulted in the creation of RTSB.