Foundations donate to Imagination Library of Washington's free book program

A pair of new grant commitments are going to help restore Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which provides free monthly books to children in the state of Washington, including Thurston County.

The Imagination Library of Washington (ILWA) said in an announcement on July 31 that the grants are from the Roots & Wings Foundation and The JTMF Foundation.

Roots & Wings committed $3 million to ILWA for the next two years, which will work alongside a tiered contribution from The JTMF Foundation to help program partners maintain and restore service in paused communities.  

The combined support will restore access for about 40,000 children ages five years old and younger,  and return the program to full statewide coverage. Total statewide enrollment is expected to exceed 100,000 children once coverage is restored.

“This extraordinary support will help thousands of Washington children once again receive a new book in the mail each month,” said Brooke Fisher-Clark, ILWA Executive Director, in the announcement.

ILWA once achieved statewide coverage across all 39 counties through local program partners, but ILWA was not included in the state budget for the current year for the 50 percent share of book costs. Also, several local program partners faced challenges securing book match money.  

“Those local funding shortfalls led to service pauses in several regions, leaving thousands of children without access to monthly books while ILWA worked to secure replacement funding and rebuild local partnerships,” said ILWA in the announcement.

The release stated that continued public and private investment is still needed to protect statewide access in future years.