BookRenter Customers Choose Education as Most Important Cause

(Press Release) San Mateo, Calif., May 3, 2010—BookRenter, the leading online textbook platform company, today announced that it is joining the fight against youth illiteracy by providing new books to the children who need them most. Starting today, with every rental order placed, BookRenter will fund the donation of new, age-appropriate books for children in need. Also, to enable customers to truly act locally, customers can choose the specific U.S. state where children will receive the books funded by their order.

This new BookRenter initiative is part of a larger corporate goal to enable its customers to help give back to local communities. BookRenter recently surveyed customers about the causes that mattered most to them, and 63 percent of all respondents indicated that improving education was their top priority. The decision to provide new books to children in need was based on research that demonstrates a tangible link between greater access to reading materials and higher reading achievement. For example, in studies led by early childhood literacy professor and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education, Susan B. Neuman, researchers found that the most successful means of improving the reading levels of low-income students was simply to increase their access to print. Supporting youth literacy fits with the values of BookRenter's customers and the company's mission of making education more affordable for everyone.

"As a team, we wanted to contribute to a positive, meaningful, and lasting cause, so we asked our customers and employees for suggestions. It was amazing to see the overall agreement to focus on youth education," said Mehdi Maghsoodnia, CEO of BookRenter. "Our global community is facing so many types of challenges— environmental, economic, medical— and to solve them, we'll need a new generation of highly literate and informed leaders. There's no better place to start than focusing on literacy at a young age."