My Nonprofit Reviews
Barry G.
Review for California Dictionary Project, San Francisco, CA, USA
I am one of the founding board members. I read a review in the Wall Street Journal about Mary French and how she started a Dictionary Project in South Carolina. It sounded like a great idea and I thought, why not start a similar project in California? It turned out several other people saw the same article and we all contacted Mary independently. She put us in touch with each other and that's how we started the California Dictionary Project. This was in April 2002. We started in Oakland because we felt it really needed some help and our President happened to live there. One of the most interesting experiences I had that year was attending one of the Dictionary Day presentations for third graders, and one of the partners from my law firm was there, because his son was one of the students! Small world! Since 2002, we've handed out over 100,000 books to over 25 districts. It's a continuing struggle to keep this project going and fundraise for the purchase of the books so any help you can give is GREATLY appreciated.
More Feedback
I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
attending Dictionary Days and personally presenting the books to the students. They love shouting out the slogan "Today a Reader, Tomorrow a Leader"!
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
fundraise to hire a professional fundraiser and executive director. It's very hard to do this on an all volunteer basis year in and year out.
