Reading Rainbow Campaign Shows The Future Of Crowdfunding

While Kickstarter is relatively young and still maturing as a crowdfunding tool, newer projects are beginning to show the real brilliance of the site outside of technology, film and video game funding from fans. One recent Kickstarter campaign has risen above the rest to show that even in this cynical Corporatocracy of a country we call America, the people can come together to really make a difference. It's no secret that our education system is a joke and has been steered in a direction that purposely makes our general population dumber with each passing year making Autodidactism more important than ever. A key tool in being self taught is reading and one key tool in sparking an interest in books and opening young minds to reading is Reading Rainbow.

The Reading Rainbow program has been an important part of getting kids to read and more importantly getting people curious about the world as a whole. The series, which started back in 1983 on PBS, has been instrumental in sparking a love of books for children both young and old. LeVar Burton has been the face and public champion of the program and has been searching for a way to bring the program into the future since going off the air in 2006 (2009 if you count reruns). A few years ago, Reading Rainbow became an iPad App (the #1 most-downloaded educational app in the iTunes App Store) but despite this success, Mr. Burton felt it was way too limited to reach children everywhere.

This brings us to the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter Campaign which seeks to expand the program worldwide through the internet. The goal is simple, make a new version of the program that is a free online resource to both the general public and educators as a major scholastic supplement for our struggling school system. To this end, LeVar Burton starred in a heartfelt Kickstarter video which asked for $1 million dollars to make the project a reality. The world answered by blowing past the goal in less than 12 hours which sparked a tear filled thank you video from Mr. Burton. Currently the campaign has over 75,000 backers who have pledged over $3.4 million dollars (28 days remaining in the campaign) with their latest stretch goal sitting at $5 million. That goal will expand the project from the web to Mobile, Android, Consoles and OTT Boxes and expand the free access from 1500 classrooms to 7500 classrooms. This is easily one of the most important projects ever started on Kickstarter and will open the door to future world changing campaigns. I urge everyone to share this and pledge whatever you can, even if it's only $1 dollar. Thank you and spread the word.


Reading Rainbow Kickstarter Campaign