[8][9] After early organizational meetings with other educators in D.C., McNamara secured a $150,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to support pilot activities in the District of Columbia throughout 1967, including the launch of a bookmobile to increase reach outside of classrooms.

[16][17] RIF then began transforming its model to secure funding to continue its programmatic work via corporate partners, foundations, and individual donors.

[21] Since Levi joined RIF, the organization was gifted Skybrary, an eBook service from Reading Rainbow and LeVar Burton in 2019, held RIF's first National Reading Coalition to focus on the impact of children's literacy on workplace readiness, launched its Race, Equity and Inclusion initiative and continues to focus on ensuring all children have choice and access to books and resources.

[24] More than a dozen education programs—including high-profile efforts focused on literacy, teaching, and learning—face the prospect of a permanent federal funding loss after they were chopped from a stopgap spending measure signed into law by President Barack Obama last week.

But education programs such as Even Start, Striving Readers, and the privately organized Teach For America, ended up taking dramatic hits after Republican leaders insisted on cuts even in the temporary spending bill.