In December, Demand Studios and our network of freelancers teamed up with First Book to donate more than 16,000 books to underprivileged children across the U.S.  Here's a closer look at our successful "Write for a Cause" program.

In my last post, I shared some of the books that inspire us here at Demand Media, and gave you a peek at the library we keep in our main office.  We’re fortunate to spend our days in an environment where books are cherished and shared.  And thanks to our network of Demand Studios freelancers, we work in tandem with thousands of folks who’ve turned their own love of reading into careers as professional writers and editors.

So this holiday season, we wanted to help spread the love of literacy to people living in places where books are much harder to come by – specifically, children in low-income neighborhoods, where there’s an average of just one age-appropriate book for every 300 kids.

Partnering with First Book, an excellent non-profit dedicated to providing new books to the children who need them most, we launched the “Write for a Cause” campaign – for every eight articles written and approved by Demand Studios during the month of December, we donated one brand new book on behalf of our writers and copy editors.

The response from our freelancer community was tremendous.  Truly rising to the challenge, our writers and editors contributed their time and talents to the cause, working toward an amazing total of 16,072 books donated by month’s end.  Our “Write for a Cause” forum page on Facebook attracted more than 500 “fans” and played host to participants sharing inspiring messages, encouraging notes, and lively discussions about their favorite childhood books.

Here are some of the great comments we heard from contributors:

“I am an English teacher, so I know all too well how important it is to get these new books to these kids. Go Demand Studios, go!!!”

“How great for working writers to ‘pay it forward’ and help teach the next generation to have a love for reading.  Thanks to all of you!”

“The best thing is... this gives me extra money to donate to my other ‘pet’ cause -- animal charities!  So the benefits are twofold!”

Here at Demand Media, we’re transforming the business of online content creation through the power of community.  And by doing what they do best, our community is helping thousands of kids learn to love the written word.

To learn more about First Book and their efforts to promote childhood literacy, visit their website here.