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Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (also known as RIF) is a children's literacy organization in the United States.

History
On November 3, 1966, Margaret McNamara created a book distribution and reading motivation program in Washington, DC called Reading Is Fundamental. The program started in three schools, but soon expanded to 60 across DC. In 1967, the Ford Foundation awarded RIF a $150,000 grant and in 1968, with another grant of $285,000 from the Ford Foundation, RIF created a model book distribution program and began replicating it across the country. RIF expanded to 27 states by 1972.

Then, in 1975, the United States Congress partnered with RIF to create the Inexpensive Book Distribution Program. The program provided funding to RIF in order to provide books and motivational activities for low-income children and youths and allowed RIF to expand throughout the US.

In 1989, RIF distributed its 100 millionth book.

In 2004, Kappa Kappa Gamma, a national women's sorority, selected RIF as its national philanthropy.

By 2011 RIF was serving more than 4.4 million children, but in March 2011, Congress approved and President Barack Obama signed a bill that cut all federal funding for RIF and eliminated the Inexpensive Book Distribution Program.

In September 2012, RIF was awarded a two- year $4.2 million grant from the US Department of Education as part of the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) Program.

Programs
RIF’s flagship program, Books for Ownership (formerly known as the National Book Program), is a book distribution program that provides books to children living in poverty. RIF works with volunteers across the United States to establish chapters. Since 1966, RIF has given 412 million books to more than 40 million children.

In 2012, RIF developed another program based on results from an Innovative Approaches to Literacy research grant from the United States Department of Education. The program, Read for Success, aims to motivate children to read and combat summer learning loss by providing access to classroom book collections, books for students to choose and own, classroom activities, professional development for teachers, and parent engagement.