WHEN the founder of a non-profit organisation calls donors “investors” and his group “the business”, you know he means business.

American John Wood, founder and executive chairman of Room To Read, a non-profit group that builds schools and libraries for children in Asia, took his venture so seriously that he quit Microsoft, where he was the company’s No. 2 man in China. At the time, he was the company’s director of business development for the Greater China region.

Mr Wood, 46, told my paper last month, when he was here for a fund-raiser: “If I didn’t get out of Microsoft (to manage Room To Read), it would have been nothing more than just a small hobby.”

The moment of change came when he was vacationing in Nepal in 1998. Trekking through a remote Himalayan village, he struck up a conversation with a schoolteacher.

The latter invited him to his school. There, Mr Wood was stunned to discover that the few books the school had – a Danielle Steele romance, a Lonely Planet Guide

To Mongolia, and a few other backpacker cast-offs – were so precious that they were kept under lock and key.

Returning home, Mr Wood sent a simple e-mail asking for the donation of books, which he took back to Nepal a year later.

The response he received was so heartwarming that he realised he could do a lot more to help educate underprivileged children. He wanted to help them help themselves out of poverty by imparting reading skills and, more importantly, a love for reading.

So, Mr Wood quit his job and set up Room To Read a year later in his second bedroom in San Francisco. Besides his mobile phone and a laptop, he had nothing except “enough savings to last me three years”.

Of course, he also had a businessman’s tenacity and drive. Mr Wood is well known for running his charity like a global business.

For example, he had what he called “a big, hairy, audacious goal” right from the beginning.

“That’s because bold goals attract bold people. From the very beginning, I said we will reach 10 million children across the developing world by the year 2020.

Actually, I think we’re now going to reach that number by 2015.

“Go big or go home. If you’re not going to do it big, don’t do anything at all.

“If people are afraid of that goal, that’s okay. Maybe we’re not the charity for them. To me, that number is non-negotiable,” Mr Wood said.

True enough, the big donors bit. Room To Read’s investors and partners include Barclays Capital and Netscape.

Now, 10 years after Room To Read was launched, at least 10,000 libraries have been built, six million books have been donated and published, 830 schools have been erected and over 8,800 long-term scholarships for girls have been awarded.

It is estimated that, by the end of the year, the lives of
at least five million students worldwide would have been positively affected.
The organisation currently works in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Mr Wood, who was honoured by Time Magazine as one of the Asian Heroes of 2004, added: “I also instil a very performance-driven culture. Every year, we publish our forecast for that year – the number of books we are going to distribute, the number of libraries we’re going to build, the number of scholarships we’re going to give out, and so on.

“And then we’re accountable for those numbers. We don’t raise any funds in advance. On Jan 1, I tell my team ‘okay, go’. We kind of race each other.

“We always report back to our investors quarterly on our performance.”
The team also keeps its costs low by staying at sponsored accommodation and flying on donated tickets.

“This is partly why our organisation is so effective. Currently, 83 cents of a dollar go towards our different programmes for the beneficiaries,” said Mr Wood. “We are also very lucky to have a large pool of dedicated volunteers.”

At least a third of Room To Read’s budget for its programmes is raised by volunteers. And, just like Mr Wood, they have big goals to fulfil.

“At the gala dinner tomorrow, the Singapore chapter hopes to raise at least $1 million,” he said at the time of this interview.

In a memo thanking the volunteers the next day, it was reported that the actual amount raised was “enough to build 19 schools, develop 150 libraries and support over 1,000 years of scholarships for girls”.

“I don’t view myself as a leader of an organisation. I view myself as one of the leaders of a movement. A global movement that’s just exploding right now,” said Mr Wood.

“We’re going to make history. No child can be told that you were born to the wrong parents at the wrong time and that’s why you can’t go to school,” he added.

“It’s not right that at five or six, you’re told you’ve lost the lottery of life.”

To learn more about Room To Read, visit its website on

http://www.roomtoread.org

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