Where Your Donations Go
NaNoWriMo and the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program are both run by the Office of Letters and Light, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity.
When you donate to the Office of Letters and Light, you help bring free creative writing programs to nearly 350,000 kids and adults in approximately 100 countries, 2,000 classrooms, 200 libraries, and 500 NaNoWriMo regions every year.
You not only support people’s novel writing dreams, you help transform people into creators who see new possibilities in the world—and act on them. NaNoWriMo is nothing short of a creative revolution.
“I just think this whole thing about writing a novel is really cool,” said Jesse, a 13-year-old middle school student. “It made me think that a lot of things could be possible in the world. I mean I am thirteen years old, and I just wrote my own dang novel! How cool is that?”
How cool is that? Spreading unbridled creativity for free
We don’t charge people anything to participate in NaNoWriMo because although writing a novel is priceless, it shouldn’t come with a price tag.
But hosting the world’s largest writing event isn’t cheap. We need donations so we can pay for such things as
- $49,341 for Web hosting—the backbone of NaNoWriMo.
- $19,100 for classroom kits to activate the imagination of budding novelists.
- $10,800 to give our municipal liaisons materials to entice writers into inspiring write-ins with others.
Anyone can write a novel on their own, but thousands of people turn to NaNoWriMo to write their stories because of what your donations help provide.
It takes a community to write a novel
Your donation gives Young Writers Program students…
- Free membership to our community-based websites designed to inspire young writers.
- Access to site forums and NaNoMail so students can communicate about writing and reading with other young authors worldwide.
- Pep talks from staff and Young Adult authors that excite and inspire participants.
In NaNoWriMo your donation provides…
- Membership to our community-based website, including an individual writer profile where participants can track their writerly progress (and that of their friends!), post novel excerpts, and exchange NaNoMail messages with other writers.
- Access to the NaNoWriMo forums, where participants can swap advice and guidance about genre, plot, character, technology, rewriting, and reaching the 50K goal line.
- An invitation to join one of the more than 500 Municipal Liaison-led NaNoWriMo writing chapters at kick-off events, write-ins, and end-of-month parties. At these events, participants receive free stickers and other motivational novel-writing goodies sent from NaNoWriMo headquarters.
- A place to write! Using resources created with your donations, libraries around the world are transforming their spaces into November “Come Write In!” noveling zones.
It takes guidance to write a novel
In the Young Writers Program, your donation gives students…
- Free and exciting writerly tools, including fun workbooks designed specifically for elementary school, middle school, and high school students.
- Post-event advice for young authors with revision overviews and information about youth writing contests, creative writing centers, and other online creative writing events.
In the NaNoWriMo main program, your donation gives aspiring writers…
- Weekly pep talks and other encouragement from staff, Municipal Liaisons, and beloved authors.
- Post-event advice on revision, and other ideas on taking a manuscript to the next level.
It takes good teachers to write a novel
Your donation gives teachers vital educational tools…
- Eight weeks of exciting creative writing curriculum that has been mapped to Common Core Language Arts standards.
- A Virtual Classroom on the YWP website, where teachers can more easily inspire students and track their progress.
- Access to special educator-only forums where teachers can exchange encouragement, advice, and lesson plans before, during, and after each event.
- Helpful “how-to’s” on hosting a successful month-long, deadline-driven writing event in a classroom from beginning to end.
- NaNoWriMo kits for their students that include posters and progress charts with buttons and stickers.
- An opportunity to participate in our AlphaSmart NEO Loaner Program. For each event, we lend up to 100 NEOS to participating classrooms in need of word processors—completely free of charge, including shipping.
- Teacher-only lesson plans that expand upon concepts taught to students in the Young Writer workbooks.
It takes rewards to write a novel
In the Young Writers program, kids and teens receive writing incentives such as participant badges for posting on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, and—at the end of each challenge—winner badges and certificates for every child and teen who meets their word-count goal.
In the NaNoWriMo program, adults celebrate with winner certificates and web badges for triumphant victors!
But we can’t do it without you
We rely on individual donations to pay for our Web hosting, classroom kits, and more. Nearly half of our income comes from individual donations.
Learn more about the Office of Letters and Light
To find out more, please review our financial information on Guidestar—and watch this fun video.
