£7.3 million in grants to 12 charities focused on literacy and education in the UK
The Julia Rausing Trust is pleased to announce £7.3 million in grants to 12 literacy and education charities across the country.
The largest grant, totalling £3 million, has been made to the government’s National Year of Reading 2026. This Department for Education campaign, in collaboration with the National Literacy Trust, which will lead its delivery, aims to address the steep decline in reading amongst children, young people and adults.
The Julia Rausing Trust’s grant is the biggest donation so far in the campaign and will support the National Literacy Trust’s drive to promote reading across society, particularly for its priority audiences: boys aged 10-16, parents from disadvantaged communities, and Early Years.
This announcement follows the first two literacy-focused grant announcements from the last month, which provided £1.5m to The Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge and £500,000 to Shannon Trust.
The Julia Rausing Trust also announces today a £1 million grant to the charity Book Trust and its Early Years Programme, an initiative aiming to foster a love of reading in young children by providing resources and support to families and early years professionals. The grant will help fund the programme’s three core strands: Bookstart Toddler and Pre-Schooler, BookTrust Storytime, and Community Storytelling – a new group storytelling programme that will bring high quality storytelling to low-income families.
Simon Fourmy, Director of the Julia Rausing Trust, said: “The National Year of Reading 2026 is an exciting campaign that builds on the Trust’s longstanding support of literacy initiatives. It will encourage people across the UK to engage with books, bringing opportunities to develop essential skills and a lifelong love of reading. The Julia Rausing Trust is proud to be an early funder, and we encourage others to join us in supporting this important campaign.”
Jonathan Douglas CBE, CEO of the National Literacy Trust, added: “The National Year of Reading 2026 presents an opportunity to join forces across sectors and redefine reading as a powerful, contemporary activity for a generation. Working closely with schools, families, libraries, communities and partners across the country, we will make reading a shared national mission – because every child, no matter their background, deserves the best start in life and every adult deserves to get the best out of life.”
Other selected charities include: Give a Book, Book Clubs in Schools, Schoolreaders, Coram Beanstalk, The Children’s Literacy Charity, Calibre Audio, Read Easy UK, and The David Vaisey Trust.
7th July 2025