Well, it’s OVER! The “Bring Reading Rainbow For Every Child, Everywhere” campaign has finally reached the finish line on Kickstarter and raised a total of $5,408,816 from 105,857 backers!
Just days before it reached the stretch goal, the campaign’s organizer and former host, Mr. Burton stated, “If the project reaches its $5 million stretch goal in the next five days, it’ll meet its goal of bringing ‘Reading Rainbow’ to more platforms and 7,500 classrooms. That means that Mr. (Seth) MacFarlane will provide a full $1,000,000 in matching funds, giving the project a total of $6 million and letting it reach 5,000 more classrooms.”
During the final hours, Mr. Burton shared:
Good morning, Kickstarters!
This is it: the final countdown – and thanks to you, things are looking good!
As you might know, last night we passed our stretch goal of $5M, which means that – thanks to you – we will officially be able to bring Reading Rainbow to more devices and platforms and provide free subscriptions to at least 7,500 classrooms.
It also means that every remaining dollar we raise will go 100% toward helping classrooms in need. For each additional $200 we raise, we can provide a classroom with access to unlimited books and video field trips for an entire year.
As previously reported, the “Reading Rainbow” also attracted Kickstarter’s “All-Stars” campaigns, which includes:
- PEBBLE has created a Limited Edition version of its popular smartwatch just for this campaign, is designing a Reading Rainbow watchface, and has pledged to Adopt a Classroom.
- OUYA, a gaming console based on Android, has created a special SKY BLUE Limited Edition, with the first 500 units hand-signed by LeVar Burton, and is donating free consoles to include in the project’s Adopt a School reward.
- PONO MUSIC will create 20 units of the PonoPlayer, its high-quality digital music device, in a special Reading Rainbow – Collector’s Edition with Burton’s signature engraved in the side, and the show’s iconic theme preloaded on the device.
- The stars of “VERONICA MARS,” including Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni and Jason Dohring, will join Burton for a special Los Angeles Reading Rainbow Live event, where the four will read stories to a small group of children and their parents.
It was also noted “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane agreed to match the project’s next $1 million of pledges to help it reach even more schools in need. For each dollar pledged over $4,000,000, Mr. MacFarlene will match it, dollar for dollar, up to $1 million.
Mr. Burton added, “Before you start calling your friends and spreading the word, please help me thank my friend, Seth, for his amazing generosity. You can send him some love on Twitter, or post in the comments below, but however you do it, please give him some love. With his help, we can make an even bigger difference for an entire generation of kids. That’s just huge. But you don’t have to take my word for it.”
On Tuesday, the campaign reached over $4.8 million and had a total of 98,298 backers, which beats out the 91,585 investors who funded the “Veronica Mars” movie in 2013. Reading Rainbow has managed to land on Kickstarter’s Top Five Most Funded Campaigns Ever list.
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