We are delighted to announce The Readings Foundation grant recipients for 2026!
The Readings Foundation has been supporting Victorian not-for-profit organisations since 2009 and in that time has distributed over $2 million in grants! In 2026, we are delighted to fund 14 incredible community and arts organisations with over $315,000 in total for the projects detailed below.
Every time you donate to have a book gift wrapped at a Readings shop, 100% of the donation goes to The Readings Foundation to support our grants program! If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to The Readings Foundation you can do so here.
The 2026 recipients of The Readings Foundation grants are:
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
School Education Coordinator | $25,000
This funding will help establish a new role to respond to community need. The School Education Coordinator will act as an advocate for students, and an intermediary for parents, schools, and childcare providers within the education system.
Banksia Gardens Community Services
Aiming High Program | $25,000
The program supports aspirational young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in the Broadmeadows and Craigieburn regions, providing academic support, career guidance and mentoring, ensuring students receive assistance to excel in their VCE studies and access higher-education pathways.
Berry Street Organisation
Library upgrade for disadvantaged youth | $25,000
Berry Street students represent the most disadvantaged and vulnerable young people, with many having experienced trauma, violence, and long-term disengagement from school. Readings will provide funding to upgrade the library collection for their new campus in Morwell, which will help with healing, rebuilding confidence, and imagining a better future.
CAN Community Support
Family Learning Program | $25,000
This funding will help provide tailored educational assistance to families from the Carlton public housing estate, with a strong focus on children and young people from recently arrived migrant and refugee backgrounds. The program strengthens English language, literacy, and numeracy skills, while offering one-on-one tutoring from primary school through to university.
Hotham Mission
Homework Clubs Program | $20,000
Hotham Mission homework clubs cater exclusively to children and young people from African backgrounds. Due to strong demand, a new club is being added that will extend beyond primary school and will have a particular focus on literacy and books.
Kids' Own Publishing
Co-creating a children’s picture book | $16,657
Disadvantaged preschool children and their mums at the Carlton Learning Precinct playgroup will be guided by artists to share and illustrate cultural stories, co-creating and publishing a children’s picture book celebrating local families. The process will be playful, multilingual, and with cultural safety at heart.
Melbourne City Mission
Reading nooks in youth refuges | $25,000
This initiative will create calm, welcoming spaces within Melbourne City Mission’s eight youth foyer and refuge sites for young people, stocking each property with a curated library. These libraries help transform transitional and crisis accommodation into spaces that feel homely and hopeful, where reading can provide comfort, distraction, and self-expression.
Melbourne Writers Festival
Subsidising the Schools Program | $25,000
This grant will subsidise 750 free-of-charge places in the Schools Program for Victorian primary and secondary students from low socio-economic or regional areas. Each student will attend a full day of workshops, talks and presentations by celebrated international, local and First Nations writers.
Next Steps Australia
Libraries in domestic violence refuges | $25,000
The grant will provide new book libraries to seven Victorian refuges to support women and children who have suffered domestic and family violence. This provides a much-needed resource to assist in the re-bonding process between mother and child.
Reading Out of Poverty
Books from Birth project | $25,000
The Books from Birth project supports young families from non-English-speaking backgrounds living in Melbourne’s public housing towers. With a focus on early childhood literacy, the program provides a literacy pack containing age-appropriate bilingual books and educational resources, along with valuable information for parents about local networks.
River Nile Learning Centre
English Literacy Classes for Women | $25,000
River Nile offers a haven for refugee, asylum seeker and migrant women over the age of 21, who face significant barriers to rebuilding their lives in Australia. They provide safe, inclusive, and trauma-informed English-language literacy classes four times a week, accompanied by numeracy and digital literacy classes, and support that removes barriers to attending classes.
Sudd Foundation
Stories of Strength | $17,000
Stories of Strength aims to transform perceptions of South Sudanese youth by empowering them to share their stories through creative writing and journalism workshops. Working with at least 60 young people aged 15–25 in refugee and migrant communities, they will provide practical training, mentorship, and publishing opportunities, helping participants develop skills in storytelling, media literacy, and self-expression.
Wellsprings for Women
Literacy circle holiday program for primary school students | $12,510
The project will deliver a literacy circle holiday program to primary school students from multi-cultural backgrounds in south-east Melbourne. The program will use age-appropriate books to generate discussion and reflection on gender equality and respectful relationships while also improving literacy and analytical skills.
Western Chances
Scholarship Program | $25,000
This grant will support 25 young people with an educational scholarship through Western Chances, an organisation that identifies talented young people who face financial barriers, providing them financial support, access to opportunities, and a network to empower them to achieve their potential.
