We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) kicked off an indiegogo fundraising campaign on October 23 that has taken off swiftly. According to WNDB founder, Ellen Oh, the day after kickoff, “We started a... [Twitter]... chat for #SupportWNDB, and within 15 minutes we trended third—under ‘Ebola’ and ‘Halloween.’ And then an hour later, we actually beat 'Ebola.'” The WNDB indiegogo campaign raised over $16,000 that day, with familiar names including author John Green tweeting support of the campaign using the hashtag #SupportWNDB. WNDB has debuted a #SupportWNDB video starring Green on October 28, 10 am ET—with a Twitter chat at 1 pm ET. Visit the hashtag #SupportWNDB to join in.

Lots o' happenings tomorrow! #SupportWNDB video w/ @johngreen debuting 10am EST and Twitter chat at 1pm EST. Campaign is still going strong! — WeNeedDiverseBooks (@diversebooks) October 27, 2014

(UPDATE: As of November 11, the campaign has raised over $94,000.) The campaign aims to reach its $100,000 goal by November 24. The funds, according to the WNDB indiegogo site, will be used for diversity initiatives such as bringing diverse authors into the classrooms of disadvantaged schools; supporting diverse authors through the Walter Dean Myers Award & Grant program; developing education toolkits for teachers, librarians, and booksellers to select diverse books; and developing and hosting a first-ever Diversity Festival in 2016—among other efforts. Watch the We Need Diverse Books indiegogo campaign video: We Need Diverse Books from Undercurrent on Vimeo.

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