Literacy is quietly one of the most transformative public goods we have. Long before childhood literacy became a staple of modern non-profit initiatives, Dolly Parton launched The Dollywood Foundation in 1988 with an intensely local goal: helping kids in her home of Sevier County, Tennessee, stay in school. Her early “Buddy Program” in the 1990s paid students directly for graduating, slashing local high school dropout rates from 35% down to 6%.

By 1995, that foundational belief in early intervention evolved into Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library—a commitment to mail a free, high-quality book every single month to children from birth to age five. What started as a county initiative has expanded into an international movement, delivering millions of books across communities worldwide through partnerships with local program champions.

To support that ongoing work, the Foundation has announced Give Like Dolly Day on September 25. The initiative calls on communities everywhere to invest directly in their local Imagination Library chapters, ensuring that early access to books remains free and accessible regardless of a family’s financial circumstance.