PLATINUM2023

Comicbooks for Kids

Providing comic books to kids in hospitals and cancer centers.

aka CB4K   |   St Charles, IL   |  https://www.comicbooksforkids.org/

Mission

ComicBooks For Kids! has one mission. It is to provide kid-friendly comic books and pop culture items to children in hospitals and cancer centers. In almost every case, these will come as new comics from the many publishers who support us. In all cases, we work within the medical facility's infectious disease policies to insure hospital compliance.

Ruling year info

2017

President

Mr Mark Weiss

Main address

4230 River View Drive

St Charles, IL 60175 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

82-1691809

NTEE code info

Patient Services - Entertainment, Recreation (E86)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

ComicBooks For Kids realizes that there are times that children will need to be in hospitals or cancer centers. While we cannot take away the reason that the child is in the hospital, for a period of time we can (with a comic book) allow them to be kids again. Through the power of storytelling, kids can fight monsters and villains, become a prince or princess or thrill to the exploits of their favorite super hero. While they are reading the comic book (or perhaps having someone read it to them), they forget all the reasons they are in the hospital. For that period of time, they can get transported to the imaginary worlds that comic books provide.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

CB4K Children's Hospital Comic Book Program

To provide kid-friendly comic books to children in hospitals and cancer centers predominantly in the US, but expanding into Canada as well. In all cases we will work with the Child Life teams and comics are provided based on each hospitals needs. No two hospitals are alike in what they receive based on their demographics.

Population(s) Served
Children and youth
People with diseases and illnesses

To provide kid-friendly comic books to children in hospitals and cancer centers not designated specifically as children's hospitals. In all cases we will work with the Child Life teams and comics are provided based on each hospitals needs. No two hospitals are alike in what they receive based on their demographics.

Population(s) Served
Children and youth
People with diseases and illnesses

To provide kid-friendly graphic novels to children in hospitals and cancer centers where these very same hospitals have on-premises libraries. In many hospitals, there are patients who require longer-term stays. These hospitals will receive graphic novels for their kids which are more expansive in storytelling and often provide complete stories in one publication. We will work closely with the hospital library staff as well as the Child Life teams and provide graphic novels based on each hospitals requirements.

Population(s) Served
Adolescents
People with diseases and illnesses

To provide kid-friendly comic books to children in hospitals and cancer centers within their natural languages. These will come initially as Spanish and French-speaking, and will expand based on the requirements presented to us. As in our other programs, we will work with the Child Life teams as no two hospitals are alike in what they receive based on their demographics.

Population(s) Served
Children and youth
People with diseases and illnesses

While ComicBooks For Kids! (CB4K) primary mission is to provide kid-friendly comic books to children in hospitals and cancer centers, we will also support our local community as requests, budget and inventory allows. This may come as comics provided to children in schools at the request of teachers to both promote literacy and reward positive behavior. We will also provide comic books to the Special Forces and other military organizations based on comic books in our inventory that may be too mature for our target demographics.

Population(s) Served
Military personnel
People with learning disabilities

Where we work

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of donors lending

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Children and youth

Related Program

CB4K Children's Hospital Comic Book Program

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Not only are more donors contributing but they are contributing more often. The biggest change in 2022 were the recurring donors.

Number of hospitals contributed to

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Children and youth

Related Program

CB4K Children's Hospital Comic Book Program

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

This metric is a crucial measurement as it measure our outreach across the US. We continue to increase not only the number of hospitals we support but now we are also supporting multiple locations

Number of books distributed

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Children and youth

Related Program

CB4K Children's Hospital Comic Book Program

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

This metric measure the number of comic books we provided to children in hospitals and cancer centers across the US in a calendar year. In 2022, we provided 115,000 comic books to children

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Our organization has lofty goals including putting comic books both in English and foreign languages into the hands of children who are in a hospital or cancer center. Farther down in this section we will outline our more expansive goals which is to expand into graphic novels, further support the community including teachers/military and reach a greater number of hospitals.

However, what we are trying to accomplish is very straightforward:

While we cannot take away the reason a child is in the hospital, they can just be a kid again as they read a comic book.

Our goal is to make that happen everywhere we can.

There are many facets for making this happen.

First, we are working on behalf of the overall comic book industry and all of the incredible people within it. To make this all come together, it needs to include distribution, retailers, publishers and the wonderful customers who buy the comic books. In 2017, and as noted on our website, we are working with the main distributor (Diamond) and almost every publisher in the industry's top ten. In 2018, we started adding brick-and-mortar retailers who are now working closely with us as well.

Second, it requires working closely with the hospitals. ComicBooks For Kids! reaches out individually to each and every hospital and tailors their comic delivery to the demographics that the Child Life departments need. Everything is packed tightly with a professional cover letter denoting what is being sent. Constant contact exists on a recurring basis with these hospitals.

ComicBooks For Kids! then acts as a hub connecting the comics we receive with the kids across the country who need them. Not all hospitals are the same and the demands of no two hospitals are the same. Yet because we tailor each and every shipment, we can meet their needs of each hospital individually.

We have the capacity and talent to exceed our goals.

We were incorporated in May of 2017. At that time we gave ourselves a goal of providing 1,000 comic books to 20 hospitals across the US and to work with two comic book publishers.

As we closed out 2017, we had shipped out and delivered over 8,000 comic books to over 100 hospitals in almost every state of this country. Further, we also reached into Canada; our website shows the stories of how we have impacted children in a positive way across North America.

As we expand into 2018 and beyond, we will be enhancing our Board of Directors with industry insiders and volunteer support to allow us greater reach to not only achieve our goals but to exceed them.

As mentioned above, we exceeded our 2017 goal by a significant margin. Our goal for 2018 is to exceed those targets and to focus on our new initiatives. This includes:

* Expanding from children's hospitals to all hospitals with a pediatric wing
* Expanding hospital libraries with graphic novels
* Bringing foreign language comics to the kids across the US in hospitals
* Supporting the community including teachers and promoting literacy
* Supporting our military by donating comics with more mature themes

Financials

Comicbooks for Kids
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

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Comicbooks for Kids

Board of directors
as of 02/02/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Mr Mark Weiss

ComicBooks for Kids!

Term: 2017 - 2020

Mark Weiss

ComicBooks For Kids!

Jon Betancourt

Archie Comics

Adam Conley

Heroes and Fantasies

Michael Weiss

Cloud Bees

Kae Winters

TokyoPop

Brad Rooks

Oni Press

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 1/28/2021

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Male, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

No data

Gender identity

No data

 

No data

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data