John Wood: The man who builds a school every 26 hours ...

This month John Wood came to Mumbai with a mission most would find impossible. He wanted to raise US$1 million in one night.

The Executive Chairman and Founder of Room to Read, an educational charity started a decade ago, knows exactly what he will be able to do with that money.

“With US$1 million we are able to open 200 libraries. That impacts at least 50,000 children,” says Wood.

By the end of Room To Read's fundraising evening on last week at the Westin Hotel in Goregaon, 200 of the city's wealthiest residents give him more than he hoped for.

The guests pledge to finance the building of 171 libraries in India and provide over 754 years worth of girls education. Collectively, their pockets are US$1.5 million lighter. But you wouldn't notice -- they are all smiles. So is Wood.

“Wow! Kids across India are cheering!” wrote Wood on his Twitter account that evening.

From big corporation to charity

Wood, Mircosoft's former director of marketing for the Asia-Pacific region, started Room To Read shortly after a visit to Nepal in 1998.

“I went for a trek to escape Microsoft for 18 days and to get out of the rat race. Two days in I was in a little village called Bahundanda where I met a headmaster who wanted to show me his school," Wood recalls.

The school, which had 80 children crammed into one room, had no resources and no books in their library.

“I asked the headmaster why and he said, 'We're too poor to afford education in Nepal. If we have no education we're always going to be poor.' That was the statement that changed my life forever,” says Wood.

Moved by their needs, Wood collected 3,000 books from friends, family and colleagues and returned to Nepal the following year to give it to the school in Bahundanda.

“It was the biggest day in the history of the village. The whole village turned out. There was music, dancing, speeches, flower garlands,” Wood says.

It was a big day for him too.

“I realized that -- wow, this feels a lot better to me than being at my desk in Microsoft Beijing making rich people richer ... Profits are a good thing, but at a certain point in life you realize that there's a lot more important things. I wanted to replicate that scene in Bahundanda hundreds, if not thousands, of times,” the self-confessed statistics man says.

To replicate what he achieved in Bahundanda required leaving his well-paying job at Microsoft.

“I could either make it a hobby and do small things or make it my life and do big things,” he says about the choice he faced.

Moving from the corporate world to start a charity, a journey he describes in his book "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World," was not easy at the beginning.

“The first couple of years were tough because suddenly no-one cared who I was because I lost my status. A lot the people I thought were my friends weren't really my friends ... and a lot of the people I used to hang out with no longer return my calls,” he says.

Starting something big

After struggling for the first few years, the success of Room to Read grew rapidly. The organisation started capturing significant media attention three years into the operation.

“CNN covered us, Time magazine gave me one of their Asian Heroes Awards, Forbes magazine covered us and we started getting a lot of traction, especially in the business community,” he says.

Then, when his book came out in 2006, interest in the organisation mushroomed.

“[The book] was endorsed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Oprah Winfrey had me on her show and did this thing called 'Oprah's book drive' which created over US$3 million dollars for our publishing program,” says Wood.

That program publishes in local languages and has brought out books written by alumni from their schools. It is now one of the biggest publishers of children's books in Asia.   

Wood describes the success of Room to Read in what he apologetically calls “tech-geeky” language from his Microsoft days.

“We think of [our success] in terms of a virtuous feedback loop. The more money we bring in, the more schools and libraries we build. The more we build, the more people notice us and are impressed and more money comes in,” says Wood.

He explains that the charity's model has been to spend wisely. Their results prove they have been doing just that.

“Last year we opened our 1,000th school and we opened our 10,000th library. So many people are like: 'How the heck did you do that? You had nothing 10 years ago and all of a sudden you 're hitting these huge numbers.”

Wood's organisation has benefited five million children so far and they are on-track for hitting their target of reaching 10 million children by 2015 -- five years before schedule.

These results are tied to Wood's commitment that money is not wasted on a bloated bureaucracy.

During the presentation he gave at the fundraiser in Mumbai he introduced his 'No Range Rover policy' to the audience, a reference to the vehicle preferred by U.N. charities.

“This is how we deliver our books,” Wood says proudly, moving to the next slide. A picture comes up of a ramshackle tuk-tuk, laden with large packages.

“We're all about being cheap and cheerful,” he adds, before sharing that his flight to India was financed by donated frequent flyer miles and that his hotel accommodation was covered by the Oberoi family.

At the end of the night, Wood tells the crowd at the Westin that he's going to be doing this job until he dies. Between his hectic schedule serving communities in nine countries throughout Asia and Africa, however, the man who spends much of his time away from home thinks affectionately about the peaceful village life in Bahundanda.

“I'd be happy to go live there but apparently the world has other plans for me,” he says laughing heartily.