Founded in 2010, the Left Bank Books Foundation is the 501c-3 arm of Left Bank Books. It receives he majority of its funding from small individual donations. Contributions to the Friends of Left Bank Books, a membership program to the bookstore, supports literary events and general expenses. Contributions to River City Readers supports our program that gives personalized copies of outstanding and culturally relevant books to St. Louis Public School Children for their personal libraries. RCR also arranges author visits to their under-resourced classrooms and contributes to the classrooms' libraries. 

In September 2017, the Left Bank Books Foundation helped to launch the first annual BOOKFEST St. Louis, a literary arts and culture festival that attracted 2,000 attendees for a one day festival that included a dozen author panels and 40 writers. The Foundation is an ongoing sponsor of BOOKFEST St. Louis.

In March, 2018, the foundation sponsored the first annual Not So Late Night, an evening of spoken word poetry and musical performances by local and nationally known performing artists and poets.

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