About WGI

A Global Movement Born in a Baton Rouge Classroom

In 2014, an eighth-grade student in Baton Rouge noticed something that changed his life—and would go on to change countless others.

That student was Chance Wilson. What began as a simple question—“Why can’t my classmates read?”—sparked the creation of the Wilson Global Initiative (WGI), a literacy movement that would stretch across ten cities and five continents, from Harlem to Hong Kong.

WGI started small: a few students, a few volunteers, a few donated books. But the mission was bold from the start—universal literacy. Over the next decade WGI joined forces with to bring reading programs to underserved communities around the world.

From after-school sessions in Los Angeles to mobile outreach in New York, digital libraries in Tanzania to Read and Rice programs in Tokyo, WGI mobilized thousands of volunteers and delivered community-driven solutions to the world’s most pressing educational issue.

Now, we’re turning the page.

WGI’s nonprofit work continues as WGI Worldwide Philanthropies. But to reach the next billion learners we’re launching a new for-profit arm, WGI Interactive LLC—a mission-aligned studio building groundbreaking educational technology. Our flagship platform is Lyra, a literacy game powered by AI and designed to teach children around the world for free.

We’ve come a long way. But our goal remains the same:

Teach one billion children to read and write.