Each year, ProLiteracy Worldwide solicits NBSF grant applications from local literacy councils, community-based programs, Even Start and Head Start programs, churches, and other educational centers. The NBSF provides support in the following areas:

Family Literacy
Studies show that children whose parents have low literacy skills are more likely to become adults with low literacy skills than children whose parents are good readers, while parents enrolled in basic literacy programs take a more active role in supporting their children’s school success.

NBSF materials are used to teach parenting skills and to help parents work with their children's teachers. Your Home is a Learning Place is one of the most popular NBSF products distributed to family literacy programs. This resource helps adults improve their literacy skills, while developing their ability to bring literacy into the home.

English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL)
More than one million immigrants enter the U.S. each year, many of them with less than a high school education. Their desire for a better life for themselves and their families has raised the demand for English-as-a-second-language instruction to an all-time high. This makes the LifePrints instructional series for ESL programs one of the most useful products NBSF distributes.

The LifePrints series gives ESL students support in learning realistic skills that will help them participate at work, in their communities, and at home. The NBSF also provides software, dictionaries, citizenship guides, and other specially designed ESL instructional materials that help adults improve their literacy skills.

Adult Literacy
Thirty million individuals aged 16 and older in the United States have reading skills so poor that they have trouble filling out forms and understanding news stories written at an eighth grade level. Literacy and adult basic education (ABE) programs are designed for adults and out-of-school youth ages 16 years or older who function at this level, are not enrolled in secondary school, or do not have a secondary school diploma or its equivalent. The NBSF provides ABE programs with instructional books and materials to help people learn to read, read to their children, pass the GED exam, or obtain employment.