The Gaiman Foundation, founded this year by legendary writer Neil Gaiman, has contributed $60,000 to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund to support its education program, the organization announced today.  The donation will be used to support initiatives such as the Kids Right to Read Project, Banned Books Week, new resources such as the book Manga: Introduction, Challenges,and Best Practices, publications for parents and educators about using graphic novels, and the Fund’s growing body of educational events and resources. 
Gaiman has a twenty-year history with the CBLDF, including a decade plus stint on its board of directors, which ended earlier this year. He was a long-time supporter of the educational portion of the Fund’s mission.  "Part of the CBLDF’s purpose is educational," he said, "and in dealing with the ongoing emergencies of arrested comics readers and comic store staff, corporate attacks on creators, rescuing people who had run afoul of law enforcement bodies who want to limit their freedom to read and the like, it was too easy for that part of the remit to come in last.  From my perspective, educating readers, creators, retailers and publishers is the most important thing we can do, because it gives us long term change.”
The Gaiman Foundation was founded to “Do Good” by supporting a range of causes, particularly those to do with free speech and the arts.  Its board consists of Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer, and Gaiman’s daughter Holly Gaiman and her siblings.
Gaiman continues other forms of support of the Fund, including personalizing graphic novels for donors as part of the organization’s Spirit of Giving campaign this holiday season (see "Gaiman, Speigelman, Bechdel Personalize Graphic Novels").