How it all began
eSpindle started from a parents' initiative and a vision of a better solution.
The “founding mothers” had gone through endless hours tutoring their children in English spelling conventions.

Whether the task was supporting aspiring Spelling Bee champions, homeschoolers, children with learning disabilities or just complying with the weekly spelling word lists - the amount of parental involvement seemed tremendous.

While it was hard for us to be our children's spelling tutor, we wondered - how could parents with limited English skills manage? With spelling skills declining throughout the country, wasn’t there a better solution for this repetitive task?

We started to look at existing programs and couldn’t find anything that could replace or even supplement what we were doing for our children.
Nothing really seemed attentive, resourceful or smart enough to fit the bill.
Books, CDs, software programs... each contained a few hundred words, and all programs were designed as separate modules, not as ongoing tutoring support.

Nothing really managed the learning process.
Options to adjust the program to the goals, speed, and skill level of the learner were missing, and nothing was as comprehensive as we wanted it to be.

The process seemed like trying to cross a river by jumping from one floating raft to another.
What we were looking for was a steady bridge, a linear process that would allow efficient and systematic progress.

A visionary project
As soon as the vision crystallized, the ball started rolling – a Stanford-trained eLearning expert and a diverse team of computer whizzes started conceptualizing the foundation.

Rooted in current research, eSpindle developed cutting edge, patent-pending technologies, infused them with old-fashioned common sense, and added generous helpings of the most important ingredient:
The inspiration of parents and educators wanting to create true value for their children and an innovative tool for improvement.

Fueled by the support of Merriam Webster, Princeton University and other supporters, eSpindle soon turned into a project of extraordinary dimensions.

eSpindle’s gigantic database of about 100,000 words was edited for two years by over 15 literacy pioneers (English teachers, writers, editors). They carefully compiled hints and sample sentences that are appropriate, easy, and suitable for a spelling program.
These edits had to carefully avoid the word itself or its roots, and comply with current educational standards, and we are continuously building our resources.

This database is complemented by a large collection of  tips and learning aids by Shirley Brainy, eSpindle's virtual tutor, a word list Wiki, and the largest online root word registry.

Why "nonprofit"
eSpindle Learning is not a traditional business, but a nonprofit parent initiative.

We incorporated as a nonprofit since our goal is not profit, but making fundamental changes in the way we learn and enrich our vocabularies.

People often ask us: “If you are a nonprofit, why are you charging us to become members?”

A lot of people have invested their time, energy and enthusiasm to create eSpindle:
The technology, resources, as well as the 100,000 word database it is built on. However, even as a nonprofit we need money to sustain our efforts, and to be able to grow and innovate.

Resting the future of this organization solely on grant money would leave the project open to serious risk, since outside funding is unreliable.

We designed eSpindle to soon become a self-sustaining organization, so we will be able to continuously expand our resources and pursue innovation. 

Our commitment is to match every individual membership with a scholarship to an underserved student, and we have been able to exceed that goal (by 6:1!) during our first year on the Web.