Find Out Where to Donate Books

What do you do when you are done reading a book? Share it with a friend? Toss it in the rubbish? What about those extra books packed in the attic or collecting dust in your bookcase? Do you save them for a yard sale or the annual church bazaar? Why not put your books to work making the world a little bit better?

BetterWorldBooks is an organization that everybody should know about. They sell books and donate proceeds to literacy organizations around the world. This venture offers a variety of books starting at $1.99. Genres include: Art & Photography, Biographies and Memoirs, Business & Investing, Children's Books, Comic & Graphic Novels, Computers & Internet, Cooking, Food & Wine, Entertainment, Gay & Lesbian, Health, Mind & Body, History, Home & Garden, Horror, Literature & Fiction, Medicine, Mystery & Thrillers, Network Essentials, Nonfiction, Notes, Outdoor & Nature, Parenting & Families, Professional & Technical, Reference, Religion & Spirituality, Romance, Science, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Sports, Teens, and Travel.

BetterWorldBooks is a for profit social venture. Monies from the sales of their books go to a variety of organizations. Some of these are:

• Books for Africa
  
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• Room to Read
  
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• National Center for Family Literacy
  
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• World Education & Development Fund
  
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• Robinson Community Center, and the
  
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• Prison Book Club
  
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This type of business is an example of social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship is the act of creating a company whose goal is to resolve an issue, concern, or to make the world a little bit better. It is not just donating a percentage of profits to charity (although this is certainly a commendable act). The product or service of social entrepreneurship can make the improvement.

Here is an example. CitizensEnergy, a company in Massachusetts provides oil for people that cannot afford it, tries to make prescriptions more affordable, and provide other important services. In their own words,

Citizens Energy Corporation exists to help make life's basic needs more accessible and affordable. Beginning in 1979 with oil-trading ventures in Latin America and Africa, Citizens has used revenues from commercial enterprises to channel millions of dollars into charitable programs in the U.S. and abroad. Whether heating the homes of the elderly and the poor, lowering the cost of prescription drugs for millions of Americans, or starting solar heating projects in Jamaica and Venezuela, Citizens creates social ventures as innovative as the businesses that finance them. At the same time, Citizens Energy seeks to use market opportunities to help the poor and needy. - www.citizensenergy.com

The mission of BetterWorldBooks, in their own words, is,

Better World Books capitalizes on the value of the book to fund and support literacy initiatives locally, nationally, and around the world. - www.betterworldbooks.com/AboutUs/Mission.aspx

This company was started by a group of college students. In their own words,

In late spring 2001, two scrappy, broke college students sat in their apartment in South Bend, Indiana looking for ways to make some much-needed money. Graduating seniors from the University of Notre Dame without job prospects, Xavier Helgesen and Christopher "Kreece" Fuchs looked to their used textbooks for an answer. "Hey, I heard you can sell books online," said Xavier to Kreece in passing one day. . .

In spring 2002, Xavier and Kreece approached the Robinson Community Learning Center in South Bend with the idea of running a book drive. The two knew that promoting a book drive on Notre Dame's campus in support of the beloved Robinson Center would stimulate students to donate their books. Having had limited time as students to give back to the community, Xavier and Kreece thought this was the perfect opportunity. They would run the drive, collect and sell the books, and deliver the proceeds to the Robinson Center, which was looking to raise funding for an after-school reading program.

After running the drive, Xavier and Kreece could not believe the overwhelming support from students! Students donated more than 2,000 books into campus collection boxes. After taking a step back and realizing what they had gotten themselves into, the two boys took the summer to figure out how to inventory the books and manage the hundreds of daily orders that poured in over the fall. With a few hiccups, and a lesson or two learned here and there, Better World Books had its first success. That initial drive raised $8,000 for the Robinson Center. - www.betterworldbooks.com/AboutUs/History.aspx

BetterWorldBooks receives their books from two sources: libraries and donations from people. You pay for shipping to donate your books. (If you are a library, they pay the shipping costs.) Shipping books is inexpensive. The U.S. Postal Service's media mail rates are inexpensive. Send your donated books to the following address:

Better World Books
55740 Currant Road
Mishawaka, IN 46545

When you donate books you also have the opportunity to specify which organization you want to support. You can specify that the proceeds of your books go to any of the following organizations:

• Books for Africa
  
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• Room to Read
  
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• National Center for Family Literacy
  
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• World Education & Development Fund
  
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Specify the name of the organization as Attn: Name of Organization to Give Proceeds To on the package or box. Click here to see which types of books sell well and are acceptable for donation.

BetterWorldBooks makes it easy for you to make the world a little bit better. Doing something positive is easy. A package, address label, some tape, and a walk to the post office. That's all it takes!