Service Opportunity of the Week: Better World Books

Are you ready to learn about another amazing organization where you can make a difference? Good! Today's service opportunity is Better World Books.

In short: Better World Books is a U.S. based online book seller. The Better World Books mission statement is “to capitalize on the value of the book to fund and support literacy initiatives locally, nationally, and around the world.” They raise funding for over 80 non-profit literacy programs. They have collected over 24 million books, raised over US$6.4 million for non-profit literacy programs, US$1.2 million for libraries and US$850,000 for student groups. BWB's primary literay partners are Books for Africa, Room to Read, Worldfund, the National Center for Family Literacy, and Invisible Children. By operating as a social venture, BWB provides its non-profit partners with a consistent and stable source of unrestricted funding, so they can focus on inplementing programs in literacy and education, rather than spending all of their time raising funds.

So, what can an individual do? First, you can buy books from BWB. The money from books that are sold creates a stream of funding to help the non-profit partners. Second, you can run a book drive! Many donated books are passed directly to the partners, while some are sold. BWB finds the best possible use for each book. Any books deemed unsuitable for sale or partner use are recycled.

For more information or to purchase books, go to www.betterworldbooks.com. To get more information on how you can organize a book drive on campus, go to http://www.betterworldbooks.com/Info-Get-Started-m-27.aspx. You can also find more information about donating books by clicking on the "reuse first" link at the top of the main screen.