Book Donations

Mary and I have been discussing ideas for ways to support the PACODES library. When she shared the idea of running a book donation, I remembered that someone on our team had once mentioned Better World Books.

Better World Books is an organization which accepts book donations and then sells them. Some of the money goes to support literacy programs. I sent about 6 boxes of books, and got a check for about $200, which I’ll put in the donation for PACODES. (I weeded in the library, plus the dean and I went through the outdated instructor textbooks in the faculty lounge.) Better World Books issues checks once per quarter and has some specific guidelines to be followed.

"Better World Books finds the best possible use for each book collected in support of our mission to promote literacy. Books are either sold to raise money for non-profit literacy programs, sent to one of our non-profit partners for use in their programs, or recycled if unsuitable for sale or partner use."

"The specific terms of most Better World Books partnership agreements are confidential. In the college textbook market, the company’s 'social profit' margin currently averages 7 to 8% of net revenue from each used book sold. Library books are transferred to Better World Books under consignment and sold with a fixed percentage of the net revenue paid to both the library and a non-profit literacy partner. Typical arrangements are 15% of the net sale price to a library and 5% to their chosen literacy partner."