Listed below are the most common questions about Books4Cause and our operations. For additional information, please email us at info@books4cause.com
- What is Books4Cause?
- What type of books do you accept?
- Books are heavy, how can I get them to you?
- Sounds great but in which part of the country do you pick up?
- What causes will benefit from my book donation?
- What do you do with the collected books?
- Do you throw any books away?
- Do you provide a tax receipt?
What is Books4Cause?[top]
Books4Cause runs book drives and book donation campaigns on college campuses which help fund and support various initiatives locally, nationally, and around the world.
What type of books do you accept?[top]
We accept any book in good condition, except for journals, periodicals, custom course manuals, old encyclopedias, or magazines. Older books that are a few years out of date are perfect for Africa. Newer books are often sold to raise money and cover the cost of shipping and running the book drive.
Books are heavy, how can I get them to you?[top]
We are a full service organization – we will come to your home or office, box up the books, and get them started on the way to their new home. Leave the heavy lifting to us.
Sounds great but where in the country do you pick up books?[top]
We are based in Chicago and are running book drives in the Midwest and East Coast. Send us an email to find out when we will be visiting your campus. You may also sign up on our partner page to start the process of running a book drive.
What causes will benefit from my book donation?[top]
All of our book-drives benefit HSRI. We send them money, books, and store all of their other educational supplies that are sent to Ghana. We also have secondary local partners on each campus that get money and/or books. We are looking to work with additional national and local partners. Here is a list of our current partners.
What do you do with the collected books?[top]
Books4Cause finds the best possible use for each book collected in support of our mission to help worthy causes. Books are either sold to raise money for non-profit programs, sent to one of our non-profit partners for use in their programs, or recycled if unsuitable for sale or partner use.
Around 25% of the books are sold to raise money for non-profit programs and shipping costs, around 50% are sent to one of our non-profit partners for use in their programs and around 25% are recycled if unsuitable for sale or partner use.
Most of our donated books are sent to Africa with the assistance of our non-profit partner Human Service Resources, Inc (HSRI). HSRI runs the Good Books for Africa program distributing books to children in classrooms and libraries in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa.
Do you throw any books away?[top]
We never throw books away. We genuinely have a love for books and reading and often marvel at the diverse and interesting books that come our way. We also pride ourselves on our ability to derive the maximum value from every book collected. Any book that cannot be sold or used directly by our literacy programs is pulped and recycled. We have recycled thereby diverting hundreds of thousands of books from landfills.
Do you provide a tax receipt?[top]
Yes, we will furnish a tax receipt for your donation. This receipt is from HSRI for the amount of books that you have donated. The tax receipt will be issued at the end of the book drive.
