WEEK 3 EOC: Making Money for Good

Better World Books is a company that knows a thing or two about what it means to give back. It turns out that for every book that is purchased from their website, they donate to either Books for Africa, which is their longtime literacy partner or Feed the Children who have continuously found good homes for books. BWB started this charitable mission back in August, 2011. At the top of their website, it notes that they have (so far) "donated over 18M books, have raised over $22M for literacy and libraries and have recycled/reused over 210M books." Better World Books also work with the two other non-profit literacy organizations; National Center for Families Learning and Room to Read. BWB also provides literacy grants where non-profit groups or libraries write up what they will do with their grant (down to the dollar) and then they will fund the projects that they think will be the most successful pursuing. As far as the recycling, if BWB is unable to find a home they refuse to just throw it away, hence why it is recycled or reused. They have reclaimed more than 900,000 pounds of metal shelving from libraries across the United States. To help reduce carbon and support the move to a low carbon economy, BWB states “every order at BetterWorldBooks.com has the option to be shipped carbon balanced for just a few cents extra. So far, we have reached 44,000 tons of carbon offsets.” Better World Books is one of many companies that are doing such amazing things by giving back to the community. They’ve been around for a few years showing major progress and success in the world of charity and from the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like they’re slowing down anytime soon. They’ve got big plans and with the support of books that are being bought, they will continue to power through.