Listed below are the most common questions about Better World Books and our operations. For additional information, please email us at info@betterworldbooks.co.uk.
What is Better World Books?
Better World Books is a self-sustaining, social enterprise that finds new homes for unwanted books in support of literacy initiatives both at home and abroad.
It was founded in the USA in 2003 and since then, has gone from strength to strength. It now works with libraries and student groups across North America and raises many thousands of dollars every year for charities that help people gain literacy skills.
Better World Books UK is launching in 2008. We are adapting our operation to suit the UK context and, most significantly, supporting UK charities.
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What is a social enterprise?
"Social enterprises are profit-making businesses set up to tackle a social or environmental need." (Definition from the Social Enterprise Coalition – www.socialenterprise.org.uk)
In the case of Better World Books, the primary need we are addressing is literacy. Literacy is a fundamental plank of human development, crucial to communication, education and employment. Our chief means of having an impact on this enormous issue is that we provide a consistent and stable source of unrestricted funding to our charity partners who work directly in this field. This funding allows them to focus on doing what they do best - implementing effective literacy and education programmes. Meanwhile, we do what we do best – turning books into money on their behalf.
It doesn't stop there, however. We are pioneering business for the 21st century, committed to environmental and social concerns. We do not rely on any government grants or aid; Better World Books is a totally self-sustaining and sustainable venture. Making a profit allows us to keep developing the business, allowing us to have a bigger and bigger positive impact.
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What is your relationship to your charity partners?
We have formal partnerships with each organisation and work closely with them. Any group who sends books to us is able to select which charity they would like to benefit from their donation. Transparency is very important to us. Our Partners are able to see at any time a full inventory of the books that are being sold on their behalf. We also see a major part of our role to be raising awareness of what they do amongst the book-buying general public.
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What social and environmental impact has Better World Books made?
In the first 5 years of our US operation, Better World Books collected more than 16.4 million books, raised more than $3.1 million in support of literacy organisations, sent over 1.1 million books directly to our charity partners and saved over 8,170 tons of books from landfills. Please visit our Impact page for more details.
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How do you collect books?
In America, books come to Better World Books from two primary sources – 1,800 university campuses where we run 'book drives' and the 1,400+ libraries who need an outlet for their surplus books. In the UK we are also working with charity shops and trialling book collections in communities and offices.
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What do you do with the collected books?
Better World Books finds the best possible use for each book collected in support of our mission to support literacy. We are experts at selling books online and this is always the first option. Those that don't or won't sell we offer to our charity partners for use in their programmes. All the left-overs are recycled.
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Do you throw any books away?
Never. We 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 partners is recycled. To date, we have diverted 8,170 tons of books from landfill.
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How can I buy your books?
We sell on a variety of online marketplaces but we also have our own sales site - www.betterworld.com. We like to think of it as 'the online bookstore with a soul.' You can see which charity your purchases will support, we offer 'carbon neutral' shipping and we're passionate about trying to offer the best price, selection, customer service, and overall shopping experience.
We'll soon be launching a similar site for our UK books but until that time, if you aren't in too much of a hurry to get your books, we really recommend www.betterworld.com. It's cheaper than you think to get books sent from the States!
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