Donations Go Where?

There are always charities looking for money to buy textbooks for improvised/newly-opened schools all over Africa. I don't know specific names, but it's something I keep encountering. Helping the poorest of the poor studying their way out of starvation by funding their books, sounds cool to me

If you've got a lot of money to parcel out, look into establishing a trust fund, or an endowment that funds different things each year.

I can't remember the name of it, but I know there's a charity that provides books to prisoners.

The Prison Library Project provides books to inmates. I've donated books, but they need funds to send the books to different prisons. It's a good thing. I found out about them while working with a civil rights attorney.

Isn't Project Gutenberg a non-profit?

Your local public library? Here in the US they are really hurting--s6

You can go to Donors Choose, a charity project that allows individual teachers to post needs they have for their classes/classrooms.

Each request is vetted by Donors Choose and the money donated goes through DC, which buys the goods or acquires the things and sends them to the school.

You can sort projects by geography, by percent of students receiving assistance, by grade/level, and by type of project, like literacy or book-related.

There are all levels and kinds of projects to fund. Some teachers ask for copies of novels for each student to read, some ask for phonics packages, some ask for pencils (yes, I once saw a request for $30 worth of pencils, because the kids didn't all have pencils to write with and the teacher couldn't afford to keep buying for everyone, along with everything else.), magazine subscriptions, classroom libraries, tons of things. Browse! Oh, and you can search for very specific things you're interested in. Some teachers ask for copies of Hamlet, some ask for copies of Farenheit 451, some for Seuss, some ask for dictionaries, some ask for bookshelves or rugs and beanbags to hold reading circle for tiny kids, etc. Most explain the project or lesson and how many classes the stuff can be used by in the future and such.

You can fund part of a project, but if you fund a large enough portion, or fund a whole project, you will get a personalized package of thank you notes from the kids in the class. It's awesome. The money you donate goes to buy what you donate to buy. It's all explained on their page, and they get excellent ratings from Charity Navigator and the like, and have been around years. I'm not affiliated, but have donated over the years.

Science Fiction Foundation - their library based at Liverpool University. They are also happy for you to leave your books to them in your will - if they already have a copy then they will sell to raise funds. Books as in your paperbacks on your bookshelf.

You could always give it to poor, starving writers.

*clears throat conspicuously*

thinkerbeat said:

I already know I can probably find a library just about anywhere that will take money.

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As a librarian, I have to say, please reconsider doing just this. Prison, school, public, it doesn't matter. But libraries all over are struggling, and some are just dying.