Collect & Donate Books to Organizations Serving Children in Need

For families struggling to put food on the table, books are an unaffordable luxury. And in many of our F-to-F communities, the nearest library is hours away. So if you have shelves full of books you no longer look at, or that your children or students no longer read, consider sending them to us here at Family-to-Family, where they will enrich lives as they encourage a love of reading and learning.

• Contact us at books@family-to-family.org and let us know what you have to donate, and then ship them to us. We’ll distribute them to local nonprofit organizations that work with children. Some outreach centers have set up lending libraries in extra rooms (or closets) for donated books. Some distribute the books at home visits, or when families pick up their food boxes.
• Our shipping address is: Family-to-Family Books for Life/PO Box 255/Hastings on Hudson, NY/10706
• You can send your own books, your classroom books, or collect books.
• Ask your local book store, or library, to donate books.
• Put an ad in your neighborhood paper asking for book donations.
• Because some populations may have cultural and/or religious sensitivities, we ask that you email us with a list of book titles so we can identify the best recipient organization for your books, as well as make sure we aren’t sending multiple copies of the same books to the same place.

SHIPPING COSTS

You may want to raise money to pay for the cost of shipping the books. You can ask the individuals or businesses donating the books to each contribute a few dollars, or you can go to a local business that has a shipping department, and ask if they would be willing to pay for the shipping of your boxes as an in-kind contribution. Or perhaps your kids or students will want to join in the effort and help raise the shipping funds with bake sales or a yard sale. Note that the U.S. Postal Service has a library mail rate which can be used when sending books to a registered nonprofit and a media rate, both of which are significantly cheaper than sending a 1st-class package.

Remember, the books you send can look gently used, but please not abused!

USEFUL BOOKS TO SEND