BHS: Buy (Better World) Books, Give the Gift of Reading

Published November 14, 2009 @ 10:54AM PT

[ed. note: This post is a part of the Big Holiday Switch, a series of posts about how you can use your consumer dollars to support a change this holiday season. Check out the kick-off post here.]

(Pledge to switch to Better World Books for Holiday book purchases now!)

Giving books is at once simple and thoughtful. While books surround us, the time that we allot to reading them has been pressured by other forms of media consumption. Deciding to give someone a book is a simple act of sharing and a simple act of teaching. What if this holiday season, all of the books you gave could also be contributing towards a more literate, educated world?

That's the promise that Better World Books offers. Originally concocted in a dorm room, Better World Books started when a group of Notre Dame students couldn't sell back their textbooks. They thought it was crazy that all of that knowledge (and all of those pages of dead trees) were going to go to waste, so they used internet sites like half.com to resell them to people who weren't beholden to textbook manufacturer updates.

From there, Better World Books has grown into a force for good, saving over 30 million books from landfills and donating over $7 million to literacy programs. A for-profit social enterprise, BWB takes donated books from libraries and schools that would otherwise be thrown away, and re-sells them using its online interface. It also sells new books.

BWB partners with nonprofits like Room to Read who coordinate the book donations. Its partners have a small equity stake in the company to even more deeply align incentives. In addition to that, BWB channels a portion of their profits back into their partner's programs.

For the consumer, the experience is every bit as fulfilling as Amazon, if often a little bit cheaper. All BWB orders shipped in the USA have free shipping, and for the rest of the world it's only $3.97. Their selection is great, they have specials and Oprah's Book List.

What this all means that at no inconvenience or additional cost (in fact, potentially with a lower cost) you can have a book buying experience that actually contributes to global literacy. For social enterprise to succeed, it's essential that the companies that carry the banner are every bit as good on all fronts - not just the social front - as their competitors. BWB is a model to be emulated.

Take Action:

We're asking Change.org readers to take this pledge to contribute to global literacy by switching to Better World Books for this Holiday Season. Click here to learn more about the company and the pledge, and join us!

(Photo: sleepyneko)

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Author

Nathaniel is the founder of Assetmap, a San Francisco-based startup that builds web tools to help people better visualize and leverage their social capital. Before that, he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.