Organize a Children’s Book Drive

People are happy to help children who need books by donating new and like-new books that have been outgrown. Our supporters conduct drives that bring in anywhere from 50 to 5,000 children’s books. We distribute over 10,000 free books every month to children who need them, so your drive is crucial to fulfilling our mission!

In-Person Drive

1. Select a particular period of time — from a day, a week, to a month or more — to hold the drive and coordinate with the organization, school, or business where it will be held.

2. Let your community know a few weeks in advance that you’ll be collecting new and like-new children’s books to promote literacy. Notify donors about your drive through social media, newsletters, email, flyers, posters — whatever works best for your community. Include your contact information, locations of collection bins, the beginning and end dates of your drive, and a link to childrensbookproject.org.

3. Review our donation guidelines at Give Books, and be sure to stress that we need only children’s books in new and like-new condition. We cannot use: textbooks; encyclopedias; library discards; moldy, torn, smelly, or obsolete books; and books for adults.

4. Provide large, sturdy, and well-marked collection bin(s) in an accessible and protected location.

5. Give frequent updates on how the drive is progressing and encourage more donations before your deadline.

6. When your drive is over, make an appointment at Give Books to drop off your donation at our Book Bank — we’ll be happy to give you a brief tour, and you can get pictures to share with your community of where their books are going! Or ship your books to our mailing address below, with information about your drive so we know who to thank.

Online Drive

1. Let your community know you’ll be collecting new children’s books to promote literacy. Communicate with your donors a few weeks in advance about your children’s book drive through social media. Include links to our website, along with our curated online amazon.com or bookshop.org wishlists at Give Books — or your own wishlist — along with the beginning and end dates for your drive.

2. If you’re located in the Bay Area, consider having the books delivered to your home or business so you can directly track how your drive is going. (On the receiving end of these shipments, invoice slips are haphazard and we often don’t know where every book comes from.) 

3. Give frequent updates to your community on how the drive is progressing and encourage more donations before your deadline.

4. When your drive is over, you can make an appointment at Give Books to drop off your donation at our Book Bank  — we’ll be happy to give you a brief tour and you can get pictures to share with your community of where their books are going!

Feel free to contact us for further support.