Save money—and support literacy
BetterWorldBooks.com is a triple threat—or treat. You get deep discounts on used books (plus free shipping!). A portion of the money you spend goes to fund literacy programs here and abroad. And you’ll be saving a used book from landfill. (Shipping, by the way, is “carbon neutral”—so you’re not creating a monster there).
I’ve just met with co-founder Xavier Helgeson, who explained how this works: The inventory comes from book drives that collect “discards” from more than 1800 colleges and 1400 libraries. Books are then either donated to organizations such as Books for Africa or the National Center for Family Literacy, or sold online, with a portion of the proceeds going back to the donating organization and another portion going to one of the site’s literacy partners.
My favorite part of the site: The running ticker of funds raised for global literacy (at last count $6,404,075.23) and books saved from landfill (24,539,746). That was my last click—I’m sure it has changed by now!