It takes many people, working together, to make Books For Africa work. Support BFA with financial or book contributions which are critical to BFA’s success. Learn more about BFA’s very important partner organizations—Rotary Clubs, schools, publishers, recipient NGOs and other organizations—and how they work.
Over the years, Books For Africa has formed a unique partnership with Rotary. Rotary’s mission to provide humanitarian service and help build goodwill and peace in the world fits well with BFA’s mission to help end the book famine in Africa. BFA and Rotary work together in two different kinds of partnerships:
BFA solicits, collects, sorts and packs books into 20 foot sea containers, and attends to all the necessary documentation and shipping arrangements. The sponsoring Rotary Club forms a partnership with a Rotary Club in Africa and, using matching grants from their Rotary District and/or Rotary International, funds the cost of shipping the books to the partner Rotary Club in Africa. The African club then distributes the books to local schools and libraries.
The producer Rotary Club solicits, collects, sorts and packs books into a 20 foot sea container following an operation manual provided by BFA which outlines the entire process. The producer Rotary Club then forms a partnership with a Rotary Club in Africa and, using matching grants from their Rotary District and/or from Rotary International, funds the cost of shipping the books. BFA attends to all the necessary documentation and shipping arrangements, and the books are then distributed by the partner Rotary Club in Africa.
If you would like a representative of BFA to give a presentation to your club, or if you would like to explore the idea of sending a shipment of books to Africa through Rotary, please contact the BFA office at 651-602-9844.
For more information about Rotary, see www.rotary.org.
By far the largest source of books to BFA is schools. Each year, school districts discard thousands of books that are in excellent condition when they receive new editions. There are two common ways for schools to dispose of these "retired" books: sell them to a used textbook company or send the books to a landfill. Books For Africa is an excellent third option. When schools donate their discarded books to BFA, everybody wins: The schools save the disposal costs, landfills in the United States are not filling up with useable books, and best of all, the books have a new life in the hands of African children.
Books For Africa ships both new and used books to Africa. New books are donated by large publishers and by small local presses. Publishers receive a substantial tax benefit when they donate their excess books to charity:
IRS special tax incentive rule known as section 170(e)(3) allows manufacturers and distributors to make donations of equipment and/or inventory to nonprofit tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations at a considerable tax advantage. Gifts can usually be deducted at cost plus one-half the difference between the cost (basis) and the fair market value (FMV), not to exceed twice the basis of the property. (The property must be new or reconditioned to new.)
EXAMPLE: A donation of books
A publisher donates 1,000 books; each book costs $4 to manufacture and sells for $12. The donation would earn the publisher an $8,000 tax deduction: $4 cost + $4 (the difference between cost and FMV) = $8 x 1,000 books = $8,000.
Deductions are limited to 10% of the company’s taxable income each year; excess donations may be carried forward. The purpose of the 170(e)(3) tax law is to provide a tax incentive to companies wishing to donate usable inventory or equipment to the ill, needy or minors through a nonprofit 501(c)(3).
If your firm presently has excess book inventory or is anticipating some in the future, please consider a donation to BFA. We ask that prior to donating you contact our office with a description or title list of the items to be donated. For more information, please see Book Donation Guidelines or contact the BFA office.
Many other organizations send books to Africa through BFA. Like Rotary Clubs, these other organizations can work in partnership with BFA in a variety of ways. Some collect, sort and pack all of the books and contribute the entire cost of a shipment, using only technical assistance from BFA, while others choose simply to give money toward the cost of a shipment in their group’s name. Some, like YMCA, Protestant and Catholic Dioceses, businesses with operations in Africa, or other service groups such as Lions Clubs, also provide a distribution network on the receiving end in Africa.
Each shipment of books BFA sends to Africa is received by an African non-governmental organization (NGO) that distributes the books to local schools and libraries. Not only does the organization handle the logistics of receiving the container at port, transporting it inland, and arranging for 25,000 books to be distributed across the countryside, the recipient organization is also responsible for raising the cost of shipping the container overseas.
Any African NGO is eligible to receive a shipment from BFA. To get on BFA’s shipping list, the NGO must provide a letter warranting that the books received from BFA will not be sold, that the organization has the capacity to receive and distribute approximately 25,000 books, and confirm that it has the necessary funds to cover shipping and other related costs.
© 2005 Books For Africa / This page last updated: October 25, 2006