Better World Books
by Lauren Brandeberry, Senior Student Advisor (adapted from an article by Stephanie Schiefelbein)
A service project that also raises money for your chapter? No, it's not too good to be true. Thanks to Sigma Tau Delta's partnership with Better World Books, an organization that sponsors collegiate book drives to fund global literacy and green initiatives, you can support literacy in developing countries, raise money for your chapter, and keep books out of landfills. Read on to see how your chapter can get involved with this exciting effort.
The UPDATED Sigma Tau Deltan’s Guide to Running a Better World Books Drive
From Book Drives to Better Lives in Six Steps!
- Get acquainted with Better World Books, its nonprofit global literacy partners, and its mission by checking out www.betterworldbooks.com.
- Once you are ready to get started, or if you have any questions, email campus@betterworldbooks.com and state that your chapter would like to start a book drive.
- After emailing Better World Books, you will be contacted by an Account Representative who will act as your contact person throughout the entire book drive process and help you with all your questions!
- Choose one of six nonprofit literacy partners, including our newest partner, Plan USA (Haiti). Learn about all six literacy partners at http://www.english.org/sigmatd/chapters/bookdrive.shtml.
- Better World Books will send you everything you need to run your drive: posters, collection boxes, shipping boxes, a scanner to prescreen books, and tips for running your drive. Each chapter will have access to its own online portal to order supplies, ship books (at no cost to you!), and view an environmental impact summary of your book drive on campus.
- Run your book drive and have fun—advertise, place collection bins in high traffic areas around campus, collect books, prescreen books (to earn even more for your chapter), then pack and ship the books. Better World Books will even pay for a packing party!
Chapters can earn up to $1.25 for each accepted book ($.50 per acceptable book, $1.00 for each pre-screened acceptable book, $1.25 per acceptable book when more than 1,000 books are collected). Books that are not accepted are recycled. Books that are accepted are donated directly to literacy programs when possible, or they are sold and a portion of the profits goes to the literacy partner of your choice. And an additional $100 donation is made in the name of the chapter that collects the most books.
NEW!
Participating chapters will be entered into a drawing for $100 in free books!
But that's not all! There are other benefits to our national partnership with Better World Books. Better World Books will sponsor a 6-week PAID summer internship in Alpharetta, Georgia, for a Sigma Tau Delta student member chosen through an application process.
AND:
If you purchase books online through Better World Books using any Better World Books link on the Sigma Tau Delta website, you save 10% and a percentage of the profit is returned directly to Sigma Tau Delta.
Most significantly, your chapter gains the opportunity to fight for world literacy, a primary goal of both Sigma Tau Delta and Better World Books. | 