Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to frequent questions about donating and receiving books, or becoming a partner organization.
How can I donate? How can I get involved? How do I become a partner organization or get books?.
We welcome outreach from anyone and everyone right now! Please reach out to us via email at Donna@booksinhand.org.
We are currently accepting cash donations via venmo (username @BooksinHand), or via paypal / credit card through a donation button on our Contact page.
If you are part of a charitable organization, or an individual who distributes books in some way, our modest storage space is in El Sobrante, and our doors are open for folks to take what they want!
We will be starting a volunteer program in January, so please reach out now if you’re interested in helping!
What types of books do you accept?
We will accept almost any type of book. We are specifically in need of high-school age level books.
Unfortunately, older textbooks are very hard to find homes for, and we cannot accept most textbooks, encyclopedias, large atlases, older user manuals, etc. We also can’t accept older teaching materials or boxes of photocopies/dittos. At this time, we are not accepting alternate media (DVDs, CDs, cassettes.)
Do you accept books in “used” condition?
Books need to be in “good or better” condition. No moldy books, no books with heavy brown spots on the edges, no stinky books. Moderate spine creases are OK for paperbacks, but the binding needs to be solid on the inside. A teeny bit of cover wear or fading on the edges or spine is OK, but no torn covers, no torn pages. An owner’s name, or a few modest markings inside are fine, but no extensive writing or highlighting.
Are my donations tax-deductible?
Yes…ish. We are expecting our 501(c)3 non-profit designation before the end of 2025, or possibly January 2026. Donations can currently be treated as tax deductible, because the exempt status will be retroactive. (Legal statement: “There is no advanced assurance of deductibility.”)
What do you do with the books you receive?
About 90% of the books go directly to end-users, or to our partner organizations. A small percentage of the books are sold through our Ebay reseller, Chalcedony’s Niche, or to local bookstores etc. Some books unfortunately have to be sent to the old-book graveyard, due to quality issues.
What do you do with cash donations or book sale proceeds?
Right now, we are in the “This is probably how it’s going to work” stage of figuring this all out.
Our hope is that we can keep our operating budget quite low. (Reimbursement to volunteers, office supplies, van rental, hiring movers for large donations, government fees.) Any money that we don’t need to just stay afloat, will go straight to goal-directed activities.
That means, if everything goes the way we expect, the majority of all cash donations and proceeds will be turned right back around, and re-distributed to end-user organizations, or individuals working on mission-consistent projects. We can’t put a predicted percentage on operating budget vs re-distribution, because it all depends on how much we get in donations.
Our 5-year goal is to become an umbrella organization, that can sponsor entire literacy fairs, pay for Little Free Libraries, fund high school libraries for entire districts, buy cases of books for kids’ programs… And that starts, by turning around $50 or $100 at a time right now, as donations come in.
