Books for America

Thank you for your interest in becoming a Books for America Volunteer!!

As with many small non-profit organizations, Books for America would not exist if not for the help of its many volunteers.  The process of gathering, sorting and preparing books for distribution is very labor-intensive and there is no way that we could do it without you. 

In addition to sorting books, there are many other ways you could help!  Some ideas are organizing book drives, finding recipient organizations, and planning special fundraising events.  If you think of other things you could do, please let us know!

Sorting Books
Every week we bring in hundreds and sometimes thousands of books to our warehouse in Fairfax (near Merrifield, Rte. 66 & Rte. 50).  As you can imagine, these books are useless to us unless they are sorted into categories. 

Organizing Book Drives
We obtain some of our books directly from publishers, but the vast majority of the books come from book drives organized by volunteers.  People have held book drives at their apartment buildings, office buildings, houses of worship, neighborhood, with girl scout troops, etc.  It is simple to do and with very little effort you could collect hundreds of much-needed books!  We can help you out with fliers, collection bins, etc.

Finding Recipient Organizations
Books for America would not exist if there were not schools and other organizations who need books.  We know of quite a few, but there are always great organizations here in the Washington, DC area that we haven't been introduced to yet.  PLEASE let us know if you know of any organizations that could use books!

Planning Special Events
An important way for us to receive funding is by holding special events such as used book sales, happy hours where the tips raised are donated to Books for America, local theater companies that donate a percentage of the ticket sales to us, etc.  There are so many creative events that could be held and we would love to have YOU organize one (or two or three)!