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Donate Now! - Book Donations
Book Donation Guidelines
Literacy Volunteers collaborates with many community partners and sponsors many “family literacy events”. These often take place in neighborhoods that are underserved and bring the joy of reading to families who may not be able to afford to buy books for their home. Because many of our families move around a lot, they may lose books borrowed from public libraries. When this happens, they incur fees and fines that make it impossible to borrow books after that because they cannot afford to pay these costs. It is still very important for books to be available in every child’s home!
We provide books at no charge to Buffalo youth and community centers where we have programs, and at child/family friendly businesses (e.g. laundromats, etc.) with an invitation to users to take a book home to enjoy. We are often approached for books by many community groups that organize family- and youth-friendly events, like skating parties, to help get the important message of reading out by making books available at these events.
We welcome donations for our “Book Pantry” from the members of the community and from organizations that want to sponsor a “book drive” to provide reading opportunities and pleasure to all children and families, and to support literacy activities for all of our learners.
Generally, the guidelines for donations/drives are:
New or gently used books in very good or excellent condition are accepted.
Children’s books are particularly needed for ages 0-15 years, and young adult recreational reading.
Books that are multiculturally themed, e.g. African American or Spanish/English bilingual are always needed.
We are not permitted to distribute religiously based books or literature.
Reference materials like dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, etc. should not be more than 5 years old.
Magazines no more than a year old and in excellent condition are fine.
College and other textbooks are generally beyond our learners' reading level and so are gratefully declined. Books of this type may often be donated to other charitable organizations in the community and we encourage donors to seek them out as they make books available to the community at very reasonable prices.
Whenever possible, we ask that books be delivered by donors during our business hours to our office at 1313 Main St. in Buffalo (one traffic light south of Utica). In the case of a very large donation (over 200 books), please call ahead, 876-8991, to make arrangements to receive them and if necessary to deliver them to another site where we can accommodate large deliveries. If delivery is impossible, call to inquire whether one of our staff or volunteers might be able to pick up your donation. A letter of receipt is provided on request for tax reporting purposes. Consult your accountant as to the value of donated books.
Thank you for your thoughtful interest in helping to advance literacy in our community
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