American Medical Student Association

Backstory

In January of 2006 a passionate young woman named Sonia Sosa approached Better World Books with the desire to have a book drive at the National convention of the American Medical Student Association to benefit Books for Africa. Her desire to save precious medical books from landfills and get them in the hands of African students triggered the partnership AMSA and Better World Books has started today. Through her promotion and hard work of the book drive she was able to collect over 500 books, enough to stock two school libraries in Africa.

Thankfully that was not the last we heard from AMSA members. Soon inquiries started to come in from other AMSA members that were inspired by Sonia’s efforts. Book drives were lead by them at three other schools in the Chicago-land area. In total they collected 2200 more books! This is enough to fund the shipment of over 9,000 books to Africa which can supply five entire schools.

Anatomy of a Partnership

Our efforts do not stop there. Now AMSA and Better World Books are teaming up to bring this program to all AMSA members. Besides the obvious benefit of helping to end the book famine in Africa, your chapter will financially benefit by receiving 50 cents per "qualified book." Modeled after Goodwill Industries, each book you send us will be either sold online with 100% of the profits going to Books for Africa or will be sent directly to BFA. An additional $.10 per book will be set aside for AMSA scholarships. The scholarship amounts will be determined at the end of the year, and will be based on number of books collected per school as well as per capita books collected/school size ratios. Plus, Global Health Action Committee will receive an additional $.05 for every book collected! And, as you know, Global Health Action Committee aims to uproot poverty; since economic disparities lay at the root of health problems the world over."

Better World Book’s Book Drive Overview

How does a book drive work?

A book drive has 5 Easy Steps:

  1. Get more people involved, maybe partner with another campus organization
  2. Organize the drive, hold a planning session
  3. Promote the drive: get the word out!
  4. Start collecting books: Set out the collection boxes and posters at least a week before finals and buybacks.
  5. Motivate your group for packing; check the boxes and pack up books as they come in – UPS will pick them up.

What if I’ve never run a book drive?

Don’t worry – we’ve run over 800! Better World Books provides your group with:

  • Full staff support and guidance throughout the semester.
  • All promotional and public awareness materials, collection bins, shipping cartons and tape
  • All shipping costs and you can arrange UPS pickups right from campus through our online portal.

What does Better World Books (BWB) do with books that are donated?

BWB finds the best use for each book collected in support of our mission to promote literacy. Books will either be:

  • put up for sale online to generate funding (100% of profits after all costs goes to BFA)
  • sent directly to BFA
  • recycled if unsuitable for sale or partner use, never thrown away.

How does my organization benefit?

  • Money for Textbooks: Your group can receive 50 cents for each "qualifying book" (any college-level book with a publication date from the last 5 years).
  • National Scholarships: Your group will be eligible for one of seven national scholarships ($500 for Fall drives, $1,000 for Spring drives)

What does Better World Books do?

Better World Books capitalizes on the value of the book to fund and support literacy initiatives locally, nationally and around the world.

Our campus division partners with student organizations to lead book drives on college campuses across the U.S. and Canada, collecting unwanted textbooks in support of our non-profit literacy partners. Check out our 4-minute video to learn more.

About Books for Africa

Books For Africa (BFA) is the largest shipper of donated textbooks to the African continent. Founded in 1988, the St. Paul-based organization has delivered more than 14.3 million books to 27 African countries. According to Patrick Plonski, executive director of Books For Africa, the need for books on the African continent is great: "In many African villages, seven children share one book. Some village schools own no books whatsoever." Learn more by watching BFA’s 10-minute video.

For more information or to start a book drive contact your dedicated Better World Books Regional Director here or directly contact Michael Casey (AMSA Regional Programming Coordinator Region VI) via email or phone 708-602-1355.