Types of Books Accepted

The Salvation Army will accept any type of paperback or hardcover book in good condition, as well as encyclopedias. We’d advise checking your books to ensure there’s no mold or damp on them, the spines aren’t broken, or any pages are missing.

Generally, if they’re in good enough condition for you to gift to someone, the Salvation Army will have use for them.

Given their Christian roots, they also accept donations of bibles. Religious texts can be tough to donate in general, so this is a great benefit if you have bibles to donate.

Types of Books Not Accepted

We cover which types of books generally won’t be accepted by most organizations on this page. But basically, the Spark Notes are:

  • Dictionaries
  • Magazines (unless they’re old/rare)
  • Newspapers

You may want to check with your local Salvation Army branch before donating other items such as cookbooks and music books. Some may have a need for these, others may not.

Ultimately, if you’re looking to get rid of books outside of standard hardback or paperback fiction and nonfiction, you may want to check our city guides to find niche places near you that will be more accepting of “different” kinds of books.

How to Donate Your Books to Salvation Army

The organization will pick up your books from you if you schedule a time. Use their handy pick up locator on their website to check times and availability.

You can also simply bring your boxes/bags of books into your local branch during opening hours.

How Does the Salvation Army Use Your Books?

The organization sells books onto their thrift store customers for 50c to a dollar. 

Any books they can’t resell will be recycled.

Advantages of Using the Salvation Army

Their pick up service can be a real timesaver if you don’t have any spaces in your schedule to physically go to a store and donate your books, or you simply have too many books to carry.

Their ability to accept encyclopedias makes them a rare organization that takes these kinds of books; they’re notoriously hard to donate.

You can also rest easy knowing the profits will be going to fund a charitable organization that does a lot of good in the world.

Image credit: theyhatekait

Disadvantages of Using the Salvation Army

Their books are sold for-profit and don’t go back into your community to help literacy/reading programs. This is unlike most organizations that accept book donations, as places like literacy nonprofits and libraries will directly use the books to support their community programs.

Similar to my views on donating books to Goodwill, I would never try to discourage anyone from giving books that can be reused in any way. Although there may be charities and libraries in your area that would benefit more from the books, if you’re local to a Salvation Army and want to find an easy place to donate books, it can be a great and convenient option.

Check Out Our Popular City Guides

These are some of the cities in the US with the largest number of organizations accepting donations!

In summation, the Salvation Army can be a great place to donate books to if it’s convenient and easy for you to do so. Just know that the books are likely to be sold on, and won’t be used directly in nonprofits/literacy programs.