We get it. It’s easy to search for how to donate your old books online, find a big company, and ship your books off to them. However, if you choose to donate locally oftentimes it can be actually far easier, and your local area can benefit greatly from book donations.

Let’s run through a few quick benefits of why donating your books locally is a great idea.

Easy Drop Off or Collection

Donating your books, or any other goods for that matter, locally usually means a short drive to a drop off location near you. A number of local charities even offer to collect your books/goods from you! Our donation key explains the different ways to donate books locally.

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

If you have to mail books to a location on the other side of the country, not only is this going to involve a cost for you, but you’re going to be negatively impacting the environment unnecessarily. The amount of transportation needed to send your package (vans, planes, and everything in between) is going to carry a large carbon footprint.

It’s Free and Quick!

Kind of following on from the last point, picture this: You box up your books, then you have to seal the box, you drive it to the post office and wait in line for ten minutes before handing the box over, you pay the fee to ship your package… you get it, it’s a lot. In almost every situation you’re going to save time and money by simply donating to a local organization.

You Support Local Charities

We saved the most important one for last! Seriously though, local charities often don’t have outside funding; they rely on volunteers and donations to survive. 

In our guides that show you where to donate in your area, we feature some incredible book-centric charities that work to improve literacy in their area, as well as more general charities that use books for things like gifts for low income families, and extra resources for classrooms and teachers to fill out their classroom libraries.

If you keep your books in your area, your area stands to benefit, perhaps more than you’d think.

Find a Place to Donate Near You

Check out some of our popular city guides, or search by your state.