There are so many deserving places that require gently used books in Melbourne, and we’ve collected the list for you in one place, here!
With a variety of locations and donation options, read on to discover exactly where, when, and how to donate your books in Melbourne.
123 Read to Me will accept kids’ books, and Reading Out of Poverty prefers baby and toddler books from ages 0-5.
Embrace Education can schedule a pick up.
Embrace Education will accept textbooks no older than 3 years from publication.
Reading Out of Poverty
Donation Type: Drop off
Warehouse Location: 1 Aristoc Road, Glen Waverly 3150
Office Location: Suite 15B-20 Commercial Road, Melbourne 3004
Type of Books Accepted: Books for babies and toddlers from ages 0-5, multilingual books for ages 0-5
Type of Books Not Accepted: Books about religion or war
Website: ROOP
How to Donate
Drop your children’s books off at either their warehouse or office locations during normal business hours.
How Reading Out of Poverty Helps
This charity distributes books and educational resources to impoverished communities, primarily around Victoria, but they’ve also recently expanded to North Queensland, ACT and NSW. To date, they’ve donated over 450,000 books and they have a passion for helping to raise the literacy level of all children they help, no matter their circumstances.
Founded by former Victorian of the Year Andrew Kay, the charity also works closely with communities to provide ‘read aloud’ sessions, and they’ve established 320 pop-up libraries to date, too!
123 Read 2 Me
Donation Type: Drop off in book bin
Locations: Over 50 locations throughout Bayside, Eastern Suburbs, Gippsland, Greater Geelong, Inner East and Mornington Peninsula
Hours: Book bins may be 24/7, some will depend on store hours
Type of Books Accepted: Children’s books in good condition
Website: See all book bin locations on their site
How to Donate
The link above contains all their book bin locations. The book bins will generally be around/outside stores like Coles.
How 123 Read to Me Helps
This charity understands that babies and children need books to succeed in life. They use all donated books to fund vital programmes such as maternal health centres, kindergartens, primary schools and playgroups all around Melbourne.
In 2016, the charity partnered with Lions International to expand their reach, and number of volunteers, which has resulted in them being able to donate over 900,000 children’s books since then, which is some number!
Embrace Education
Donation Type: Pick up from you
Hours: Email to arrange a time: donations@embrace-education.org
Type of Books Accepted: VCE study guides, textbooks no older than 3 years, stationery
Website: Embrace Education
How to Donate
This is a great option if you’re looking to donate used textbooks and study guides, as these types of books are notoriously hard to pass on!
Email them on the above address specifying what books you have, the amount, and your address. They’ll confirm if they can accept your books and arrange a pick up time from your home address.
How Embrace Education Helps
Your textbook donations will be put to good use in Embrace Education’s programs and work with disadvantaged high school students all over Melbourne.
The charity focuses primarily on helping students who are migrants, asylum seekers, or refugees get to grips with the curriculum through things like homework clubs or after-school tutoring.
Brotherhood Books
Donation Type: Drop off
Hours: Check your local store
Type of Books Not Accepted: Old library books, magazines, textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries/thesauri
Website: See all their Melbourne locations here
How to Donate
Check out their location selector by clicking the link above to find a store nearest to you.
Brother of St. Laurence are a well known charity, and the book arm of their operation helps raise vital funds for their community work.
The New International Bookshop
Donation Type: Drop off
Location: Trades Hall, 54 Victoria St., Carlton
Hours: Mon-Thu 12-7pm; Fri-Sat 12-5pm
Type of Books Accepted: See their updated list here.
How to Donate
The New International Bookshop has relatively specific requests, from books to do with LGBTQ issues, to philosophy books, to comics, so be sure to check their updated list as this could prove a great spot to donate your niche books to.
And with that, we’ve reached the final chapter of our guide to Melbourne book donations. Let’s hope your old books will have many more chapters to come in their lives, now you’ve found the information about all the suitable places to donate them!
Cover image credit: Benjamin Ashton
Good work, Tom. I like to pass books on; we’ve just moved and I realised that many I’ve had for a long time won’t be read again; your site’s helped me find a home for them.
Ken.
Glad I could help, thanks!
Greater Dandenong Libraries are in fact quite picky, not as their website or yours claim. I took a few books today, the librarian was impressed at their new conditions, but only took a Harry Potter book and said they don’t accept books printed more than 5 years ago, no matter how new condition they are. She also said they don’t have much room for new books anymore!
Thanks – they’ve been removed from the list
This is such a great site Tom, I have an pretty hefty number of children’s books (we love books!) that need a new home and your site is perfect. You’ve also inspired me to ask our high school if we can put together a text book & stationery “muster” for Embrace Education. We have a ridiculous amount of unused stationery and a barely thumbed textbooks which could be passed on. Great work!!
Thanks for the kind words Karin!
Hi Tom,
Good initiative !
My daughter and I would like to donate her VCE 2024 books to a student in need that is unable to afford buying these books.
Thanks
Thank you! Happy donating 🙂
Hi Tom,
I recently ran a fundraiser through my business and purchased books to donate to ‘young people in need of a hero’. The books we have bought are manga books (anime picture books).
These books depict the hero’s journey through, love, triumph and emotional depth that helped a generation of people through storytelling. Even myself, living in the west! (Anime are Japanese cartoons and Manga are comic-like versions of them)
Please email or call me to see if this could be the right place 🙂
Otherwise, I would love to hear where these books can go to help people find a hero through stories, when they may not have any in real life – Like me.
Kind regards,
Luke
I have recently retired and have a number of management books in great condition that need a new home. Do you think local charity shops would be interested in these ?
Provided these aren’t more than 10-15 years old, most charity shops that stock books should accept these types of books.