Books2Africa is a UK-based registered charity (1152599) founded in 2012 that collects new and used donated books and computers, which are processed, catalogued, categorised and distributed to approved beneficiaries across Africa. So far, we’ve readcycled and distributed more than 3 million books across 24 African countries, saving more than 1.5 million kilograms of reusable educational materials from going to landfill and recycling sites in the UK. We are also the only UK book charity that tracks the journey of your donated items and notify you of their beneficiary.
Package your items into any good cardboard boxes and seal each box with tape. Make sure each box weighs no more than 20kg and no longer than 60cm on any side. Complete our online booking form to arrange a collection from anywhere in the UK, or schedule a drop-off appointment to deliver to a drop-off point near you. After booking, write your tracking reference number on each box to enable us process, catalogue, track and notify you on the journey and beneficiary of your donated items.
Contribute a cash donation to fund the UK journey of your items to our Processing Centre in Canterbury, and the Africa journey from our Processing Centre to our approved beneficiaries more than 5,000 miles away across Africa. For the UK journey, we ask for a donation of £4 per box if you are delivering your items to a drop-off point near you, or £8 per box if you are organising a collection from your UK address. To fund the Africa journey as well, an additional donation of £8 per box is sufficient. Thank you.
When your items arrive our Processing Centre in Canterbury, our team of paid staff and volunteers open and check every box to process every donated item. Using our bespoke inventory management software, we catalogue and categorise donated books ready to be shipped to Africa. Up to 20% of donated books as well as ineligible donated items and devices are sold in the UK via our online charity shop to raise funds that cover our overheads (rent, business rates, utility bills, insurance, equipment costs and marketing). As a Microsoft Third-Party Refurbisher (TPR), all devices that store data are securely wiped using various methods including BitRaser and a certificate of data wipe is emailed to donors.
After your items are processed, catalogued and categorised, they are stored in pallet boxes ready to be shipped in containers to approved projects such as schools, universities, public libraries and community organisations across Africa. Projects in need are required to complete our online request form to request a shipment of donated books and computers, and we verify and approve each request before they are eligible to receive a shipment of donated items. Our goal is to ship 1 million readcycled books a year to approved beneficiaries across Africa and we need to raise £200,000 a year in cash donations from our donors, sponsors and beneficiaries to achieve our goal.
We send Tracking Notifications by email to inform book donors on the journey and status of their donated items – when they are received at our processing centre, processed, shipped and donated to a beneficiary in Africa. We also tag some of your books with an Impact Sticker which requires the beneficiary to send us an Impact Photo of them holding the book to be emailed to you. Our monthly donors can view these photos and a record of all their donated items via our Sponsors Impact Dashboard. Finally, we publish Impact Reports from projects on our website with details on the impact of your donated items.
We are grateful for the individuals and organisations who sponsor container shipments of books and computers to help us achieve our mission and to all who have supported Books2Africa in various ways over the years.
