Donate
There are three ways that you can support the Prisoners Literature Project: donate money, buy books from our wish lists, and donate books to us directly.
Donate money/items
The average postage on a book package runs close to $6.00. We currently send out more than 250 book packages to incarcerated folks each week, which means we spend almost $5,500 every month just for postage.
A one-time $25 donation pays to send much-needed books to four incarcerated individuals. A recurring payment of $10 a month supports sending books to two incarcerated people every month, or nearly 25 packages—about 75 books—across an entire year.
Please click here to donate via PayPal today. If you’d like to set up a recurring donation, simply click the “monthly donation” button when you donate using PayPal.
We also gladly accept Venmo donations: @prisonlit
You can also send a check, made payable to the Prisoners Literature Project, and mailed to Bound Together Books, 1369 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117.
[Also, if you live in San Francisco or are willing to travel there, you can donate any kind of good quality unwanted stuff to the Community Thrift Store in person, saying they are for the benefit of Prisoners Literature Project. We’ll get the proceeds after they are sold!]
Some often-requested books require special ordering by PLP, especially books about how to draw, starting a small business, self-help/psychology, trade skills, and several other topics. We simply can’t get enough high-quality donated books to meet the level of requests for these topics.
We have wish lists with Bay Area bookshops that we encourage you to peruse and use!
You can also buy these books for us via our Amazon wish list. Our wish lists occasionally change based on incoming requests so please bookmark and revisit our most-requested books.
If you’re local to the Bay Area or Palm Springs(!), you can also purchase books in person at these fine bookstores that have dedicated shelf space to promote our program. We’re thrilled to have this opportunity to partner with these local booksellers!
Donate books
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and have books you want to donate, text photos of the books to Bruno at 510-434-6284. Group photos of the titles on spines with the books lined up are best; there is no need to send a photo of each cover individually. If you have a whole collection you would like to donate, send some sample photos, and Bruno will advise you if we currently need what you have and where you can drop off the books, or if we should arrange to pick them up.
Note that prisons are increasingly restrictive about book quality, with many accepting only new books in paperback. Here are the types of books that incarcerated people frequently request:
- Cookbooks
- Exercise and fitness, including yoga
- Fantasy and science fiction
- Graphic novels
- Horror
- How-to manuals for trade skills
- Meditation
- Reference, especially dictionaries and current almanacs
- Science
- Self-help books
- Spirituality
- Starting a small business
- Suspense and mystery
- Westerns
Please understand that we cannot accept used books in poor condition and must be selective. Think about your possible donation this way: if you think a bookstore would buy the books from you, and they fit our subject and genre needs, then they might be in the right condition to donate to PLP.
Donor thanks
We’ve received so many unexpected gifts from a variety of folks. Your tax-deductible contributions make our work possible and inspire us to do more! Abiding gratitude to our generous donors who contributed at all levels of support, including innumerable individuals and many foundations.
Our work is not possible without the individuals that donate books from our wish lists and purchase books for PLP at our bookstore partner displays. We are deeply grateful for this extraordinary and necessary support.
Prisoners Literature Project is an exempt organization as described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; EIN# 87-2253705
Prisoners Literature Project is an inclusive, all-volunteer, grassroots nonprofit whose purpose is to encourage reading, the pursuit of knowledge, and self-determination among incarcerated people. By sending free reading materials to those behind bars, PLP aims to foster learning and critical thinking and help people prepare to lead successful lives after incarceration. We believe that all people have a right to read.
