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!]
Buy books
Some often-requested books require special ordering by the PLP, especially books about drawing, homesteading, Wicca, tiny houses, trade skills, domestic violence and many other topics. We simply can’t get enough high-quality donated books to meet the level of requests for these topics.
You can 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.
We also have wish lists with Bay Area bookshops that we encourage you to peruse and use!
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, please text some photos of the books you would like to donate to PLP volunteer Bruno at 510 434 6284. He can advise if we currently need what you have and where you can drop them off.
Please note that prisons are increasingly particular about book quality, with many accepting only new and paperback books. We also need specific types of paperback books most frequently: reference books including dictionaries and current almanacs, how-to manuals, small business and self-help books, fiction by and about people of color, and books on meditation, yoga, and bodyweight exercises.
Please understand that we cannot accept used books in poor condition and must be fairly selective. Think about your possible donation this way: if you think a bookstore would buy the books from you, and they fit our general genre requirements, then they may be in the right condition to donate to the PLP.
Donor thanks
We’ve received so many unexpected gifts from a variety of folks. Your tax-deductible contributions make our work possible! Abiding gratitude to our generous donors who contributed at several levels of support, including innumerable individuals and many foundations.
Up to $10,000
Alice Shaver Foundation
East Bay Community Foundation
Floret Coalition
Jeld Charitable Foundation
Up to $5,000
Matthew Davis
Charles Wong
Hull Foundation
West Builders
Anonymous
Up to $2,000
Webcor
Esther
Matt Vieyra
Nikola Filby
Michael Tong
Cultskin Apothecary Inc.
Elena Moser and Janet Linder
$500 – $999
Stuart Foundation
Tracy Anderson
Nidhi Handa
Jongmin Baek
Kristen Taketa
Fernando Pastor
Zoe Moore
Joenel Johnson
Zachary Dooley
Benjamin Drachman
Christina Honde
Elizabeth Roberts
Kelly Notaras
Chloe Grossman
Alison McDonald
Jenna Rentz
Rolf Mueller
Christopher Kenney
Allen Kanner
We enjoyed support from more than 590 individuals who, in addition to our major donors, gave more than $40,000 to our efforts, both in one-time and monthly recurring donations, and to whom we are so appreciative.
Our work is not possible without individuals and organizations that donate books from our wish lists. More than 390 individuals and organizations bought more than $50,000 worth of books from our wish lists in 2021. 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
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