For our annual #GivingTuesday campaign, and Prisoners Literature Project has a special ask. To help us, we’ve put together $5,500 in matching funds, so the dollars you donate can be doubled from now until the end of November.

We’ve been sending out >1,000 free book packages every month to incarcerated folks in 49 U.S. states. But we’re running at a money deficit in 2023, for two reasons:

– Increased cost of postage: the USPS has been raising prices twice a year, due to inflation. A 3 lb book package will cost us $5.32 to send in January 2024, up from $4.45 in late 2021. (That’s a lot!)
– High-quality books can be expensive to buy: we’re trying our best to fulfil requests that we can’t get donated in bulk, from practical ‘profession to pursue when I get out’ books – see the below thank-you letter – to dictionaries. (Also: many prisons only allow new books in!) These books can cost us $2-$12 each.

We have money in the bank, but we’re looking to make up our $20,000+ funding deficit in the remainder of 2023. If we can’t, we’ll have to cut back on those high-quality book purchases in 2024.

So if you can help us out, please:

Donate to PLP now!
(Debit cards, credit cards, and PayPal accepted – please contact us if you want to donate a different way!)

All of your donations are tax-deductible, too. Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back next week for a final reminder ahead of #GivingTuesday.