In 2023, Art4Giving made a donation to Books to Prisoners a non-profit organization that mails thousands of free books to prisoners across the country each year.
Books to Prisoners is one of the largest and oldest prison book projects in the country. Started in 1973, the Seattle-based nonprofit’s mission is “to foster a love of reading behind bars, encourage the pursuit of knowledge and self-empowerment, and break the cycle of recidivism.”
“Books to Prisoners is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a volunteer-driven organization that has provided hope, education, mental escape, or new directions to tens of thousands of incarcerated individuals. Through most of those 50 years we have relied on hardscrabble fundraising and a stream of small individual donations. Getting an Art4Giving grant has a very real impact on maintaining our ability to function as smoothly as possible, as consistently as our clients need.”
– Andy Chan. Secretary, Books to Prisoners
The non-profit receive approximately 1,000 requests for books each month. The most popular are dictionaries, thesauruses, African American history, Native American studies, legal materials, fiction books, and foreign language learning materials (particularly Spanish). Other common requests include vocational-technical manuals, ancient history, scientific textbooks, art and drawing books (including blank notebooks).
Books to Prisoners relies on books donated by community members to answer book requests. They also depend on a dedicated group of volunteers, many of whom have been volunteering with the organization for years, or even decades. Volunteers work to find books that fulfill prisoner requests, wrap packages of books to be mailed, and sort donations of books.