In honor of Juneteenth in 2020, we donated 100% of net proceeds from our website that day to a fund that will support Black-owned bookstores. We are partnering with Bookshop.org, an online retailer, to manage the fund for these bookstores. The process will parallel Bookshop.org’s existing program for sharing profits with independent bookstores. In addition to the Juneteenth donation, we made three additional contributions in June, July, and August, with disbursement to bookstores expected to begin in September.

Our contributions were split equally among all participating bookstores, and can be used to support any activity that promotes books and reading in the local community, such as school programming, author event technology costs, and basic monthly operating costs.

This program supports Black-owned independent bookstores with brick-and-mortar storefronts that are open or have a history of their storefront being open to the public for 20 hours a week or more, in a U.S. location. To find out more about how to participate, please email partnerships@bookshop.org.

In response to the difficult financial choices so many of our indie bookstore partners are having to make in the wake of COVID-19, Out of Print, one of Penguin Random House’s companies, found itself in a unique position to help. For a couple days, 25% of sales on its website were donated to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc), to lift bookstores hit hardest by the social-distancing efforts and forced closures across the nation. This special retail event raised $19,500 for booksellers in need.

The $19,500 raised will help 19 families of bookstore employees to pay the rent and cover expenses for a month. Binc has more than 400 claims in process, and more are expected. Out of Print plans to continue to use its platform and merchandise to show appreciation and to assist various teacher, librarian, and bookstore groups during this crisis. The fundraiser was included in a special offer for tote bags that also served as a bit of “retail therapy” for readers while they supported the bookstores they love.

Together with the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc), in 2019 we announced a new grant opportunity for independent bookstores. Indies with Impact honored two bookstores that work in tandem with a community nonprofit or organization of their choice in a program that strengthens their local communities and encourages a passion for reading. We launched this grant to recognize, support, and strengthen the already robust connections bookstores have with their communities. To learn more, click here. To learn more about our 2019 winner, click here.

We are committed to supporting bookstores as special places that provide a source of comfort, information, and imagination to their local communities. As ever, we strive to be the best partner, now and in the future, for our bookselling community, and we remain supportive of those retail partners who have been hit hardest by the COVID-19 crisis.

In response to COVID-19, we expanded our support with a new initiative to donate 30% of book purchases made on our website to the #SaveIndieBookstores campaign of our long-standing partner, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc). This initiative directly benefited booksellers who urgently needed financial help with medical bills, household expenses, and other essentials.

We published a collection of works about life in the time of COVID-19 with the “Corona und wir” (Corona and us) anthology. The contributions from the various renowned authors provide food for thought and moments of reflection on what we collectively felt and dealt with in the early months of the pandemic. The proceeds from the anthology will go to Sozialwerk des Deutschen Buchhandels e.V. The charity offers help to bookstores in need and promotes further education for young booksellers.

In December 2019, we partnered with the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) on their year-end fundraising campaign. Launched on Small Business Saturday and running through December 31, 2019, we matched all donations made to Binc, up to $15,000. In addition, we also donated $1 for every social media post on Instagram and Twitter that used the hashtag #BookstoresAreHolidays. Binc assists booksellers who have been impacted by disasters or personal financial hardships, and, by November, the Foundation had already assisted 90 booksellers and their families in 2019. The total of $30,000 raised by the end of the year helped at least 13 additional booksellers and their families through economic hardship. To learn more about the campaign, click here and here.