Case Study Analysis:

Early in the quarter, you will select an instance of public-sector or not-for-profit organizational
innovation reported on either the website of the Government Innovator’s Network
(www.innovations.harvard.edu/) or the Fast Company.com Social Capitalist Awards
(http://www.fastcompany.com/social/.).

For that case study, you will be required to present an analysis that includes:

 A description of the prior service-delivery model, product, or process drawn from the
case study or other research
 A description of the need for innovation (i.e., what problem needed to be solved)
 A description of the innovation
 The key stakeholders and their interests
 The principal challenges facing the innovator
 The strategies employed by the innovator to create the change

Your analysis should be no longer than five pages, single-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins.
This assignment represents 30% of your final grade.

In addition to the quality of your analysis and the precision of your presentation, you will also be
evaluated on the thoroughness of your research. In the Internet age you have access to a wide
variety of sources of information on various organizations. Consequently, expectations are high
that you will rely on several sources for your analysis. You should consider a variety of sources
for your analysis, including, but not limited to:

○ Authorizing legislation or other relevant legal documents (e.g. contracts);

○ Material published by the organization;
○ Evaluations conducted by oversight organizations (e.g. legislative oversight committees,
public ombudsmen, inspector general reports, Government Accountability Office or its
state/local equivalent, Office of Management and Budget or its state/local equivalent);
○ Reports in periodicals;
○ Primary or secondary interviews; and
○ Blogs

Cite all sources and be consistent in the method by which you cite (e.g. footnotes, endnotes,
APA style). A list of references does not count against the six page threshold. Include your
name and page number in the header or footer of each page.

Each student will have five minutes to make a presentation of their case study. Your grade will
be partly based on your ability to make the best use of your time, your ability to engage the
audience, and the clarity of your presentation.
Profits with Purpose
By: Fast Company staff December 1, 2007

This year, Fast Company embarked on an experiment: to apply to the for-profit sector the rigorous methodology
developed by our partner Monitor Group for the Social Capitalist Awards. With help from Sara Olsen at Social
Venture Technology Group and R. Paul Herman of HIP Investor, we assessed 31 for-profit applicants, from big
corporations that graft socially responsible practices onto a traditional investor framework to smaller for-benefit outfits
that explicitly place social good ahead of shareholder return. Here are the 10 companies that passed our test.

Profits with Purpose: Better World Books

Xavier Helgesen, Chris "Kreece" Fuchs, Jeff Kurtzman, co-founders

David Murphy, CEO
Mishawaka, Indiana
betterworldbooks.com

Imagine a company with a revolutionary vision for buying and selling books.

Imagine an innovative new social enterprise that meets 21st century demands of the triple bottom line.

Imagine harnessing the collective consumer power of a global network of book lovers to fund literacy
programs, support the environment, and create good jobs.

Imagine a Better World.

Established in 2003 by three Notre Dame graduates, Better World Books began with a simple, yet
transformative idea -- run a book donation drive, collect as many titles as possible, then sell those books
to fund a reading program at a local community center.

Entrepreneurs at heart, Better World Books founders quickly grew their idea into an online retail presence
which integrates social impact into the core of its business model. By sourcing and reselling used books
in a way no major book seller had ever before tried, Better World tapped into a burgeoning new consumer
market with a desire and passion for social responsibility.

Today, Better World Books is a fast-growing 130 person company focused on promoting literacy,
providing good jobs for its employees with health care and benefits, and doing its part to protect the
environment. The business has grown quickly in complexity and scope, but its core mission remains
clear: take books that people don't want, find people who do want them, and use the proceeds to fund
literacy. In addition, the company has signed on as a founding B Corporation agreeing to amend
corporate governing documents to incorporate the interests of not just the shareholders but also the social
stakeholders -- employees, community and the environment.

Better World Books has more than two million new and used book books for sale. Buyers typically come
through established Internet marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. In 2006, Better World Books also
launched its own retail site BetterWorld.com. The company acquires its large and growing inventory of
used books from two primary sources: a Campus Collection Program organizes regular book drives for
world literacy at more than 1200 colleges and universities; and a Library Discards and Donations Program
provides more than 1000 local libraries a needed outlet for redistributing donated books they can no
longer keep or shelve.

The company capitalizes on the intrinsic value of books to fund and support literacy initiatives -- locally,
nationally, and globally -- through its partnerships with well established and widely respected
organizations working on four continents: Room to Read, Books for Africa, Worldfund, and the National
Center for Family Literacy. Its support is not limited to simply funding these organizations, however. Better
World Books also partners with them to ship books to classrooms and libraries where they are needed
most. With support from Books for Africa, for instance, more than 550,000 textbooks have been delivered
to resource-starved colleges and universities throughout the continent.

Complementing this focus on literacy, Better World Books' corporate values are also guided by a deep
commitment to the environment. As a seller and re-distributor of used books, Better World Books keeps
tens of millions of pounds of paper waste from unnecessarily filling our nation's landfills. Its warehouse
shelving is all reclaimed and recycled from libraries around the country. And in a breakthrough for e-
commerce, Better World Books pioneered the industry's first Carbon Neutral Shopping Cart, collecting a
few cents from every customer at checkout to pay for renewable energy credits and reforestation projects.

Better World Books is blazing a new trail in the online book selling market, one in which creating a nursing
library in Somaliland, supporting employees with equity opportunities, and offering customers carbon
neutral shipping are all not just bi-products of the business -- they are the business.

Overview: The Online Bookstore with a Soul

Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than 8 million new
and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and
environmental value for all our stakeholders.
We were founded in 2002 by three friends from the University of Notre Dame who started selling textbooks online to
earn some money, and ended up forming a pioneering social enterprise — a business with a mission to promote
literacy. 

We’re not a traditional company with an add-on “cause” component. Social and environmental responsibility is at
the core of our business. You could say it's in our DNA.

We’re breaking new ground in online bookselling. We believe that education and access to books are basic human
rights. That's why books sold on BetterWorldBooks.com help fund high-impact literacy projects in the United States
and around the world. 

All books are available with free shipping worldwide. And in case you're concerned about your eco-footprint, every
order shipped from Mishawaka is carbon balanced with Green-e Climate certified offsets from 3Degrees, a leading
green power and carbon balancing services firm.

Here’s the best part: In addition to selling new titles, Better World Books supports book drives and collects used
books and textbooks through a network of over 1,800 college campuses and partnerships with over 2,000 libraries
nationwide. So far, the company has converted more than 53 million books into over $8.6 million in funding for
literacy and education. In the process, we’ve also diverted more than 26,000 tons of books from landfills. 

Because we believe that most every book has lasting value and the potential to help change the world, we see our
job as helping to find new homes for unwanted books. Thus far, we’ve donated 3.3 million books to partner programs
around the world. Our five primary literacy partners are Books for Africa, Room to Read, Worldfund, the National
Center for Family Literacy, and Invisible Children. Good company, no doubt. 

Every book purchased from Better World Books contributes to individual literacy throughout the world and the
promise of a better life. Clearly, we can’t do this work without our customers. That's why we’re so passionate about
trying to offer the best price, selection, customer service, and overall shopping experience.

Thanks for joining us in our mission to create a better world, one book at a time. 

How It All Began

Post-graduation blues

It was a dark and stormy night in South Bend, Indiana. College friends and ultimate frisbee teammates Xavier and
Kreece were sitting around after graduation wondering what to do next. The economy was in the gutter, the dot com
boom had recently gone bust, and prospects for Internet businesses were slim. This didn’t bode well for guys with
degrees in information systems and mechanical engineering.

The Fortuitous Discovery

The best gig they could find was tutoring the Notre Dame football team on the finer points of calculus and computer
programming. A thankless job to be sure, and it didn't exactly pay the tab at the ol' Linebacker Lounge. Tired of
seeing all the piles of old textbooks sitting around the apartment, Kreece tried a hunch and put his roommate's old
books for sale on the Internet. The campus bookstore never paid much for used books, but perhaps he could sell
them on the Internet and get more. (Buying and selling stuff on the Internet hadn’t gone mainstream yet). Even
though it was the middle of the summer, the textbooks started selling like proverbial hotcakes. Xavier, ever the
entrepreneur, knew a good thing when he saw one and proceeded to sell off his old textbooks and those of all his
roommates’ who had fled and left their books behind. He became intrigued by the online book market, and wondered
how he could find a lot more books. 

The beginnings of a social venture

The following winter, Kreece and Xavier talked often about a plan to collect all the unwanted books at Notre Dame.
As the spring approached, in a burst of gumption, they decided to make it happen. 

Having volunteered in the past at the local community center, they knew it had everything they needed: a great
cause, a fast Internet connection, and a back room that could hold some books. Xavier convinced Jay, the center's
director, to take a gamble on this idea and then they were off. 6 months later, 2,000 books had been collected and
resold and $10,000 had been raised. More importantly, Kreece and Xavier found themselves with the glimmerings of
a revolutionary new business model.

A prize-winning plan

Encouraged by the success of the book drive, the new partners decided to draft a business plan. They recruited their
friend and classmate Jeff from the world of investment banking to help build the business. They envisioned a different
kind of company with a built-in social benefit. By generating revenue to fund literacy, they would also earn profits to
support and grow the company. And in funding literacy, they would help give struggling people the world over the
skills and self-esteem necessary to thrive and succeed. 

The three founders submitted the idea to a Notre Dame University business plan competition, and won “Best Social
Venture.” With $7,000 in prize money and some guidance by a competition judge named David Murphy (who would
later become CEO of the company), the entrepreneurs then set off to run Book Drives for Better Lives on campuses
across the country.

The environment becomes a stakeholder too

Always on a quest for untapped sources of used books, Xavier soon made a discovery that changed the business
model – and the environment – in a major way. Every year thousands of libraries had millions of excess books as
they made room for new editions. Some books sat in storage, and others were given away. But some were simply
thrown out. Tossed. Abandoned to the landfills for all eternity.

Convinced that something could be done to rescue these discarded books and help the planet a bit in the process,
the founders set about partnering with librarians all across the country. Not only could they rescue books from
landfills, they could also sell those books and raise money for the libraries themselves. Environmental and social
impact all in the same story.

A full-fledged triple bottom line company

This would be no ordinary business. The founders examined all the standard business practices anew, and they
considered the impact of their business on everyone involved. Not only would they harness the power of commerce in
a socially and environmentally beneficial way, but they would also create an organization with a conscientious,
forward thinking culture where innovation, creativity and humanitarianism would thrive. 

They imagined sharing equity among employees, offering good perks and benefits. They envisioned an open,
fearless and fair place to work, where the culture was marked by diversity, equal opportunities, and a shared love of
books—a place where employees and customers alike would be part of a groundbreaking community changing the
world, book by book.

Xavier, Jeff and Kreece knew that if they could create this place where everyone strived to be true to the three
stakeholders of planet, people and profit that they would really be onto something special.

Well, they did.

And they called it Better World Books.

The next chapter

To date, we have raised millions of dollars for literacy, saved millions of books from landfills, created jobs for
hundreds of people, and provided wonderful books to millions of readers worldwide. The rest of the story is still being
written. We invite you to join us on our journey. It’s only going to get better.

Triple Bottom Line: Social Enterprise

Better World Books is among a unique and growing group of triple bottom line companies who understand
thatprofit is not the only way to measure business success. People also matter. And so does the planet on which we
all live.

For Better World Books, the triple bottom line comes in lots of forms. From helping to build a nursing library in
Somaliland to offering customers carbon neutral shipping on every book they buy, doing good is not just a part of
Better World Books’ business—it is the business.

Social: power to the people

We've been thinking about some people we're proud to know. People like John Wood, the founder of Room to Read.
John quit Microsoft in 1998. Eight years later, he’s building libraries in rural villages in Nepal with the "scalability of
Starbucks and the compassion of Mother Theresa." John has written a book about his journey called Leaving
Microsoft to Change the World.

We love literacy programs like Room to Read, Books for Africa, Worldfund, National Center for Family
Literacy,Invisible Children, and our 80 other literacy partners. They provide the building blocks for children and
families to learn, grow, and share in the vast collection of human knowledge committed to paper. It just makes sense
that a bookstore ought to generate funding for these programs, and we do it with every book we sell. 

Environmental: love your mother

One book that really got us thinking was The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken. Paul argues that a true
economy mimics ecology in its circular no-waste systems and healthy fecundity of niches. In a perfect world, we'd
package your books in edible bamboo pouches and load them into Willie Nelson's biodiesel bus, where he'd hand
deliver them with a song. We’re not quite there, but we've got some things we think you'll like.

We've gone from a carbon offset program that covered emissions generated when books were shipped to our
customers, to one that covers emissions associated both with shipping and our company's other operations and
activities. Thanks to a careful audit of our emissions, we now know our total carbon footprint and are taking steps
towards balancing out the carbon emissions generated from all of our organization's activities. Giddy up! 

We worked with Sustainable Business Consulting and followed the World Resources Institute Greenhouse Gas
Protocol to develop the methodology used to calculate our carbon inventory. Then we partnered with 3Degrees, a
leading green power and carbon balancing services provider, to purchase the appropriate number of Renewable
Energy Certificates and verified carbon offsets (namely, wind) to get Better World Books carbon balanced. A few
cents collected from every customer at checkout helps fight global warming by providing support to wind projects that
help avoid carbon dioxide emissions. 

Couple that with the National Postal Service. They use the lowest energy per package of any carrier, thereby
generating the least amount of carbon in the first place. We use local post offices whenever we can – so be sure to
choose eco-shipping on checkout.

Of course, our greatest contribution of all is finding homes for books. We've even heard horror stories about librarians
dumping unwanted tomes down a well at midnight because they couldn't find a good home for them. We gladly
accept these orphan books and work hard to find new readers for them. So far, we've kept over 8,000 tons of books
out of landfills. 

2009 WasteWise Gold Award for Paper Reduction

2010 WasteWise Gold Award for Climate Change

Economic: true accounting

As this is the end of the page, it's a good time to talk about our last bottom line.

We understand the importance of running a profitable enterprise. But while most businesses answer only to their
shareholders, we answer equally to all of our key stakeholders: our employees, our customers, our literacy partners,
our investors and the environment.

By accounting for and supporting the long-term viability of those who have a stake in our success, profit takes on a
much broader and richer meaning, To prove our commitment, we’ve signed on as a founding B-Corporation joining a
growing international network of purpose-driven businesses dedicated to setting a new standard for social and
environmental performance.

We hope you'll visit our parent site Better World Books, to learn how to get involved. Together, we truly can build a
Better World.
 Our Literacy Partners
Better World Books uses the power of e-commerce to generate funding for leading literacy initiatives around the
world. In turn, our partners use these funds to build schools, start libraries and provide scholarships worldwide. When
you sign up to participate in a Reuse First Program, you get to select which of our nonprofits you’d like to help.

The following five are our major nonprofit literacy partners: 

Books For Africa is a simple name for an organization with a simple mission. BFA collects, sorts, ships
and distributes books to children in Africa. The goal: to end the book famine in Africa. Since 1988,
Books For Africa has shipped more than 20 million books. These books are now on once empty library
shelves, in the classrooms of rural schools, and in the hands of children who have never held a book
before.

Invisible Children improves the quality of life for war-affected children by providing access to quality
education, enhanced learning environments and innovative economic opportunities for the community.
Through education and innovative economic opportunities, they partner with affected communities and
strive to improve the quality of life for individuals living in conflict and post conflict regions.

The National Center for Family Literacy’s mission is to create a literate nation by leveraging the
power of the family. Through groundbreaking initiatives, the NCFL fuels life improvement for the
nation’s most disadvantaged children and parents. More than one million families throughout the
country have made positive educational and economic gains as a result of the NCFL’s work, which
includes training more than 150,000 teachers and thousands of other volunteers.

Room to Read has developed a holistic, multi-pronged approach to help children in the developing
world gain the lifelong gift of education. This approach includes building schools, establishing bilingual
libraries, publishing local language books, establishing computer labs, and funding long-term girls’
scholarships. Since its inception in 2000, Room to Read has impacted the lives of over 1.7 million
children.

Worldfund’s unique mission is to support high-quality and results-driven education in Latin America—

the key to transforming lives and reducing poverty. Through their investment in schools, gifted student
programs and superior teacher training, they have directly impacted 32,000 impoverished students in
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela.

The list doesn't stop there. We also work with the following groups: 

Open Books is a nonprofit social venture that operates an extraordinary bookstore, provides community
programs, and mobilizes passionate volunteers to promote literacy in Chicago and beyond.
 The Robinson Community Learning Center is where it all began for us. Located in South Bend,
Indiana, is an education outreach effort created by the University of Notre Dame that was opened in
February 2001. They offer after school programs, mentoring, language and computer classes, job
training initiatives, and much more.

The Prison Book Program gets books into the hands of prison inmates, who often lack any educational
resources. As a grassroots organization operating on a shoestring budget, the organization’s partnership
with Better World Books has has been essential--providing a stable source of funding.

Our Impact
The world is currently facing a global illiteracy pandemic:

 Globally, an estimated 781 million adults are illiterate. Of that number, approximately 64 percent are women.
- UNESCO Institute for Statistics
 In the United States, 30 million adults possess below-basic literacy skills. Eleven million are non-literate in
English.
- National Assessment of Adult Literacy
 In Sub-Saharan Africa, 42 million children are not enrolled in school.
- WhiteHouse.gov
 Asia is home to 73 percent of the world’s illiterate population.
- UNESCO Institute for Statistics
 In Latin America, most children attend school an average of 5.4 years.
- U.S. Agency for International Development

At Better World Books, we are committed to the helping provide better lives and a chance for economic, social and
political freedom through literacy. Read more about our social, environmental and economic impact.

Social Impact

Better World Books is proud of the impact we are having and our ability to provide funds and books to some of the
most important literacy initiatives in the world today:
  Raised over $8.6 million for Literacy including
o $5.0 million for over 80 literacy and education nonprofits
o $3.6 million for libraries nationwide
 Contributed more than $1.8 million to college service clubs who have run book drives
 Directly sent more than 3.3 million books to Books for Africa, the National Center for Family Literacy, and
Feed the Children
 Collected over 45 million books through active book drives at over 1,800 colleges and universities and
collections from over 2,000 libraries

A few of our specific beneficiaries include:

 $2.2 million+ for Books for Africa

 $425,000+ for Room to Read
 $645,000+ for the National Center for Family Literacy
 $200,000+ for Worldfund
 $310,000+ for Invisible Children
 $89,000+ for the Robinson Community Learning Center
 $80,000+ for the New Orleans Public Library Foundation
 $1.2 million+ for additional literacy partners
 Established the Better World Books Fund to finance specific shipments through Books for Africa – (see story
below)

Environmental Impact

Better World Books is committed to the environment. We never, ever, ever throw away a book. Any book we can’t
find a proper home for is recycled. Always. We’re proud of what we’ve done so far:

 Re-used or recycled over 53 million pounds of books

 Reclaimed more than 720,000 pounds of metal shelving from libraries across the United States
 17,000 tons of carbon offset on BetterWorldBooks.com shipping

Economic Impact

At Better World Books, we believe in having an economic impact too. We have created over 200 full-time jobs (with
full benefits) and revitalized a dormant packaging plant in an industrial center located in Northern Indiana.

Featured Story - Edna Adan Ismail

In the Somaliland region of Somalia, an extraordinary woman named Edna Adan

Ismail runs her own obstetric hospital and trains midwives, underscoring how women’s lives can be saved even in the
most difficult environments. The hospital site, once used as a mass killing field during the civil war for independence
(1988-1990) under Siad Barre’s reign, is now a haven for bringing new life into the world.
Xavier Helgesen, co-founder of BWB, learned about this hospital in a New York Times article, and contacted the
hospital after the announcement of the Better World Books Fund for Books For Africa. They teamed up and sent a
container of books in the following July.

The Better World Books Fund is designed to pay for the shipping costs of containers of books, donated through
Books For Africa. The fund is important, because the shipping costs for this one container alone were over $5,000.

The donated books will be used for the hospital’s medical library for the Edna Adan Teaching Hospital. While the
library could not currently contain a whole container of books, any extra books will be distributed to Universities in
Somalia and governmental nursing facilities.

Mission and Core Values

Better World Books is a global bookstore that harnesses the power of capitalism to bring literacy and opportunity to
people around the world.

Core Values

WE ♥ BOOKS
Respect the book: read often and help others to do the same.

FLABBERGAST OUR CUSTOMERS

Seek out opportunities to make a difference with value, service & selection.

INVEST WELL. WASTE NOT.

Choose wisely; consider the return on your efforts & the impact in your actions. Reuse, reuse, reuse….then reduce &
recycle.

LEAD THE MOVEMENT

Take a stand; share your enthusiasm and build momentum through human connections.

SPEAK THROUGH ACTION

Put your ideas to work; play to win but never fear failure.

BE PASSIONATE
Wear your heart on your sleeve; stand up for what you believe.

PURSUE GROWTH & LEARNING

Challenge yourself; make a point to try new things.

BE GENUINE
Keep it real; be honest with others and true to your quirktastic self.

EMBRACE CHANGE
Adapt to circumstances; help others find ways to succeed in our evolving world.

RESPECT OUR TEAM

Be humble; welcome diversity and recognize that shared success is the only kind that matters.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are some burning questions people didn’t even know they had about Better World Books as an organization.
Feel free to email us for any additional information or click here for specific questions regarding book orders. 

1. What is Better World Books?

2. What is a social venture, anyway?
3. What is your relationship to your non-profit partners?
4. What social and environmental impact has Better World Books made?
 5. How do you collect books?
6. What do you do with the collected books?
7. Do you throw any books away?
8. What percentage of each sale supports literacy?
9. Are you profiting off of other people’s charity and donations?
10. What makes you different from all the other businesses that give part of their profits to good causes?
11. Can I help promote literacy by purchasing books?

What is Better World Books?

Better World Books is a self-sustaining, for-profit social venture whose mission is to capitalize on the value of the
book to fund literacy initiatives locally, nationally and around the world. We partner with nearly 1400 libraries and over
1800 college campuses across the U.S. and Canada, collecting unwanted textbooks and library discards in support of
non-profit literacy programs.

[top]

What is a social venture, anyway?

Social ventures operate under a for-profit business model in which success is measured by the positive impact a
company makes in addressing a specific social issue. In the case of Better World Books, that issue is literacy. The
primary purpose of a for-profit social venture is to generate a “social profit” by harnessing the power of commerce.

By operating as a social venture, Better World Books provides its non-profit partners with a consistent and stable
source of unrestricted funding. This, in turn, allows the organizations to focus on implementing effective programs in
literacy and education -- instead of spending an inordinate amount of time raising funds. The nature of our business
model allows Better World Books to react swiftly to market opportunities, thereby leveraging the maximum social
profit through the wonders of capitalism. 

[top]

What is your relationship to your non-profit partners?

We run book drives to benefit five major non-profit literacy-based organizations, as well as 80+ other literacy-based
non-profits. The books we collect are passed on to our partners or sold to create a sustainable stream of funding that
enables these organizations to further their mission.

[top]

What social and environmental impact has Better World Books made?

From the spring of 2003 through September 2009, Better World Books has collected more than 25 million books,
raising more than $7.3 million for over 80 literacy and education non-profit organizations, sending 1.5 million books to
our partner programs & saving over 13,000 tons of books from landfills. Please visit our Impact page for more details.

[top]

How do you collect books?

Books collected by Better World Books come from two primary sources: the over 1,800 college and university
campuses on which we run textbook drives and over 2,000 libraries and thrift stores that send us discarded and
donated books.

[top]

What do you do with the collected books?

Better World Books finds the best possible use for each book collected in support of our mission to promote literacy.
Books are either sold to raise money for non-profit literacy programs, sent to one of our non-profit partners for use in
their programs, or recycled if unsuitable for sale or partner use.

[top]

Do you throw any books away?

Never! We pride ourselves on our ability to derive the maximum value from every book collected. Any book that
cannot be sold or used directly by our literacy programs is recycled. To date, we have diverted 13,000 tons of books
from landfills.

[top]

What percentage of each sale is used to support literacy?

The specific terms of most Better World Books partnership agreements are confidential. In the college textbook
market, the company’s "social profit" margin currently averages 7 to 8% of net revenue from each used book sold.
Library books are transferred to Better World Books under consignment and sold with a fixed percentage of the net
revenue paid to both the library and a non-profit literacy partner. Typical arrangements are 15% of the net sale price
to a library and 5% to their chosen literacy partner. 

[top]

Are you profiting off of other people’s charity and donations?

As a for profit social enterprise we do make money on the books we collect and sell. And we are OK with that fact,
because we believe there is value in the service we provide. Not only do we find new homes for millions of used
books that might otherwise end up in landfills, we also donate a significant portion of our profits to support the work of
our literacy partners, and dozens of other nonprofit organizations around the globe. Our model proves that it is
possible to do good and do well at the same time. To date, every dollar of profit the company has ever made has
been re-invested in the company. There has never been an economic distribution/dividend of any kind to any of the
owners or employees of Better World Books.

[top]

What makes you different from all the other businesses that give part of their profits to good causes?

We love books. And we believe deeply in the power of the written word to change lives and transform our world. What
makes Better World Books unique is the way in which the social costs are built into our business model. We pay our
literacy partners their committed share of our revenues regardless of whether an economic profit is actually earned
for a specific time period being measured.

[top]

Can I help promote literacy by purchasing books?

Definitely! All books sold on BetterWorldBooks.com help fund high impact literacy projects on four continents.
BetterWorldBooks.com has over 8 million books, free shipping worldwide, and every order shipped from Mishawaka
is carbon balanced with Green-e Climate certified offsets from 3Degrees a leading green power and carbon balancing
services provider.
http://www.fastcompany.com/social/2008/profiles/better-world-books.html
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