When we started Free Textbooks in January 2009, it didn’t take long to realize that we could use our customer base to tackle some pretty big social tasks. Believing that all people are inherently charitable, we began brainstorming ways to harness that goodwill both as a company and through our customers. The idea we developed is based on that often-made $1 donation at the end of your shopping transaction. How many times have you been asked to add $1 at Publix, Target, or Walgreens? And how many times have you declined? I hope none, unless you really couldn’t spare a dollar.
For most of us, it’s easy to spare $1 for an honorable cause. We actually want to – we’re just not asked enough. Compare the associated feelings when asked for $1 to your feelings when asked for $30. Odds are you declined that $30 request unless you’d premeditated your giving. And, when it comes to actually planning to be charitable, we seemingly talk ourselves out of it, as we’re left to think through other ways that $30 could go to use. As a result, I’d argue that the most effective way to raise $30 for charity would be to ask 30 people for $1 each.
At the same time, if you try to solicit $1 from 30 strangers on the street, my guess is that a mere handful would offer support. How many of you decline giving $1 to a beggar? You question their motives and how they’ll actually use it. Rather, place people in an organized setting (e.g. the grocery checkout) and assign a specific organization or cause, and I bet you’ll get almost as many dollars as customers. Granted this is all unproven, it’s just a product of my observations that we’ve chosen to test at Free Textbooks.
So if we can recruit a significant number of donations, how should it be distributed? I recently read a study by The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University that discussed the patterns and allocations of charitable donations by American households. The central question the study sought to answer was this: To what extent is charitable giving by individuals directed to agencies that are working to provide for the needs of the poorest? A shocking fact from this study is that “only 8 percent of households’ donated dollars were reported as contributions to help meet basic needs – providing food, shelter, or other necessities.” (p. 2)
Rather than targeting donations to higher education, healthcare research, or planting trees, shouldn’t more of us be concerned with meeting humanity’s most basic needs? Admittedly, the former should not be neglected, but the real needs of a helpless man are obvious – food, clean water, education, and health.
As a result of this conviction, Free Textbooks has partnered with four non-profits that strive to meet these basic human needs – Feeding America, charity: water, Room to Read, and Doctors Without Borders. While we donate $1 for every book purchased on FreeTextbooks.com, we hope customers are willing to add a dollar or two of their own. To offer a little more insight, we’ll be profiling these four organizations over the coming weeks and discussing how they use the money we’ll collect & give. You’ll be amazed at what your $1 can do.
Questions or comments? Post your thoughts below…
What is Free Textbooks? Founded in January 2009, FreeTextbooks.com is an online textbook buyer and seller with a real-world presence at the University of Alabama, Samford University, the University of Alabama-Huntsville, Auburn University, and Troy University. We sell for less, buy for more, and offer a unique cash back program (translation: free books). FreeTextbooks.com is also a social venture, helping to meet the underprivileged’s most basic needs – food, clean water, clothing, education, and health.
