Books For Africa
Books For Africa is a nonprofit founded in 1988 that collects, sorts, and ships donated print and digital books to schools, libraries, and institutions across all 55 African countries, having shipped over 65 million books since inception.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1988
- HeadquartersSaint Paul, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingServices
What Books For Africa does
Books For Africa is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization founded in 1988 and headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that collects, sorts, and ships donated print and digital books to schools, libraries, and institutions across all 55 African countries. The organization operates two warehouses (Saint Paul, MN and Marietta, GA) that process donated books from publishers, organizations, and individuals, which are then shipped in 40-foot sea containers carrying approximately 25,000 books each to partner organizations. Better World Books serves as the largest single supplier, contributing 14 semi-trailer loads of university and library books in a single calendar year.
The organization's core offering is a book donation and shipping service complemented by specialized initiatives including the Girls Empowerment Collections, French Books Initiative, Law & Democracy Initiative, Agricultural Libraries, and BFA Publishing. Digital distribution is handled through a Digital Books Program that has shipped over 500,000 digital books on 163 computers and e-readers. The Soma Safari initiative, launched in 2025 in Kenya, represents an evolution toward structured community-based Book Ecosystems in partnership with Kenya National Library Service and other institutional collaborators.
Books For Africa operates on a donation-funded nonprofit model with revenue streams including individual donations (one-time and recurring across tiers from $50 to $11,500), corporate and foundation grants, planned giving through the Legacy Society, and in-kind book contributions. The organization mobilizes over 9,000 volunteers annually and ships books through a Container Captain Program that enables project leaders to coordinate shipments to specific countries. Distribution is direct-to-recipient via African partner organizations, with the organization holding a Four-Star Charity Navigator rating and GuideStar Exchange Seal for accountability.
Books For Africa firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Books For Africa
- Legal name
- Books For Africa
- Website
- https://booksforafrica.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1988
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Books For Africa is a nonprofit founded in 1988 that collects, sorts, and ships donated print and digital books to schools, libraries, and institutions across all 55 African countries, having shipped over 65 million books since inception.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Books For Africa industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Nonprofit Book Distribution Services
- NAICS
- Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers (424920), Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131), Book Publishers (513130)
- SIC
- Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Educational & Academic Publishing Distribution (Textbooks) (CRAOALAC)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- eBook & Digital Reading Platforms (BPAMAJAK)
Keywords
Where Books For Africa is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Saint Paul
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Books For Africa business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Operations, Supply Chain, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others
Revenue model
- Individual Donations: Individual donors contribute funds to support shipping costs for books to Africa. Donations can be made as one-time or recurring gifts, with specific projects or general funding options available.
- Corporate and Foundation Grants: Organizations and foundations provide funding support for book shipments and operational costs.
- Planned Giving / Legacy Society: Donors can include Books For Africa in their estate plans through wills, IRA beneficiary designations, or other planned giving instruments.
- Book Donations: New or gently used books are donated and sorted at warehouses for shipment to Africa. The value of donated books represents in-kind contribution to their mission.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Pricing | Monthly | $50 - Provides 100 books for an African classroom |
| Unit Pricing | Monthly | $100 - Provides 200 books for an African classroom |
| Unit Pricing | Monthly | $500 - Provides enough books to fully stock a rural African school |
| Unit Pricing | Annual | $5,000 - Join BFA's Summit Society and deliver 11,000 books |
| Unit Pricing | One time/ perpetual license | $11,500 - Provides one full 40-foot sea container delivering 25,000 books |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Books For Africa product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Books For Africa collects donated new and gently used books from publishers, individuals, and organizations across the United States, sorts them at warehouses in Saint Paul, MN and Marietta, GA, and ships them by 40-foot sea container to schools, libraries, and institutions across all 55 African countries. The organization supplements physical book distribution with digital content delivered on computers and e-readers, and operates specialized initiatives including Girls Empowerment Collections, French Books Initiative, Law & Democracy Initiative, Agricultural Libraries, BFA Publishing, and the Soma Safari community literacy initiative.
Product overview
Books For Africa operates as a nonprofit book donation and distribution organization rather than a traditional technology company. The core offering is a book donation and shipping service that collects, sorts, and ships donated books, digital books on devices, and library materials to all 55 African countries. The organization runs several special initiatives including Girls Empowerment Collections, French Books Initiative (shipping French books from France to Francophone Africa), Law & Democracy Initiative, Agricultural Libraries, and BFA Publishing. Additional services include donate funds/donate books platforms, volunteer programs at warehouses in Minnesota and Georgia, the Legacy Society planned giving program, and the Container Captain Program for project coordination. The Soma Safari initiative, launched in 2025, represents a collaborative literacy program building community-based book ecosystems.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- BFA Publishing: Publishing initiative by Books For Africa
- Girls Empowerment Collections
- Law & Democracy Initiative
- Agricultural Libraries
- French Books Initiative
Products and services
- Book Donation and Shipping Service Core service collecting donated new and gently used books from publishers, individuals, and organizations across the United States, sorting them at warehouses in Minnesota and Georgia, and shipping them in 40-foot sea containers (each carrying approximately 25,000 books) to recipient schools, libraries, and institutions across all 55 African countries.
- Girls Empowerment Collections Special initiative providing books and educational materials specifically aimed at empowering girls across Africa, addressing gender disparity in literacy and educational access.
- French Books Initiative Program supplying 20-foot containers totaling approximately 25,000 French-language reading and school books to Francophone African countries, coordinated with French book supply chains.
- Law & Democracy Initiative Special initiative providing legal and democratic education materials to support rule of law and civic education across African countries.
- Agricultural Libraries Initiative Special initiative focused on establishing and stocking agricultural libraries to support farming education and food security in Africa.
- BFA Publishing Publishing initiative by Books For Africa producing and distributing educational content tailored to African educational needs.
- Digital Books Program Program shipping digital books loaded on computers and e-readers to African partners, having delivered over 500,000 digital books on 163 computers and e-readers to date.
- Container Captain Program Program enabling individual advocates to lead fundraising campaigns and coordinate specific book shipments to designated countries or projects in Africa, using dedicated project pages on the BFA website.
- Soma Safari Community-based literacy initiative launched in Kenya in 2025 establishing sustainable 'Book Ecosystems' in partnership with Kenya National Library Service (KNLS), Knowledge Empowering Youth Libraries (KEY), Little Free Library, and San José State University School of Information.
Quantifiable outcome
- 65+ million books shipped to all 55 African countries since 1988
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Books For Africa
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Books For Africa technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
Books For Africa partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Kenya National Library Service (KNLS)coreCollaborative partner in the Soma Safari project to establish sustainable, community-based Book Ecosystems in Kenya. The pilot launched in 2025 with a full shipping container of 52,000 books.
- Knowledge Empowering Youth Libraries (KEY)minorPartner in the Soma Safari project alongside Kenya National Library Service and Books For Africa.
- Little Free LibraryminorPartner in the Soma Safari project providing Little Free Library book-sharing boxes for community distribution.
- San José State University School of InformationminorAcademic partner in the Soma Safari project, contributing expertise in library science and information management.
- Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC)minorReceived 35,000 nursing textbooks and 5,000 reading/textbooks for Kibera Girls Soccer Academy through Louis Brownstone's nursing education project.
- Better World BookscoreBetter World Books is BFA's largest single supplier of university and library books, having shipped 14 semi trailer loads of books to BFA in a single calendar year. They provide donated books from their book drives and sales operations.
- The Bythiah ProjectcorePartnership for French book distribution in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. The Bythiah Project works with local youths and a government education agency to distribute books to schools and libraries.
- World Computer Exchange, Inc.minorStrategic alliance with Books For Africa and INDESEEM, Inc. to bring more educational materials including computers to Liberia and the African continent.
- UNHCR Dadaab Refugee CampminorFirst library established at Dadaab Refugee Camp (population ~200,000) in Kenya through Louis Brownstone's project.
- Shoe4Africa Children's HospitalminorLibrary established at Shoe4Africa Children's Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya through Louis Brownstone's container project.
- WorldWide HealthStaff Solutions (WWHS)minorWWHS has partnered with Books For Africa since 2022, helping increase volume of books distributed. Through the partnership, over 100,000 medical and nursing books have been donated across Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Malawi.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Books For Africa competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Worldreader: Nonprofit focused on digital reading in low-income countries, distributing e-books via mobile devices. Directly comparable on the digital-books vertical BFA is expanding into.
- African Library Project: US-based nonprofit that organizes book drives and ships books to start libraries in African schools. Operates an almost identical collect-and-ship model at smaller scale.
- Room to Read: Global nonprofit focused on literacy and girls' education, including establishing school libraries and publishing local-language children's books. Comparable mission and library-building model, with broader publishing operations.
- Better World Books: BFA's largest single book supplier; collects and sells used books globally and donates a portion of proceeds and inventory to literacy nonprofits. Highly comparable as a book redistribution operator, though it is also a commercial reseller.
- Book Aid International: UK-based charity that ships donated books to libraries and schools across sub-Saharan Africa. Closest like-for-like peer in mission, model, and target geographies.
Others
- World Computer Exchange: Nonprofit that refurbishes and ships computers to schools in developing countries. Already a BFA partner; adjacent as a complementary technology-to-schools distributor.
- Little Free Library: Nonprofit that builds and stewards small book-sharing boxes globally; an active BFA partner on the Soma Safari Kenya project. Comparable as a community library steward adjacent to BFA's literacy mission.
Emerging players
- Pratham Books / StoryWeaver: India-based nonprofit publisher that creates and freely licenses multilingual children's books for low-income contexts. Comparable as an open educational-content publisher with developing-market focus.
- Library For All: Nonprofit building digital library platforms for underserved communities in developing countries. Comparable in the digital distribution leg of BFA's operations.
Broad incumbents
- Scholastic: Large children's book publisher and distributor with substantial education-market reach. Comparable as a scaled book publisher/distributor relevant to BFA's content sourcing and potential partners.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Books For Africa social profiles
Digital presenceBooks For Africa financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Books For Africa leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Books For Africa funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Books For Africa M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Books For Africa
What does Books For Africa do?
Books For Africa collects donated new and gently used books from publishers, individuals, and organizations across the United States, sorts them at warehouses in Saint Paul, MN and Marietta, GA, and ships them by 40-foot sea container to schools, libraries, and institutions across all 55 African countries. The organization supplements physical book distribution with digital content delivered on computers and e-readers, and operates specialized initiatives including Girls Empowerment Collections, French Books Initiative, Law & Democracy Initiative, Agricultural Libraries, BFA Publishing, and the Soma Safari community literacy initiative.
Is Books For Africa a public or private company?
Books For Africa is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Books For Africa founded?
Books For Africa was founded in 1988. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Books For Africa based?
Books For Africa is headquartered in Saint Paul, United States, in the North America region.
How does Books For Africa make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Individual Donations are the primary driver. The others are corporate and Foundation Grants, planned Giving / Legacy Society and book Donations.
Who are Books For Africa's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Worldreader, African Library Project, Room to Read, Better World Books and Book Aid International. Others are World Computer Exchange and Little Free Library. Emerging players are Pratham Books / StoryWeaver and Library For All. Scholastic is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Books For Africa have an API?
No public API is recorded for Books For Africa.
What industry is Books For Africa in?
Books For Africa's product category is Nonprofit Book Distribution Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is CRAOALAC, Educational & Academic Publishing Distribution (Textbooks), with a secondary code of BPAMAJAK, eBook & Digital Reading Platforms. Its NAICS code is 424920 and its SIC code is 2731.