Book Drive Strategy

Want to know the exact system I used to generate 3000 book donations in Boston as a young college grad?

This is a project I initiated on my own because I wanted to create something from nothing after my first job out of college laid everyone in the high tech company off except for about 5 people out of 90. I thought it was a better alternative to trying to fit myself into an already defined job that someone else would take if it weren’t for me. I wanted to create new opportunities. I was on unemployment insurance at the time. After doing this project I positioned myself well to get a job in an inspiring entrepreneurial nonprofit! Here is how I went about the book drive.

First of all I had to be committed to following through on the idea even if I did not know how it was going to happen. I had to believe it was possible and convince my followers it was going to happen in order to get them on board. I had to be an enthusiastic go getter!

I had nothing to lose. I had been good in school and for that reason believed in myself, but was shocked that my first job laid so many people off. I was not thrilled with the job thing at that point in time so I put myself to work defining new societal opportunities.

This is how I mobilized 40 volunteers and 18 partner organizations to do it in the end:

1) defined ways to get involved
-book drop partners throughout the city
-volunteer driver sorters
-raffle hosts to spread the word and build a budget for the discount event location
-book exchange event venue at a discount
-volunteer team provider for the event
-book donation storage location
-book drop cart donor
-t-shirt printer
-bookmark printer
-bookmark distributior
-newspaper article publisher
-school notice distributor

2) spread the word about them on online bulletin boards, email lists, and a website

3) thought of who may want to help and called them directly on the phone or stopped by their location to ask – collected yesses even if some said no, I just kept on asking

4) made a logo mosaic of the partners who said yes and emailed the partners every time a new partner jumped on board, linking to the website that explained how everything was going to work

5) showed up early to every meeting and listened to ideas of others as new ways to get involved were defined

6) kept track of contact information and progress, kept thinking of new ideas and strategies to meet the goal until we did

7) gave myself several months and a deadline by which the project must be finished

That’s pretty much it! It was amazing when the book exchange event actually happened, to see the project that was once just an idea actually materialize. People bought books for 1-2 dollars a piece, the proceeds went to a nonprofit called Room to Read that built schools and libraries in Southeast Asia, and the rest were donated to local Boston organizations.

It was one of the most exciting projects of my whole life, and I’m really glad I did it.

Do you have an entrepreneurial idea? I say, go for it. What do you have to lose? Go ahead and make a difference in society.