Better World Books (also known as Qumpus, Inc.) is an American online bookseller of used and new books, founded in 2002 by students of the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

, Indiana. Better World Books' used book inventory comes primarily from regular book drives at over 1,800 colleges and universities and donations from over 3,000 library systems, in addition to donation boxes found on corners and on college campuses. The company has distribution warehouses in

Mishawaka, Indiana Mishawaka () is a city on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States. The population was 51,063 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Its nickname is "the Princess City". Misha ...

;

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

;

York, Pennsylvania York is a city in York County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located in South Central Pennsylvania, the city's population was 44,800 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in ...

; and

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

History

In 2001, shortly after their graduation from the

, Better World Books founders Christopher Fuchs, Xavier Helgesen and Jeff Kurtzman sold their used college textbooks online. The three then formulated a business plan using their experience selling books online. In 2002, Fuchs and Helgesen held a book drive benefiting the Robinson Community Learning Center in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. It lies along the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. It is the List of cities in ...

. During the drive, they collected and sold 2,000 books, which raised $10,000. Half of the drive's proceeds went to support literacy initiatives at the community center. In 2003, the three entered their business plan into the Notre Dame Social Venture Business Plan Competition, which was sponsored by the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business. They won the competition, with a grand prize of $7,000 and mentorship from entrepreneur David Murphy. Murphy served as Better World Books president and CEO from 2004 to 2011, before leaving to direct Notre Dame's Master of Entrepreneurship program (ESTEEM). Betterworldbooksjpg

Better World Books acquired a US Small Business Administration-backed credit line in 2004. In April 2008, Better World Books secured an additional $4.5 million in

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

via Good Capital, LLC and 18 private investors. In 2008, the company opened an operation in Dunfermline, Scotland, and started a UK website in 2010. In 2016, the company opened a new distribution center in Reno, Nevada, creating 150 new jobs. The non-profit B Lab has certified "Better World Books" as a " B corporation", meaning it meets certain standards for social welfare, because it donates books or a percentage of its profit to literacy programs around the world. As of 2013, the company had donated an estimated $14 million under this program. In March 2019, Better World Books announced the closure of their last retail location in Goshen, Indiana. This was done in order for the organisation to improve its e-commerce operations and reach more people. The company discloses information about funds raised, books re-used or recycled, and books donated in a ticker on its "Impact" page. As of 2019, Better World Books handled about 30 million incoming books per year, of which ten were sold and ten donated to partners. On November 6, 2019, Better World Books was acquired by Better World Libraries, a mission-aligned, not-for-profit organization that is affiliated with longtime partner, the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. The plan is to digitize many more books and put them online. Between July 2019 and March 2020, Better World Books donated over 700,000 books (counted by distinct

ISBN The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase or receive ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. A different ISBN is assigned to e ...

) to the Internet Archive. Over 1.4 million books were donated in 2020 and nearly a million in the first half of 2021.

Partners

Better World Books donates one book to Feed the Children, Books for Africa, or smaller donation recipients for each book sold on BetterWorldBooks.com. Better World Books provides additional support to literacy non-profits, including: * Books for Africa – which collects, ships and distributes books to African children. * The National Center for Family Literacy – which provides educational opportunities and literacy programs to at-risk children and families. *

Room to Read In a building or a ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure. The entrance connects it to either a passageway, another room, or the outdoors. The space is t ...

– which builds libraries and schools and provides scholarships in impoverished areas of the world, including Southeast Asia. Room to Read also publishes books for children in multiple languages. * Worldfund – which provides resources to improve English-language skills in Latin America. * Prison Book Project – a

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county. Quincy is part of the Greater Boston area as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in ...

-based nonprofit, which provides inmates with books and legal resources. * Robinson Community Center – a

-affiliated community center, which provides educational opportunities and tutoring services in

. *

National Literacy Trust The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity (registered no. 1116260 in England and Wales and registered no. SCO42944 in Scotland) based in London, England, that promotes literacy. It was founded by Sir Simon Hornby, former chairman of ...

– an independent charity based in London, England, that promotes literacy. * READ International – a charity that aims to improve access to education in East Africa by relocating books which are no longer needed in UK secondary schools to Tanzania. * The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) – an independent Irish charity which is committed to making sure people with literacy and numeracy difficulties can fully take part in society and have access to learning opportunities that meet their needs. *

– The Internet Archive and Better World Books announced a new partnership in November, 2019, to digitize books for preservation purposes."For the Love of Literacy: Better World Books and the Internet Archive Unite to Preserve Millions of Books"
, Press release, Nov. 6, 2019.

References

External links

* {{official Book selling websites Independent bookstores of the United States Online retailers of the United States Antiquarian booksellers Social enterprises Companies based in Indiana American companies established in 2002 Retail companies established in 2002 Bookstores established in the 21st century B Lab-certified corporations EBay stores

History

Partners

See also

References

External links