Bookshop.org introduces new guide for charities to fundraise through book sales

Howard Lake | 24 June 2025 | News

Bookshop.org, the online bookstore that supports independent bookshops, has launched a resource pack for charities and NGOs, explaining how they can raise funds by encouraging their supporters to buy books from the site.

As well as authors, influencers and media organisations, charities can become Bookshop.org affiliates and earn 10% whenever someone buys a book from their page on the bookshop’s site. An additional 10% is donated by bookshop.org to independent bookshops.

Becoming an affiliate is free and straightforward. No digital content or web page creation is required.

Charities that already fundraise from bookshop.org

Plenty of literacy charities are Bookshop.org affiliates, including The Reading Agency, Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, The National Literacy Trust, World Book Day and Empathy Lab.

So too are nature and environmental groups (The Shark Trust, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Bat Conservation Trust) and social justice movements (Global Justice Now, Refugee Support).

Some are related to support the poorest and most vulnerable members in society through books (Give A Book, Bookbanks, ShelterBox), but any charity, large or small, can sign up to become an affiliate.

A charity’s storefront

Charities can use their page(s) or storefront on Bookshop.org to share information about their work, and link to their social media accounts. Some take the opportunity to create and curate booklists of titles that are relevant to their work.

These include: 

• Books That Challenge Gender Stereotypes (Scottish Book Trust)
  
• Books For Young Bat Lovers (Bat Conservation Trust)
  
• Prison Reading Groups, (Give a Book)
  
• and The Authors of Tamesis Street (ShelterBox, featuring books by some of the contributors to the climate change story Tamesis Street).

Bookshop.org also takes part in some charities’ fundraising initiatives, such as Read It Forward with BookTrust and Scottish Book Trust, donating to the two charities 10% from the sale of all children’s books during the month of February.

The Books That Give campaign saw 10% of select Independent Alliance title sales donated to Bookbanks, a charity that provides free books at foodbanks across the UK.

UK Fundraising has acted as an affiliate of Bookshop.org since it opened in the UK.

Emily Rhodes, Founding Director at Bookbanks, said: 

“Partnering with Bookshop.org has been hugely positive, and we’ve loved the ease with which we’ve been able to become part of the Bookshop.org community. We’ve been able to curate and share book lists that reflect our mission at Bookbanks, bringing books to food banks. It’s great to know that sales of books through our affiliate account support us AND independent bookshops.”

Nicole Vanderbilt, Managing Director of Bookshop.org UK, said: 

“As a B Corp, our driving purpose is to create public benefit, and have a positive impact on communities, customers, and the planet. That’s why we felt it was important to create a resource pack for charities. When they become affiliates, they can earn 10% of any direct book sales on our platform to put back into in their own efforts – while a further 10% goes to our affiliate bookshops. Through our charitable drives with BookTrust, Bookbanks, the Women’s Prize Trust and more, we’ve seen the tangible impact of our support.  Bookshop.org customers buy their books from us because they know that where they spend their money matters, and we want to encourage as many charities as possible to use us as a (further) force for good.”

You can download the charity fundraising guide from Bookshop.org.

• Historic book found in Amnesty International bookshop (14 July 2003)
  
• Bookshop.org partners with Booktrust on February fundraising drive (12 February 2024)
  
• New books for fundraisers in 2021 (3 February 2021)

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.