Chicago Books to Women in Prison

Black Friday has come and gone.
Cyber Monday too.
But the spirit of Thanksgiving continues.

Today is the third annual #GivingTuesday, a national day of generosity to non-profit organizations. We know there are many worthy causes you could support, but since you’re reading this, chances are you share our sense of the importance of our mission.

For more than 12 years, we’ve been meeting weekly to read letters and fulfill requests from women behind bars across the country. We do our best to choose just the right books from the thousands of paperbacks donated year round by readers in Chicago and beyond, in able to offer the women we serve the  education, entertainment and self-empowerment that reading provides.

In 2013, we mailed 2,274 packages of books—nearly 7,000 books in all—and it looks likely that we’ll surpass that for 2014. We couldn’t do any of it without people like you who care about this as much as we do.

We welcome all gifts, but here are some specific ways your donation can help:

• $15 provides a week’s worth of packing tape
• $35 pays Media Mail postage for ten book packages (three books each to ten women)
• $70 buys First Class postage for one blank journal each to 20 women
• $125 covers our rent for one month (we’ve recently expanded, which will help us do more, more efficiently)
• $200 is a typical week’s worth of postage (multiply that by 52 and you get a good idea of our need throughout the year)

Please help if you can on #GivingTuesday. Paypal is handy at the top right of this page. Or send a check or money order to:

Chicago Books to Women in Prison
c/o RFUMC
4511 N. Hermitage Ave.
Chicago, IL 60640

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter @ChicagoBWP so you can share in the energy of #GivingTuesday. And help us get the word out to your friends and followers!