Book Donations

Books to Benefit accepts in-person donations Wednesdays and Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

You may use drop boxes (see below) to donate items anytime throughout the year. Please do not over fill the drop boxes. If you find one of our drop boxes to be full please call us at 309-531-8320

What items do you accept?

Books to Benefit accepts most used books in good condition. Donated items become the exclusive property of Books to Benefit. Any books donated should be intact — have both a front and back cover, no pages missing, and no pages falling out due to a broken binding or spine. Books should not be water damaged, moldy or in obviously poor condition. Books to Benefit is unable to accept items that it is no longer able to sell, donate or recycle. (see full list below).

Books to Benefit will continue to accept DVDs and Audio Books.

Drop Boxes

Drop boxes are located throughout Bloomington-Normal, Illinois.

You may also drop off donations in person on most Wednesdays and Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Wylie Drive location — 360 Wylie Drive, Suite 700 in Normal.

Check our website or Facebook page for any changes in hours due to holidays, weather, or upcoming sales.

Donate gently used (in good condition) books and media from fall cleaning, downsizing and garage sale leftovers. Donations are tax deductible and benefit local literacy programs with the proceeds earned from our semi-annual book sales.

Wesley United Methodist Church parking lot
502 E Front St, Bloomington

Y.W.C.A. parking lot
1201 N. Hershey, Bloomington

Books to Benefit, parking lot
360 Wylie Dr., Suite 700, Normal

Phone (309) 531-8320 for questions.

Donated items become the exclusive property of Books to Benefit.

Donating Dos and Don'ts

A Gentle reminder About Donations we Accept

Books to Benefit appreciates contributions of books from our community and asks that donors follow these guidelines when donating books so that we may remain efficient and serve the community well.

Donated materials must be in saleable condition, not falling apart, water damaged, harboring odors, having underlined pages, or otherwise abused. We respectfully request that donors sort their books before donating them. Unsaleable items soon fill up recycle bins, and Books to Benefit must pay for those bins to be hauled away.

Please call us if you have any questions about your donation. If you have a very large donation, we would appreciate advance notice, as well.

If you're unsure whether we can accept a particular item, please call us at 309-531-8320.

WE HAPPILY ACCEPT

Clean and readable books
(Modern Novels after 2000 only)
DVDs (no home-made)
(No CDs, cassettes, VHS tapes)
Children’s Books (all types)
Graphic Novels
Blank Journals (unused)
Books about Learning a Foreign Language
Books about Other Countries
Audio Books (complete, CD/DVD format only)

WE CANNOT ACCEPT

Damaged books—bad spines, taped, water stained, smelly, underlined, missing pages/covers
CDs, Cassettes, VHS tapes, Vinyl Records
Magazines (any type) & professional journals
Art Works and Sheet Music
**Books in a Foreign Language
Travel Guide Books
High School or College Yearbooks
Encyclopedias
Family Photograph Albums
Textbooks
Business books
Education books
Books on Parenting
Reader’s Digest Condensed Books
Unbound Maps and Modern Road Atlases
Bound Federal and State Census Records
Household Items
Toys, Puzzles, Flash Cards
Games (including computer games)
Greeting Cards/Postcards/Stationery/Calendars
**Religious Materials such as group studies, training manuals for pastors, congregation building, Sunday School materials, family Bibles, counseling guides, large tome sets

** With the exception of truly old and valuable works, largely published prior to the 20 th century

Community Involvement

Donations to Literacy Programs

With your support, in the past few years we have been able to support local literacy programs with cash and in-kind gifts totaling more than $50,000!

Heartland Community College Foundation Scholarship

Every book sale we appreciate donations to help raise money for our annual gifts of two $500 Heartland Community College Foundation Scholarships for a non-traditional student. It is an honor and a pleasure to meet the recipients at the Heartland Annual Reception.

Giving All Books a Second Chance

As mentioned before, we clear our shelves after each sale. Where do the books go, you may wonder? We work with some outside agencies that give "sellable" books another chance and recycle those that don't, helping to keep them out of landfills.