First Book

First Book is a nonprofit organization founded in 1992. There are two parts to the organization, their book bank and their retail bookstore. The First Book National Book Bank takes books donated by publishers and distributes them to churches, schools and organizations serving children with special needs. First Book Marketplace allows qualified subscribers from low-income families or disadvantaged schools to buy books at a discount. ^[1]

History and Business Model

The organization was started by Peter Gold, Elizabeth Arky, and Kyle Zimmer with $50,000 in seed money from Bill Shore’s "Share Our Strength", which fights childhood hunger. The startup of the First Book Marketplace was funded by a $100,000 prize from the Goldman Sachs Foundation for best business plan at the 2005 Yale School of Management competition. The business model for First Book provides publishers a way to donate excess unsold books and receive a tax deduction. The First Book National Book Bank receives a 45-cent-per-book handling fee for each book distributed. In 2012, First Book Marketplace sold $7.5 million worth of books, the majority of the nonprofit’s $12.6 million in revenue. Corporations such as Disney, Barclays, KPMG and General Mills philanthropist/cosmetics heiress Aerin Lauderare are also donors to the organization. ^[2]

Kyle Zimmer won the National Book Foundation's Literarian Award (2014) for her lifetime work at First Book.^[3]

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