Christian Book Drive
Certain groups, especially church members, may band together and collect many boxes of Christian books and materials. This is a great way to make a powerful impact in the prisons. Prisons are the great evangelism opportunity of the 21st century! See the List of Churches who have donated books.
Here’s How a Christian Book Drive works:
Publicity
Begin by announcing your Christian Book Drive. You may use the poster below or generate your own materials. The posters must have the deadline and the drop-off location. Look for other places to insert publicity such as neighborhood newspapers, church bulletins, radio station announcements, club newsletters etc. The Christian book drive should last three weeks.
Here’s an example: Christian Book Drive - For the next 3 weeks, we will be collecting used or new Christian books for Christian Library International, a Raleigh, NC based ministry that sends them to prisons, free of charge. If you are able, please include a $10 check per your donation to help CLI with processing and shipping expenses. A collection box will be (location) until (date). For information about this ministry see www.cli-nc.org.
Collection
The drop-off area should be inside a church or building. It must be inside in case of rain. Wider collection boxes are better than taller boxes so they won’t tip over. Your collection team should check the box periodically to make sure it looks OK. If it is full and overflowing, remove some, not all, of the books to a storage area. Ask your book donors to include their name and address for a tax deductible receipt.
Shipping
At the end of the 3 week book drive, ship the books to CLI in Raleigh, NC. Please go through them to eliminate any non-Christian or severely damaged books. CLI pays for the outbound shipping to our prison outreaches but not for inbound shipping.
When your books arrive here, our volunteers sort, stamp and repack them with other donated materials and send them off to the prisons we support. Through Christian book drives, thousands of books have been collected and hundreds of thousands of inmates have been blessed. Thank you for caring!
Download the CLI Christian Book Drive Poster (351KB PDF)
Download the CLI Bulletin Insert (850KB PDF)
Download the CLI Tri-fold Brochure (492 kb PDF)
Download the CLI Book Drive Cartoon (2.9 MB)