Success Stories
The Book Truck
School on Wheels
The Book Truck
We encouraged and trained several organizations how to do fundraisers, remote book drives and book donations to benefit The Book Truck which serves homeless and foster youth in Los Angeles. More than 1050 books, 150 volunteers and $1000 dollars donated since March 2020. Each donated book is given to a teen.
Para Los Ninos
School on Wheels
The Book Truck
We are always collecting books for Para Los Ninos and have distributed more than 3000 books for them since July 2020. Para Los Ninos is located in Los Angeles and educates more than 400 children living poverty in the Los Angeles area. The donated books were used for the lending library and also for home libraries.
School on Wheels
School on Wheels
Corazon de Vida Foundation
We provided more than 300 age-appropriate books to this organization that provides tutoring to homeless students in Los Angeles. The donated books were used for the lending library. June 2020
Corazon de Vida Foundation
Black Authors Matter Book Drive
Corazon de Vida Foundation
We ran a safer at home Spanish language book drive during the pandemic that direct shipped books to this organization serving orphans in Mexico. June 2020
Neighbor to Neighbor
Black Authors Matter Book Drive
Black Authors Matter Book Drive
We helped Neighbor 2 Neighbor develop a social media strategy, create marketing materials, engage volunteers, and leverage technology. Located in Chicago with the goal of replacing guns with books. July and ongoing
Black Authors Matter Book Drive
Black Authors Matter Book Drive
Black Authors Matter Book Drive
We supported businesses, alumni associatios and clubs in creating Black Authors Matter Book Drives to celebrate Juneteenth. Organizations were looking for meaningful ways to stand behind the black community. Black Authors Matters supports black authors and brings their stories to a broader audience. June 2020
Jewish Family Services
San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission
San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission
We collected, sorted and donated 2000 books to this Los Angeles based organization. Donated books were distributed to families when they pick up food. July, August, October 2020
San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission
San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission
San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission
We leveraged our social media fundraising guide to collect backpacks and school supplies to distribute to homeless youth. July 2020
Children's Book Project
San Fernando Valley Rescue Mission
Braddock Drive Elementary School
Ryland collected more than 550 books for Children's Book Project. Children's Book Project is one of the few nonprofits in San Francisco still providing free books to children during the pandemic to promote literacy. September 2020
Braddock Drive Elementary School
Watts Learning Center Elementary
Braddock Drive Elementary School
We donated more than 3000 books to this elementary school's lending library. The school has 478 students and many are English learners and struggle with literacy. October 2020
Watts Learning Center Elementary
Watts Learning Center Elementary
Watts Learning Center Elementary
We are collecting books for Watts Learning Center. This school is dedicated to improving the quality of education in South Los Angeles. We have already donated approximately 1000 books to WLC. Our goal is to donate more than 3000 books.
Crete Academy
Watts Learning Center Elementary
Watts Learning Center Elementary
In partnership with a book drive at NDHS, Bookworm Global donated approximately 4000 books to Crete Academy. Crete Academy is a school for children living in poverty. October 2020
In progress
Generation Her
Watts Learning Center Middle School
Watts Learning Center Middle School
Generation Her is a nonprofit serving teen moms. We are collecting books for baby and young children in order to encourage the teen moms to read to their children.
Watts Learning Center Middle School
Watts Learning Center Middle School
Watts Learning Center Middle School
We are collecting high interest books for middle schoolers who attend the middle school at Watts Learning Center.
Inner City Education Foundation
Watts Learning Center Middle School
Inner City Education Foundation
ICEF (Inner City Education Foundation) is a charter school in Inglewood, CA focusing on raising African-American achievement and closing the achievement gap. We are donated over 2000 books on Giving Tuesday so that each student could take home a book.
Service Organizations
HBT Hoops
Trained basketball club founder and administrator how to do online fundraising and social media book drive to celebrate Juneteenth. June 2020
NCL LA
We devised a plan and created how-to guides to enable more than 100 volunteers to donate books to homeless children during the pandemic. Donated more than 150 books. Summer 2020
Duke University SoCal Alumni
We created a social media strategy for online fundraising for a book drive for The Book Truck. June 2020
Neighbor2Neighbor, Chicago
We recruited and trained volunteers for Neighbor2Neighbor. We also helped with social media and fundraising strategies.
Girl Scouts - various troops
We have worked with Girl Scout troops to do no contact book drives. Troops can use book drives as Take Action projects. This is a funny throwback image from when I was a young Girl Scout.
National League of Young Men
National League of Young Men leveraged our how-to guides to enable volunteers in the San Fernando Valley chapter to donate books to The Book Truck which served homeless children. This organization donated more than 550 books that were directly shipped to The Book Truck. June 2020
Boy Scouts
We trained Boy Scout troops to do no contact book drives. They are currently collecting books that will be donated to Watts Learning Center.
Why Bookworm Global?
Why Bookworm Global?
I thought it might be helpful to share my personal story to explain why I started Bookworm Global.
There are two activities that make time fly for me, reading and doing community service. During the pandemic, I had a lot of time to think about children without access to books and the impact of distance learning. I wanted to do a service project to help the children but many traditional forms of giving were not an option during government-mandated stay at home orders. There were many obstacles during this time for a variety of reasons. Some facilities were closed, some were afraid to take used items, and many organizations were afraid distribute. Though I did find a few, not many organizations were willing to accept books and promise to distribute them immediately. My initial projects were really rewarding but modest. Bookworm Global is constantly evolving. We do recycled book drives and leverage technology to do online fundraising and direct shipment book drives. I have written how-to guides and trained more than 200 people. I have also taught nonprofits to leverage technology to make a bigger impact. I really enjoy helping others serve in a meaningful way.
This has been transformational for me and many people suggested I create my own nonprofit. I began researching needs and realized there are a lot of nonprofits devoted to literacy and that many of the newer ones were small and strapped for resources, especially technological know how. I decided to devote my time to empowering nonprofits and training volunteers to do book drives, rather than creating my own nonprofit.
Making an impact instead of just doing something superficial is important to me and I feel I can serve in a more meaningful manner as an accelerator, recycler and fundraiser.
Sincerely,
Alana
About Braddock Street Elementary
Additional Information
Braddock Street Elementary School suffers from a lack of educational resources. A Title 1 school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, they have faced decades of disadvantage. They have many English learners and students struggling with literacy. Approximately 72% of the students live in poverty; the majority live in the Mar Vista Gardens, which is one of the largest housing projects in Los Angeles and a center for gang activity.
