Looking to the Past to Plot the Future

This blog contributed by BookGive Founder and Board President, Nicole Sullivan

I am often asked how BookGive got its start. The answer depends on how much time you’ve got. The simplest answer is that we became a nonprofit organization in 2018 and received our 501c3 designation in 2020. The idea goes back to 2010 when I teamed up with a few friends to host the Northwest Denver Community Book Exchange. This annual event, held largely in school cafeterias, brought the community together to swap books for an afternoon. The leftover books were donated to nonprofit organizations in need of books. Roughly 1,000 books were exchanged and 1,000 more were donated at every event. It felt impactful and it was fun, so we kept doing it. 

When I opened BookBar on Tennyson Street in 2013, we continued hosting the book exchange but also welcomed book donations at the bookstore. We did our best to manage a charitable endeavor as a for-profit bookstore with very little backroom space and a small staff. But the demand eventually outpaced our capacity. I began searching for a suitable location to house our growing inventory of book donations from which we could distribute back out into the community. As one does, I fell hard for the vintage gas station, Regis 66, on Lowell Blvd. This little corner of Denver had been a gas station since the 1920s and the building now known as BookGive headquarters was the last full-service gas station in Colorado. It seemed fitting to add a new type of service to the corner’s storied history. The light-filled, high-ceilinged two-bay garage was perfect for accepting, sorting, and redistributing books. It also had space for our 1994 Ford ambulance-turned-bookmobile, Mavis, and so many possibilities for gas station/book puns. 

Now that I had a location it quickly became obvious that this endeavor needed to become a separate, nonprofit entity. I established BookGive in 2018. The following year, I hired Melissa Monforti, our founding Executive Director. Together we created the concept that exists today, but it was Melissa who laid the foundations for the operations, processes, and procedures. Covid pulled me away right after we received our 501c3 – in March 2020. Trying to keep BookBar afloat during the pandemic was a distraction, to say the least. Yet, against all odds, we managed to donate a total of 30,000 books to 72 organizations that first fateful year, not to mention hundreds of Little Free Libraries all over Denver during the lockdown. 

As the world began to reopen, so did we. We formed a Board of Directors, a volunteer base, a network of generous donors, and an advisory council. We received our first grant that year from The Denver Foundation’s Strengthening Neighborhoods program with which we installed and stocked Little Free Libraries in four underserved communities: Sun Valley, Valverde, Villa Park, and West Colfax. You can read more about that HERE. Our next grant came in January 2021 from The Les Paul Foundation which allowed us to purchase 500 copies of local author (at that time) Kim Tomsic’s picture book Guitar Genius. We distributed all 500 copies to Title I schools. 

2021 was a busy year of events and fundraising initiatives. We rolled out our annual Spring t-shirt and Fall hoodie sales, launched the donor-funded Well-Read Black Girl book club, and our laundromat program in which we stock laundromats with free books. In 2021 alone we donated 60,488 books to 241 organizations. And I picked up another bookstore. With the purchase of The Bookies bookstore in November of that year our literary footprint grew.

2022 was our most impactful year to date. Unfortunately, there was much need. We all remember the tragic Marshall fires in Boulder County that destroyed over 1,000 homes. A small nonprofit dedicated to book access can’t solve all the problems, but we know how to get books to people. We pledged 100 books per household request. We couldn’t replace some of the most meaningful and valuable books, but we helped to at least scratch the surface of those wishing to rebuild their libraries. Later that year, we recognized the growing need for diverse books. We met that need by distributing 10,000 diverse books throughout Denver. With a $20,000 donation from UPS, a successful $10,000 fundraising campaign, deep discounts from Book Depot, a team of 30 volunteers, and space donated by Dream Books we moved a literacy mountain. 

We were also proud to be chosen as the charitable partner for the Denver Post Pen & Podium series as well as the American Association of Law Libraries as part of their 2022 conference. We were over the moon to have the opportunity to bring the Little Free Library’s Read in Color initiative to Denver. In a year when we donated a whopping 82,785 books to 306 organizations, we also saw success with a fundraising campaign to open our free book room. What once served as the Regis 66 office is now a charming room full of FREE books available to the public. Like a library, yes, but these books you get to keep (unless you choose to donate them back which many people do). We know that, for many, purchasing new or even used books is a luxury. We break down the barriers to book access and ownership. 

I’m not gonna lie. 2023 was a challenging year for BookGive. It began with the closure of BookBar, which was bittersweet. After ten years of bar ownership, I was ready to, well, not own a bar anymore. I set my sights on creating a sustainable future for The Bookies by relocating from the corner of the strip mall on Mississippi Ave to a more visible property of our own. As one does, I fell hard for a fireplace outlet built in 1954 by the Lehrer family. Much like the BookGive building, the Lehrer Fireplace and Patio Outlet had been in the same family for more than forty years and they didn’t want to see their history go to developers. The Bookies had been at the same location for forty years, as well, so moving the store at the end of December 2023 was no small undertaking. We had originally hoped to move before the holiday season last year but, as the construction and permitting gods would have it, we are still not quite open as of the writing of this blog. Our grand reopening celebration is April 27th so there is light at the end of this unexpectedly long tunnel. 

We break down the barriers to book access and ownership

The bookstores contributed a financial cushion for BookGive by, at first, donating 10% of total sales until that goal became untenable. We then committed to donating 10% of total book sales until that, too, became out of reach. We now donate a percentage of profits. Profits are hard to come by for any indie bookstore, however, especially one that has been closed for three months. We continued to donate, even while closed, to keep operations running as smoothly as possible since our fundraising activities had also plunged by more than 60% in 2023 compared to 2022, which led to a budget shortfall needed to cover operations and payroll. The good news is that we were still able to donate 81,113 books to 178 organizations last year. It was largely thanks to our donors, particularly our Page Turners who carried us into 2024. We are so grateful for the continued support from our community! 

I’m pleased to announce that BookGive is now a 100% volunteer-run organization! Eliminating our Executive Director position frees up our largest expense, by far. I’ve stepped in to oversee operations with the help of our dedicated volunteers, including a team of Station Managers. Since opening the Service Station in 2020, I’ve tried to dedicate more time to BookGive but the shifting bookstore models always pulled me back. As I work with The Bookies staff to reopen in our new home this month, I still don’t have the luxury of time but I’ve shifted my priorities. Working in the Station every day provides a constant reminder of how important the work is that we do. If you’ve been keeping score, you might have calculated that by the end of 2023, we had donated more than 250,000 books throughout Metro Denver. As of March 31, 2024, that number has climbed to more than 275,000. That has a huge impact on literacy in our city! 

Here’s to reading and giving