First Book Canada

About First Book Canada:

First Book was founded in the United States in 1992 with the mission of ending illiteracy by providing children from low-income families access to books. First Book Canada was launched in 2008 to help book ownership in low-income Canadian children. To date, First Book Canada has distributed more than 5 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income families. First Book Canada reports that all of the pre-schools and after-school programs serving children in need do not have a single book for the children they serve. It also reports that some low-income neighbourhoods only have one book for every 300 children.

First Book Canada works in tandem with publishing houses in two ways. Its First Book Marketplace is an online store offering resources at prices 50% to 90% off retail, available only to community programs and schools serving children in need. This marketplace allows programs to acquire resources at a reduced cost while offering publishers a new customer base for their products.

Its National Book Bank is a clearinghouse for publishers’ excess inventory, providing a way for them to efficiently donate large quantities of books. These books are distributed by First Book to programs across Canada serving children in need. Partnering with Frontier College, it provides books to children and families served by Frontier College nationwide.

In February of 2017, First Book Canada received 500,000 books from Nelson publishing to distribute to 200,000 children in need across the nation.

Financial Review:

First Book Canada is considered a large-cap charity with monetary and goods-in-kind donations of $6.8m in F2016. In F2015, 96% of donated monetary and goods were tax-receipted per the charity’s T3010A filings. Its administrative costs are 3% of revenues and the charity does not report any fundraising costs. For every dollar donated, 97 cents goes to the cause, falling outside of Ci’s reasonable range. The charity has a funding reserve which can cover a little under 10 months of program costs excluding the value of donated goods.

This report is an update and is currently being reviewed by First Book Canada. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated June 22, 2017 by Josh Lam.