We repurpose donated textbooks from university campuses and community partners in North America. Our goal is to provide affordable and accessible educational

material to students around the world.

Textbooks are donated on campuses and in the

community.

We donate 50% of textbooks to campus libraries in East Africa.

We resell 20% of textbooks at affordable

prices to students.

We recycle 30% of textbooks that are old

or damaged.

Our Story“One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” In 2013, that became more than just an old saying for Chris Janssen. As a student at Western University, Chris noticed that many of his peers had stacks of old textbooks sitting in their dorm rooms. While lecturing at campuses in Kenya, he found the opposite. Smart and ambitious students were sharing photocopied, out-of-date material.

Chris launched Textbooks for Change to improve the educational landscape around the world. What began as the vision of one social entrepreneur has since inspired students, professors, and community members around the world to grow Textbooks for Change into the thriving B Corp it is today.

Our Results

260,000 textbooks collected

30 Canadian campuses

125,000 textbooks donated

90,000 textbooks recycled

20 student

ambassadors

$215,000 in donations &

microloans

3,000 trees saved

665,000 lbs of waste

diverted

45,000 affordable

books resold

We realize the amount of waste a University or College campus generates during an academic year. Textbooks for

Change is committed to helping campuses reduce and

B Corp

Help us make education a right, not a privilege: www.textbooksforchange.com

The NeedRising Population & Unreliable Budgets Governments are unable to keep up with the rapidly growing university enrolment rates in East Africa. As a result, institutions are underfunded and under-resourced.

Limited Internet Access Despite improvements in internet penetration rates, universities face connectivity and access issues. There continues to be a high demand for physical textbooks.

“I have been a librarian for 8 years, but I have never seen an organization send a representative to our university to ask us what types of books we want. Most of the time they just give us what is not useful in their place. We really appreciate the work that you have done.” Rhoda Main Library, Masaai Mara University

100,000+ students with

access

$500,000 saved per shipment

$20 saved per textbook

Our Impact in Education &

East Africa

6 campus

partnerships

Assessing Our Impact: We partner with universities that not only have under-resourced libraries and the capacity to utilize a large shipment of textbooks, but that are aiming to better their campus community. Together, we are tracking metrics like the foot traffic in the library and length of loans for textbooks. We are aiming to reduce wait times, increase the availability of textbooks in the library system, and ultimately improve the capacity for students to learn.

We are a B Corp and social enterprise. B Corps are a new type of company that use the power of business as a force for good.

Joining the B Corp community formally recognizes our ongoing commitment to operate based on our values and provides a formal assessment tool for monitoring our progress moving forward.

In 2015 and 2016, we have been recognized as one of the best B Corps in the world.