Charity profile · Historical source record

Books For Africa

EIN 41-1627391International Minnesota Large

Historical collection: May 2019 · Rating details mostly from 2017. Source & context

The mission

What this organization describes

Working to end the book famine in Africa

Founded in 1988, Books for Africa (BFA) collects, sorts, ships, and distributes books to children in Africa. Our goal is to end the book famine in Africa. Books donated by publishers, schools, libraries, individuals, and organizations are sorted and packed by volunteers who carefully choose books that are age and subject appropriate. We send good books, enough books for a whole class to use. Since 1988, Books For Africa has shipped more than 41 million books to every African country. They are on once-empty library shelves, in classrooms in rural schools, and in the hands of children who have never before held a book. Each book will be read over and over again. When the books arrive, they go to those who need them most: children who are hungry to read, hungry to learn, hungry to explore the world in ways that only books make possible.

Mission and tagline reproduced from the source record.

Historical scorecard

Three perspectives. One record.

100.00Overall score
out of 100

100.00Financial score
out of 100

100.00Accountability & transparency
out of 100

These are the dataset’s historical numeric fields, not a current rating or a new DonorAPI.com assessment. Read the score context ↗

Financial context

Revenue, expenses, and composition

Total revenue · USD$35,600,399

Total expenses · USD$36,258,346

Program expenses

$35,932,020.89 recorded amount

99.1%

Fundraising expenses

$181,291.73 recorded amount

0.5%

Administrative expenses

$72,516.69 recorded amount

0.2%

Fundraising efficiency: $0.01 spent per $1 raised in donations, as defined in the source.

Expense shares are displayed as percentages. Component amounts in this collection match total expenses multiplied by the source ratios; rounding can leave a small difference from the total. The source does not supply a row-specific fiscal year. Field definitions ↗

Historical leadership record

The leadership information supplied

Recorded leader: Patrick Plonski
Recorded compensation: $133,262.00
Recorded compensation percentage: 0.36%

These fields do not establish the current officeholder or current compensation. The metadata does not specify the denominator of the leader compensation percentage. Read with context ↗

Inspect all 23 original source fields

Exact source strings are retained below, including numeric precision. A blank value is marked as not reported; zero remains zero.

All 23 original fields for Books For Africa
Source field	Original source value
`ascore` Accountability & transparency score	100.0
`category` Category	International
`description` Mission & description	Founded in 1988, Books for Africa (BFA) collects, sorts, ships, and distributes books to children in Africa. Our goal is to end the book famine in Africa. Books donated by publishers, schools, libraries, individuals, and organizations are sorted and packed by volunteers who carefully choose books that are age and subject appropriate. We send good books, enough books for a whole class to use. Since 1988, Books For Africa has shipped more than 41 million books to every African country. They are on once-empty library shelves, in classrooms in rural schools, and in the hands of children who have never before held a book. Each book will be read over and over again. When the books arrive, they go to those who need them most: children who are hungry to read, hungry to learn, hungry to explore the world in ways that only books make possible.
`ein` EIN	41-1627391
`tot_exp` Total expenses	36258346.0
`admin_exp_p` Administrative expense fraction	0.002
`fund_eff` Fundraising efficiency ($ per $1 raised)	0.01
`fund_exp_p` Fundraising expense fraction	0.005
`program_exp_p` Program expense fraction	0.991
`fscore` Financial score	100.0
`leader` Recorded leader	Patrick Plonski
`leader_comp` Recorded leader compensation	133262.0
`leader_comp_p` Recorded leader compensation fraction	0.0036
`motto` Tagline	Working to end the book famine in Africa
`name` Charity name	Books For Africa
`tot_rev` Total revenue	35600399.0
`score` Overall score	100.0
`state` State code	MN
`subcategory` Subcategory	Humanitarian Relief Supplies
`size` Source size label	big
`program_exp` Program expenses	35932020.886
`fund_exp` Fundraising expenses	181291.73
`admin_exp` Administrative expenses	72516.692

Identity & classification

At a glance

EIN: 41-1627391
Source category: International
Source subcategory: Humanitarian Relief Supplies
Recorded location: Minnesota (MN)
Expense-based size: Large
Above $13.5M in total expenses · source label: big

Explore alongside

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Linked by source subcategory, prioritizing the same recorded state. Not a recommendation or ranking.

A useful next step

Keep the context.

Check current organizational information separately before making a giving decision. This record does not include an official website, donation URL, or current eligibility field.

Giving research guide ↗

Source: Charity Navigator Scores Expenses Dataset, version 1, attributed to katyjqian on Kaggle. Collection: May 2019; rating details mostly from 2017. Read attribution, scope, and reuse notes.