Books are one of the best recyclable resources around. They have value no matter what their age, and hold appeal for adults and children alike. The concept is simple - get people to donate books, then have a sale. The best way is to canvass for books, and then sell coupons for the book sale when you pick up the donated items. 

The ideal book fundraiser will work like this: 

First, arrange for a place to hold a sale, preferably 2-4 weeks in the future. Second, start your canvass - you can target schools, churches and neighborhoods to promote your fundraiser and let people know about the sale. 

Let people know you are willing to accept any books, and that the leftover books from the sale will be donated to the library, school or nursing home. 

Have a drop off point at your church or school where people can bring books in advance, or a special day prior to the sale when people can drop off books and purchase discounted coupons for the sale itself. 

When you make the rounds to pick up any other books, have coupons ready. You can sell them for a dollar each, or 6 for five dollars, or books of ten or more for discounted prices. You can also sell the coupons in other venues; if you can pre-sell enough to make your goal, any on the spot purchases at the sale will be pure gravy! 

On book sale day, lay out the books in a simple, easy to find order, divided by genre and author. Make signs stating that new releases (published in the last 12 months) cost three dollars or coupons, hard-covers are three, soft-covers and new looking paperbacks are two and cheap paperbacks (romances, westerns) cost one. 

After the sale, you can take some of the books to the nursing home, others to the school library, and donate the rest to the library and charity. 

This is an incredible fundraiser, as it is a completely green funraiser and recycles books that otherwise might eventually be discarded and take up landfill space!