Thanks to Ingram Content Group for helping the Foundation reach the campaign’s first goals in record time
UPDATE: You did it again! In record time, we’ve made our match and hit our campaign goals! Thank you, Michael, Leigh, Tom and Chris for kicking-off our second matching challenge, thank you to everyone who has given during our year-end campaign and throughout this extraordinary year.
Thanks to the generosity of donors like you, more than 2,200 book and comic shops, booksellers, and comic retailers have received $2.9M in assistance this year. And the really amazing thing is no one who qualified has been turned away.
If you haven’t had a chance to give yet, there is still time. Every gift helps strengthen the safety net for the book and comics community.
This year has been challenging for so many of us, If you are a bookseller, bookstore owner, comic shop owner or comic retailer, Binc is here for you. Stay in touch, follow us on social media, subscribe to our newsletter, and if you are facing a financial emergency, get in touch.
Thanks to a matching gift challenge of $15,000 from Ingram Content Group® and the generosity of the book and comics industries, the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation has met the first goals in its year-end fundraising campaign in record time. If these were normal times, we’d be done and go on with business as usual.
But these are extraordinary times, and we believe booksellers and comic retailers will continue to face extraordinary circumstances. Supported by a group of authors, Binc is launching a new matching campaign and a stretch goal of $20,000 additional, for a new total campaign goal of $80,000 by Dec. 31.
Michael Loynd, author of All Things Irish and the upcoming The Watermen (Random House/Ballantine, 2021); Leigh Bardugo, bestselling author and creator of the Grishaverse (coming soon to Netflix); Tom Watson, author of the Stick Dog series; and Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of The Flight Attendant (streaming now on HBO Max) and Hour of the Witch (arriving in April from Doubleday Books) have joined together to offer a match of up to $10,000 to kick off the second phase of Binc’s year-end campaign.
“Thank you to Michael, Leigh, Tom and Chris for coming together to lead this new matching campaign,” said Binc’s Executive Director Pamela French. “We know the pandemic has put pressure on many people, and we don’t make this ask lightly. Making a gift will strengthen the book and comic industry’s safety net and help us continue navigating this challenging time. Gifts of all amounts are valued and important, and we thank everyone who has given so far. Thank you.”
“Independent bookstores are the heart of our industry and the Binc Foundation is a great way to show our appreciation and ensure they are supported through these tough times,” said Michael Loynd.
“Bookstores are places of refuge, battle stations, cathedrals. I don’t want to lose them and I want to make sure that the people who make those places thrive are able to thrive too. I’m so grateful to Binc for providing tangible ways to support our booksellers and bookshop owners,” said Leigh Bardugo.
Tom Watson said, “Authors and booksellers are more than business partners. We’re family. And we look out for each other whenever we can.”
“This has been the Year that Satan Spawned and stories have helped keep us sane. If we ever needed proof of how desperately the soul needs books and we need bookstores, it was the pandemic of 2020. That’s why I support Binc,” said Chris Bohjalian.
Since the onset of the pandemic, Binc has provided life-sustaining financial assistance to more than 600 bookseller and comic retailer families and has not had to turn away anyone who qualified for assistance. The Foundation has helped bookstore owners, booksellers, comic shop owners and comic retailers manage a range of emergencies, from unexpected medical and dental bills, to finding shelter from the wildfires raging out West and recovering from natural disasters around the country.
This new goal will position Binc to help an increasing number of booksellers and comic retailers. The Foundation currently receives an average of 5-7 inquiries a week from booksellers and comic retailers, and we expect those numbers will increase as the pandemic continues into 2021. In the first 10 months of 2020, Binc has helped more than 600 bookseller/comics retailer families, distributing more than $700,000. In the first 10 months of 2019, 88 families received grants totaling approximately $200,000.
To donate to Binc’s year-end campaign, click here, or call Binc’s Director of Development, Kathy Bartson, at 734-471-0201.