After our best year ever in 2019, and arguably our least successful year in 2020 (thanks, COVID), 2021 was a year of creating balance.
We experienced changes to our storage and volunteer space, which also brought changes to our workflow. POP’s outside volunteer opportunities were canceled for the second year in a row, as well as potential community collaborations. However, we were still able to deliver more than triple as many books in 2021 as we did in 2020. And we’re well on our way again to finding harmony in our practice after the tensions of the last two years.
As you read through our year in review, it will look like we teetered on several of our goals. But we hope at the heart of this review, you’ll see the balance we were able to maintain and the strength we built so that we can focus on succeeding with all of our goals this year.
Keep reading or skip straight to these sections of our 2021 Annual Report:
- SUPPORTERS: Our thanks to you!
- DELIVERIES: Core book delivery program and results
- FUNDS: Annual budget breakdown and fundraising results
- RESULTS: POP’s additional 2021 objectives, and how well we did on each
- LAST STAND: Final thoughts on 2021
- 2022 FOCUS: POP’s goals for this year and how you can help
SUPPORTERS: Thank You!
The POP Project is excited to kick off 2022 on the right foot, thanks to your generosity.
Thank you to our 2021 donors, social media followers, and amazing Board of Directors for your continued support. Because of you, we stayed stable and were able to take deep breaths and concentrate on what matters. The changes we experienced could have knocked us off balance, but we felt you there holding us up. That gave us the poise we needed to bend to the changes of our “new normal” while we held our focus on our goals ahead.
Your help, support, and belief in the power of a good book kept us going in 2021. Here’s to expanding more in 2022!
DELIVERIES: Setting a New Baseline for Book Deliveries
To show you the bind the pandemic has put us in, we’re taking you all the way back to 2018. Our last “normal” delivery year was followed up by our “10 for 10” goal in 2019 (delivering 10,000 books in a single year in celebration of 10 years in operation). Which was then followed by a year of lockdown in 2020. After several years of instability, our book deliveries are still not back up to average. But we’re poised to get there in 2022. Here are the numbers:
Our 2021 deliveries totalled 3,684 books, a value of $18,420.
That total came from 46 deliveries to 26 locations in Asheville and across Western North Carolina.
Here’s a breakdown of the number and type of books delivered for 2021 as compared to the previous three years:
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |
| Schools and Children’s Programs | 3,288 | 2,009 | 0 | 882 |
| Community Nonprofits, Housing Centers, and Organizations in WNC | 1,512 | 2,761 | 292 | 1,706 |
| State Prisons; Local Jails and Detention Centers | 271 | 2,742 | 280 | 0 |
| Little Libraries | 936 | 2,138 | 388 | 601 |
| Comic Books & Graphic Novels | 19 | 38 | 3 | 66 |
| Other | 70 | 400 | 80 | 429 |
| TOTAL FREE BOOKS DELIVERED: | 6,096 | 10,088 | 1,043 | 3,684 |
2021 Book Delivery Locations
ABCCM
Asheville Contemporary Book Club
Asheville Fire Department – Station 2
Center for Craft
Deaverview Apartments
Eliada Home
Evolve Early Learning
Fairview Elementary
Focal Point Coworking
Green Opportunities
Hall Fletcher Elementary
Hillcrest Head Start
Hominy Valley Community Market
Johnston Elementary
Leicester Elementary
Odyssey School
PEAK Academy
Ramada Inn Homeless Initiative
Rutherfordton LFL
Verner Early Learning Center
WestBase Coworking
Western Carolina Rescue Ministries
YWCA of Asheville
Little Free Library Highlight
The first Little Free Library that POP built and placed in the community was for Leicester Elementary in November 2016. After nearly five years of mountain weather and continual use, it was time for an upgrade. With funds from the Glass Foundation, Leicester Elementary got a new, professionally built LFL box for their school. If you live in the area, pop by to take or leave a gently used children’s book.
FUNDS: POP’s 2021 Finances and Fundraising Successes
After the shutdowns of 2020, we at POP needed to take a deep breath and concentrate on the heart of our mission to deliver free books to community members in need. We would not have been able to do that if not for our donors who helped us start the year with funds in the bank. Those donations were especially helpful when we had to take on the expenses of a second storage unit over the summer after the lease for our storage and volunteer space on the river expired.
2021 Income and Expenses
BUDGET GOAL 2021 = $3,000
POP’s operating budget for 2021 was $3,000. Due to unexpected additional storage expenses, we exceeded that budget by $95.
INCOME 2021 = $2,672.49
Through fundraising and one-time and recurring individual donations, we raised $2,672.49 or 89% of our goal. Here’s how that broke down:
- Non-Program Specific Grants – 0%
- Fundraisers and Give!Local – 88.3%
- Private One-Time and Recurring Donations – 10.6%
- AmazonSmile – 1.0%
EXPENSES 2021 = $3,094.95
With only a few exceptions, our spending was limited to our storage fees. In total, we spent $3,094.95 on storage, general administrative costs, book programs, and shipping and travel. Unfortunately, that total exceeded both our budget and the income raised for the year. By the end of 2021, we had to dip into our reserve savings to cover remaining expenses.
- Administrative and Fundraising Costs – 14.9%
- Book Storage and Transportation – 85.1%
- Staffing and Salaries – 0%
- Shipping and Travel – 0%
2021 Fundraising Successes
The POP Project brought in money from several different sources for 2021.
Give!Local 2020: The Give!Local fundraising program leading into 2021 was a near miss, but overall a big success! Thanks to local donors, POP raised $1,485 during the 2020 Give!Local campaign—just $15 shy of our $1,500 goal that year.
Charmed Asheville: Also during the holiday 2020 season, Charmed Boutique in Downtown Asheville donated a portion of its December sales to POP. Thanks to the many holiday shoppers dedicated to shopping local, that total amounted to $621.71.
Breaking and a Book @ The Hop: During their weekly Facebook Live “Breaking and a Book” event, The Hop’s Greg Garrison showed off breakdancing moves and read a children’s book. POP was the recipient of their March fundraising efforts, earning $119.80.
AmazonSmile: Shoppers who confirm “The POP Project” as their charity of choice at smile.amazon.com/ch/27-1146752 help POP raise funds year round. AmazonSmile donates a portion of eligible purchases to POP’s mission, which amounted to $27.93 in 2021.
Give!Local 2021: Thanks to our most recent end-of-year fundraising efforts, POP raised $2,060 through Mountain Xpress’s Give!Local platform—the most money yet! The money will go toward our 2022 operational budget goal of $3,500. Here are a few highlights of the fundraising season:
- Total raised through Give!Local: $2,060
- Total number of donors: 39
- Number of new donors*: 10
- Percentage raised toward 2022’s $3,500 budget: 59%
We wanted to start the year with half of our 2022 budget in the bank. We are so thrilled to have such a great start on the fundraising efforts for the year ahead!
*Donors who did not give to POP in 2020.
RESULTS: POP’s Additional 2021 Objectives
This time last year, we set a handful of goals to complete by the end of 2021. As you can see from the results, the course of the pandemic continued to affect our ability to meet all of our goals. Some will carry over into 2022.
Continue giving to surrounding counties in WNC:
GOAL: In 2021, it is our goal to make at least 15% of our book deliveries to organizations in Henderson, Madison, Haywood, and Transylvania Counties.
RESULTS: Not many of our 2021 donations benefitted those counties directly, though there were a few. However, POP did facilitate a new Little Free Library in Rutherford County, and volunteer Jeanne Cumby worked to send 350 children’s books to a school in Liberia. In total, 609 books (16.5%) of the 3,684 POP delivered went to locations outside Buncombe County.
Hold our annual “Rethink Ink” book sale fundraiser:
GOAL: POP accepts almost all kinds of books, and so we have collected many that we currently cannot find homes for. Our “Rethink Ink” fundraiser serves as one of our largest fundraising events of the year.
RESULTS: Unfortunately, this did not happen. With social distancing measures evolving over the course of the year, we thought it was safer to once again skip any public sales.
Include 100 comic books among our book deliveries:
GOAL: Comic books and graphic novels can be an important stepping stone in both early childhood and later-in-life literacy. This year, we would like to commit to our goal of finding new homes for used comic books.
RESULTS: Up from just three the year before, we delivered 66 comic books around the area in 2021. But we have a couple thousand more on hand, many of which are ready to go out in 2022. If you need comic books, let us know!
Move to a smaller storage unit:
GOAL: In addition to our volunteer space in Woodfin, POP maintains a storage unit in West Asheville. But with 70% of our funds going to maintain that unit, it’s time to downgrade to a smaller size and a smaller bill.
RESULTS: Unfortunately, the opposite happened. After the lease for our volunteer space in Woodfin expired, we had to move everything from that space to a second storage unit. Storage and transportation costs in 2021 rose to a whopping 85% of our expenses. However, as the root element of our book delivery, it was necessary—at least until we can ramp up our deliveries again!
LAST STAND: Our Final Thoughts on 2021
2021 was a test of maintaining stability in an unstable environment. In addition to conforming the binds of COVID in the community, POP had to shift our operations and delivery flow in light of changes to our storage situation. And all this without the regular volunteers that we relied on in the pre-pandemic days.
However, we maintained our poise and can take heart in the successes we achieved throughout the year. Book deliveries tripled from our 2020 low. We were able to successfully fundraise through virtual channels. New Little Free Libraries were installed in the community. And we have a lot of inventory to work with in 2022—especially children’s books!
If we’ve learned anything over the last few years, it’s the strength we have at the core of our operation. And the energy we get from engaging with our supporters (you!), volunteers, and book recipients to focus on our mission: to spread the power and possibilities of literacy through greater access to books.
We’ve begun 2022 composed and even-handed. And we’re excited to reconnect with volunteers, delivery locations, and our supporters as soon as it is safe to do so.
LOOKING AHEAD—and How You can Help in 2022
Help the POP Project meet our goals for 2022!
We want to keep expanding our donation base, programs, and volunteer opportunities for the coming year, and we would appreciate your help. Here are just a few of our goals for 2022, along with ways you can help us meet them:
Continue giving to surrounding counties in WNC:
GOAL: In 2022, it is our goal to make at least 15% of our book deliveries to organizations in Henderson, Madison, Haywood, and Transylvania Counties.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Do you know of any shelters, development centers, detention centers, food pantries, or healthcare facilities in these counties that could benefit from a few good books? Let us know how we can help.
Hold our annual “Rethink Ink” book sale fundraiser:
GOAL: POP accepts almost all kinds of books, and so we have collected many that we currently cannot find homes for. Our “Rethink Ink” fundraiser serves as one of our largest fundraising events of the year.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Can you suggest public, accessible locations that would be good spots for our next “Rethink Ink”?
Include 250 comic books among our book deliveries:
GOAL: Comic books and graphic novels can be an important stepping stone in both early childhood and later-in-life literacy. This year, we would like to commit to our goal of finding new homes for used comic books.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: If you have gently used comic books and graphic novels that you would like to pass along to new readers, we would love to accept them! Know groups that would appreciate free comics? Send those our way, too!
Replace 2 of our Little Free Libraries in Buncombe County:
GOAL: We have new Little Free Library boxes positioned to replace two of the nine LFLs we manage in the area. New boxes mean better protection for the books within, and hopefully more books available to people in need.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Moral support!
Additional Ways to Help POP
The POP Project works to make sure no book goes without a home, goes unread, or sits on a shelf and collects dust, and that all of the books with which we are entrusted are used for constructive, personal expansion.
In addition to the goals listed above, there are many more ways to support POP’s mission and help us make a positive impact on our community. Please consider donating time, money, or ideas that will directly impact our programs.
Help us meet our $3,500 fundraising goal for 2022! Make your one-time or recurring donation today!
Donations can be made via PayPal on our site or mailed to the POP Project, PO Box 18653, Asheville, NC 28814. The POP Project is a 501(c)3 organization. Please consult your tax advisor about deductible donations.