Just the Ticket: POP Project’s 2023 Year in Review and 2024 Goals

It seems like every year, the POP Project finds itself rounding another bend or cresting another hill, not entirely sure what we’ll find further down the tracks. (Read past annual reports.)

At the start of 2023, we were optimistic about our trajectory, and deservedly so. We had emerged from the lows of our pandemic-era results to a year of relative stability in 2022. But our expenses and deliveries were still off track, and easy volunteer opportunities weren’t making the grade. Still, we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we knew the strong history of our organization would ultimately lead to success.

As you read through our 2023 year in review, you’ll notice quite a few bells and whistles. The year was not a resounding success—we’d be blowing smoke if we said it was. But we stayed on track, and we were propelled ahead by our strong support system, namely our recurring donors and long-term volunteers. We thank you for journeying with us through another year in our mission: to spread the power and possibilities of literacy through greater access to books.

---

Keep reading or skip straight to these sections of our 2023 Year in Review:

• SUPPORTERS: Our thanks to you!
• DELIVERIES: Book program mission and results
• FUNDS: Annual budget breakdown and fundraising results
• RESULTS: POP’s 2023 organizational goals, and how well we did on each
• WRAPPING UP: Final thoughts on 2023
• MOVING INTO 2024: POP’s goals for this year and how you can help

---

SUPPORTERS: Thank You!

Each year, we begin our annual report by thanking our supporters—because we would be perpetually off track without your invaluable support! We need your help, support, and belief in the power of a good book. And you delivered once again in 2023. 

Thank you to our recurring donors, who kept their tradition of giving even without access to the Give!Local platform. Thank you also to our volunteers, social media followers, and amazing Board of Directors for your continued support. And a big thanks goes to New Belgium Brewing and our representative there, Beks Dodds, for choosing us as a beneficiary of the 2023 New Belgium Liquid Center Annual Donations Program. You’ve made it possible for POP to continue our free services into our 15th year in 2024! 

It’s not always easy to keep a volunteer-led organization chugging along, but thanks to you all, we’re able to do just that. Here’s to another great year of expanding the possibilities of literacy in 2024!

---

DELIVERIES: Book Program Results

Before 2020, POP was proud to deliver an average of 5,000–7,000 books per year to local agencies and organizations. Since the pandemic, our numbers have backtracked considerably, but this year we managed to get them back up to that pre-pandemic average thanks to the help of our hard-working volunteers! It’s important to remember that every book makes a difference to the people who receive them free of charge.

Our 2023 deliveries totalled 5,071 books, a value of $25,355.

That total came from 132 deliveries to 40 locations, the majority of which were in Asheville and Buncombe County.

Here’s a breakdown of the number and type of books delivered in 2023 as compared to the previous three years:

	2020	2021	2022	2023
Schools and Children’s Programs	0	882	50	1,023
Community Nonprofits, Housing Centers, and Organizations in WNC	292	1,706	355	1,185
State Prisons; Local Jails and Detention Centers	280	0	0	0
Little Libraries	388	601	1,260	2,505
Comic Books & Graphic Novels	3	66	249	358
Other	80	429	116	(1,770)*
TOTAL FREE BOOKS DELIVERED:	1,043	3,684	2,030	5,071

* These books were removed from our inventory, and so do not count toward our delivery goals.

2023 Book Delivery Locations

---

FUNDS: POP’s 2023 Finances and Fundraising Results

Regretfully, it costs money to give away free books. The vast majority of our budget each year goes to storage costs, with minor administrative fees making up the rest of our expenses. What offsets these costs is the generosity of our private and corporate donors. We couldn’t keep our mission going without your financial support!

2023 Income and Expenses

BUDGET GOAL 2023 = $4,000

ACTUAL INCOME 2023 = $3,622.72

We started the year by bringing in $2,390 from our 2022 Give!Local fundraiser (see below), thanks to dozens of one-time and recurring individual donors—covering an incredible 60% of our budget for the year! An additional $200 was raised by Elite American Petite Miss North Carolina, Laura Belle Gonzalez, for use in a specific book giving program. Throughout the year, especially during our holiday fundraising push, private donors gave an additional $950. The balance of our income came from a single book sale on Biblio.com, as well as gifts from AmazonSmile and PayPal’s Giving Fund. While we remained in the black for 2023, we missed our fundraising goal by about $380. 

Here’s how our incoming funds down:

• Non-Program Specific Grants – 0%
• Fundraisers and Give!Local – 71.5%
• Private One-Time and Recurring Donations – 26.2%
• Book Sales – 0.5%
• Corporate Giving – 1.8%

EXPENSES 2023 = $3,530.73

With the exception of banking fees, our spending was solely limited to our storage fees. (An anonymous donor helped cover a few annual administrative costs.) In total, we spent $3,466 on storage alone. We had two storage units for the greater part of the year, and expect our storage costs to be much lower in 2024 with only one unit. At the end of the year, our income covered our expenses with a few dollars to spare!

• Administrative and Fundraising Costs – 0%
• Book Storage and Transportation – 97.6%
• Staffing and Salaries – 0%
• Shipping and Travel – 0%
• Bank Fees – 2.4%

2023 Fundraising Successes

The POP Project brought in money from several different sources for 2023.

Give!Local 2022: The Give!Local fundraising program leading into 2023 was very successful. Thanks to local donors, POP raised $2,390 during the 2022 Give!Local campaign, exceeding our goal by nearly 20%. Those funds were allocated to start the year in 2023.

Summer Fundraiser: Over the summer, Laura Belle Gonzalez, Elite American Petite Miss North Carolina 2023 hosted an online fundraiser to support kids her age who are dual-language readers. POP received the $200 she raised and purchased 24 brand new books for UNETE, a local grassroots group that works with the Latinx community across four counties. These books went home with kids (and parents!) participating in their reading programs.

Recurring Donations: We asked for help and you answered the call! Thanks to a few key supporters, POP could count on recurring donations throughout the year. These donations help us plan and budget for the months ahead because we know we can count on those funds. (Become a recurring donor today!)

New Belgium Liquid Center Annual Donations Program: The POP Project was so excited to have been chosen as a beneficiary of the 2023 New Belgium giving program! Throughout the year, guest donations are pooled and awarded to Asheville-area nonprofits, and POP was chosen as a 2023 recipient. We are also excited to continue as a participant in 2024!

Note: the funds raised through the 2023 New Belgium Liquid Center Annual Donations Program will be included in our 2024 budget and do not appear in the figures above.

Storybook Holiday Online Fundraiser: For the first time in several years, POP did not organize our end-of-year fundraising through Give!Local. (It is that program’s objective to cycle out some participating organizations, and this was our year. We remain grateful to Give!Local for our long-time participation!) However, many of our recurring Give!Local donors turned up to give online through our in-house fundraiser so POP could start 2024 on the right track. Thank you to everyone who gave a total of $580! The money will go toward our 2024 operational budget goal of $3,000.

We are so thrilled to begin our fundraising efforts for the year ahead on the fast track! 

---

RESULTS: POP’s 2023 Organizational Goals

This time last year, we set a handful of goals to complete by the end of 2023. Here are the goals, as well as how well we did with each:

Consolidate our storage units and reduce costs: 

GOAL: At the top of our priorities for the year was to lessen our storage fees by downgrading to a single 10’x10’ unit and a smaller monthly bill. 

RESULTS: WE DID IT! When moving from our volunteer space in 2022, which held half our inventory, we had to open a second 10’x10’ storage unit to handle the overflow. The second unit essentially doubled our storage costs from what we had been used to, and it was important to consolidate our space as soon as possible. We spent the spring cleaning and organizing—and delivering lots of books!—and we were able to consolidate the units by the end of the summer.

Make 15% of deliveries to surrounding counties in WNC: 

GOAL: In 2023, it was our goal to make at least 15% of our book deliveries to organizations in Henderson, Madison, Haywood, and Transylvania Counties. 

RESULTS: WE DID IT! As usual, most of our donations focused on Buncombe County agencies. However, we delivered 777 books outside of Buncombe to Henderson and Haywood Counties, amounting to 15.3% of our total.

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. Instead, we focused on recycling or otherwise removing books we had been holding that are not suitable for new homes with our partner agencies.

Include 500 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. For 2023, we committed to a goal of finding new homes for 500 used comic books.

RESULTS: After delivering 249 free comic books in 2022, we aimed to double our deliveries this year. However, by the end of the year, we had only found new homes for 358 comic books. We’ll try harder to meet that goal in 2024. If your organization would benefit from free comic books, let us know!

---

WRAPPING UP: Our Final Thoughts on 2023

2023 was introduced as the first year of our greater post-pandemic “new normal”. At POP, we used the first part of the year to reset and regroup. By summer, our “new normal” programs and connections were going full swing. Over the course of these 12 months, we:

• Reviewed and consolidated our book inventory, saving money in the process and gaining a more accurate feel for our available inventory.
• Facilitated a youth-led fundraiser, passing on our love of books and dedication to sharing them to the next generation.
• More than doubled our book deliveries from the year before, bringing our numbers back in range with our long-term historic averages.
• Made new connections with area businesses and nonprofit agencies, helping to set up them and their clients for success.
• Pivoted our end-of-year fundraising from the Give!Local platform (which we had been a member of for several years) to an in-house online program, the Storybook Holiday Online Fundraiser.
• Were chosen by New Belgium staff as a local nonprofit to watch through their Liquid Center Annual Donations Program!

POP is so proud of our nonprofit journey thus far! At the start of 2023, we were poised for success. Based on the goals we set, juxtaposed with the bullets above, that success looked a little different than we expected. But we navigated the twists and turns, thanks to our thoughtful and dedicated volunteers! (Become a POP Project volunteer.)

Moving forward, we remain fueled by our simple, yet meaningful purpose to deliver free books to those in need. We’re propelled ahead by our new and emerging connections with area agencies, businesses, and individual supporters. And we continue to chug along thanks to the dedication of an amazing group of volunteers and board members.

In short, we’re stocked with tons of new books ready to find great new homes, and we’re focused on our mission: to spread the power and possibilities of literacy through greater access to books.

Let’s see how far we can travel in 2024.

---

MOVING INTO 2024: POP’s Continuing Goals and How You can Help This Year

Help the POP Project meet our goals for 2024!

Each year, we try to improve our book delivery base, programs, and volunteer opportunities. Historically, we were able to do that every year until a big pandemic-related drop in 2020. Since then, we have worked to improve from that new benchmark. 

Our goals for 2024 are: 

• Continue giving to surrounding counties in WNC (15% or more of our book deliveries to organizations in Henderson, Madison, Haywood, and Transylvania Counties).
• Include 500 comic books among our book deliveries.
• Set up a “volunteer hotline” to make it easier to activate our volunteer team when needed.
• Deliver 1,000+ books to jail and prison libraries.

To reach these goals and continue making progress in 2024, we will need your help. 

How You Can Help

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. 

Please help us meet our goals by supporting our efforts to connect with local agencies in need of books. 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 (or comic books)? Please reach out if your place of business is in need or if you have any leads.

In addition, 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 $3,000 fundraising goal for 2024! 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.