Better World Books at SOCAP09

Posted by Dana on 09.17.2009 at 12:34 pm

September has been a very busy month here at Better World Books.  Our warehouse is busy processing and shipping loads of textbooks to all the students gearing up for fall and we have been unplugging ourselves from our computers to get out into the real world and meet some of you.

The beginning of the month found CEO David Murphy, Co-founder Xavier Helgesen and myself at the SOCAP09 Conference in San Francisco.  David spoke on a panel called SELLING WITHOUT SELLING OUT with Read more…

1 Comment » | Tagged Company News, best books on social enterprise, Calvert Social Investment Fund, dana barrett, David Erickson, david murphy, Federal Reserve, Satori Capital, SOCAP09, Sunny Vanderbeck, Terry Mollner, The Housing Policy Revolution, Xavier Helgesen

Live Blogging from Social Capital Markets 2008

Posted by Xavier on 10.13.2008 at 3:08 pm

David Murphy, CEO of Better World Books, and yours truly are speaking at the inaugural Social Capital Markets in San Francisco. This is truly a landmark event – the first conference I’ve ever heard of based on investing with a social impact.

David is speaking in a session on “pitching your ideas”. On the panel with David are:

Ben Black from New Cycle Capital. New Cycle just closed a $30 Million fund to invest in conscious companies.

Karyn Barsa, CEO of Investors Circle, was formerly CEO of Smith & Hawken and COO of Patagonia. Investors’ Circle is a network of socially conscious angel investors.

Moderating is Tess Reynolds from New Door Ventures.

Interestingly, I bumped into a fellow couchsurfer, Jon Gosier, in the audience. He’s doing fascinating things with incubating programming talent in Kampala, Uganda.

Ben says that a warm introduction is key. In this day of LinkedIn and Facebook, any entrepreneur worth their salt ought to be able to make a connection with the funder you want.

Read more…

3 Comments » | Tagged The Man Behind the Curtain, david murphy, live blog, Xavier Helgesen

Better World Books Takes the Gold!

Posted by David on 08.22.2008 at 10:48 am

Exciting news to share: Better World Books has won a National Literacy Award (the 2008 National Coalition For Literacy Leadership Award!)

This Award is being presented by the National Coalition for Literacy (“NCL”), a Washington DC-based non-profit whose mission is to “advance adult education, family literacy, and English language acquisition in the U.S by increasing public awareness for the need to increase funding and programs; promoting effective public policy; and serving as an authoritative resource for the field on national adult education issues; www.national-coalition-literacy.org.  Note:  NCL here is not to be confused with our major non-profit literacy partner NCFL (The National Center for Family Literacy) they are two completely separate and distinct organizations!

The Award is in recognition of the commitment and service of Better World Books to the field of adult education and family literacy. To quote the NCL:  “This award recognizes individuals and organizations that have made extraordinary contributions to improving literacy in the United States.  Award recipients have demonstrated a deep and sustained individual, organizational, or corporate commitment by supporting literacy across the lifespan of the local, state and national level.”

Additional 2008 award recipients include Rep. Ruben Hinojosa of Texas, The National Council of La Raza (Janet Murguia, President and CEO), and John Comings, former Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy.

The 2008 NCL Literacy Leadership Awards will be presented at a reception on Wednesday, September 10th, at the James Madison Building of the Library of Congress.   I have been asked to receive the reward and speak at the award ceremony and I look forward to representing all of you there.

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, awards, david murphy, Impact, NCL, press

Happy Father’s Day

Posted by admin on 06.13.2008 at 12:09 pm

In honor of the coming Father’s Day, we asked our newest dad, CTO Andy Warzon how he was preparing to involve books in the raising of the newest member of the Warzon clan.

Our baby room, weeks before my wife is due, is full of books already… old ones, new ones, little infant books, grade-school level educational books… we’ll never be short of reading material. I can’t wait to show our baby all the great books I read as kid, the ones that informed and excited me about the world, and the ones that stretched my imagination. [ed. note: Andy's wife just had the baby!  Congrats!]

The dad with the most experience (having raised his own children as well as Kreece, Xavier and Jeff when the company started), CEO David Murphy weighed in at the NCFL blog with the following:

Father’s Day is Sunday, and each year around this time I tend to look back to when my children were young. As the father of three fantastic children, I so clearly and vividly recall many moments curled up with my children reading to them, at all times of day and night…on the kitchen floor, in their forts, on old sofas and beat up bean bags, in bed and in the car.

Few moments in life can compare to the wonders of opening up the new world of language and communication and wonder and awe to your child. From those first moments of seeing and understanding new words, to now their collective love for ‘devouring a book’ — they possess the tools they need to be independent and to help them discover who they are and what they are destined to become in this world.

So, Happy Father’s Day all.  I took the time to send my own father “The Economics of Happiness” and “Go Green, Live Rich” to help his quest (to change his own life from NYC finance type to NYC finance type with a smaller carbon footprint).  One of the most important things he taught me was to educate myself to do the things I wanted to do, so I’m hoping I can help him do the same or at least convey that his message to me stuck.

Have your say » | Tagged Our Partners, andy warzon, david murphy, father's day, NCFL, Our Partners

Bring a Book to the Sullivan Summit!

Posted by David on 05.22.2008 at 10:06 am

Hello everyone.  Take a look at the attached .pdf from Books for Africa.

Sullivan Summit.pdf (911.48 KB)

This flyer was sent to all 500+ delegates attending the “Sullivan Summit” in Arusha, Tanzania.  Note that Better World Books, through the Better World Books Fund within Books For Africa, is sponsoring the shipment and that the books will be distributed by the Poverty Eradication Network (PEN) in Tanzania. Natasha Harris, Niko Tomlinson, Mary Murphy, Jaime Knabet, Dustin Holland and myself visited the PEN folks in the summer of 2006 and have continued to stay in touch with them (Mungwe and Andrea).  They do fantastic work (based in Dodoma, the national capital of Tanzania) throughout the country.

To find out more about the Sullivan Summit VIII, go to www.thesullivanfoundation.org/summit/.

Have your say » | Tagged Dispatches from the Green House, Uncategorized, africa, better world books fund, books for africa, david murphy, sullivan summit, Tanzania

Relevant New York Times Article on Social Entrepreneurs

Posted by David on 05.21.2008 at 7:22 am

Make sure to read the March 21st article in the New York Times written by David Brooks, entitled “Thoroughly Modern Do-Gooders”.  This is an excellent article on Social Entrepreneurship and there are many points from the article that connect directly with what we have built here at Better World Books.

Have your say » | Tagged Dispatches from the Green House, Uncategorized, david murphy, new york times, social entrepreneurship

NCFL Blog Love!

Posted by admin on 04.01.2008 at 11:35 am

Post swiped from the NCFL’s hot new blog, “Literacy Now.”

The good times just keep rolling! Here are some of the conference highlights from Monday:

• 
  David Murphy of Better World Books helped open the general session with thoughts about how Better World Books are working to .merge commerce and philanthropy in a way that will make the world a better place. One simple way to do that…shop BetterWorld.com to buy books from a company that balances profit, planet, and people.
• Marie Bradby shared the background and inspiration for her book, More Than Anything Else.
• The NCFL photo booth wrapped up with almost 70 groups visiting and having their pictures made. Keep an eye out for your picture in your local paper!

And we were honored with some great coverage in the local newspaper in Louisville. Click here to see the online version of Monday’s article in the Courier-Journal.

Photo gallery and comment over at the original post

Have your say » | Tagged Our Partners, david murphy, NCFL, Our Partners

David Murphy in Hong Kong to Address 2007 Cyberport Venture Capital Forum

Posted by admin on 12.03.2007 at 8:36 am

Better World Books’ President and CEO, David Murphy, is in Hong Kong to address the 2007 Cyberport Venture Capital Forum on “Building Creative Businesses that Can Do Well and Do Good”.  With over 300 Venture Capitalists from both Hong Kong and mainland China expected to attend, the Forum hopes to inspire the participants on a collection vision to build businesses which can do well economically and also do good for the community.

According to Nicholas Yang, Chief Executive Officer of Cyberport, “our distinguished and successful speakers will share their experience on how they bring profits to their companies and benefit society at the same time.  Investors and entrepreneurs will also share their insights on how to seek out, fund and build companies/business models which can do well and do good at the same time.  We believe more that more businesses in the future will embed social elements in their operation and strategy, to help create a better society for future generations in which to live, to work, to enjoy, and to dream.”

Please click on the link  below to find out more information regarding the 2007 Cyberport Venture Capital Forum.

Venture capital forum set for December 4
News.gov.hk – Hong Kong

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, david murphy, hong kong, press, social entrepreneurship

Fast Company’s 2008 Social Capitalist Awards

Posted by admin on 12.01.2007 at 10:08 am

Attached you will find the article from Fast Company magazine (Dec/Jan issue) that announces their “2008 Social Capitalist Awards.” This is the fifth year Fast Company has selected outstanding companies for their social impact; however, in the past, they have only focused their search and selection process on the non-profit community.

2008 Social Capital Award – Fast Company.pdf (1.25 MB)

This is the first year that Fast Company embarked on an experiment to look at the for-profit sector for those companies that are truly making a social impact and changing the world. Thirty one companies applied and ten winners were selected…..including Better World Books!! Fast Company teamed up with the Monitor Consulting Group and some other outside social venture expertise to apply a rigorous methodology for selecting companies that, in the end, explicitly place social good ahead of shareholder return.

Take a look about what they say about your company….it is certainly nice to see a highly respected institution like Fast Company/Monitor Group verify (again, after a ton of examination), understand (they clearly “get” all that we do and the impact we are making in the world) and publicly applaud our business model.

I like the closing paragraph to the Social Capital Awards article here….worth highlighting for all of you.

“Change the world. Make some money. Raise more money, and make more change. It is an appealing prospect. Nonprofits were born because for-profits weren’t addressing some market failures — pollution, poverty, illiteracy. Profits won’t cure those ills, but it’s becoming a bigger part of more solutions. Perhaps it’s dawning on us that the cost of capital for changing the world should be lower. Perhaps the capital markets will cut the world a break.”

It goes without saying that this award is YOUR award….each and every one of you who make Better World Books run. Congratulations on being such an integral part of not only this recognition but in changing the world….one book at a time.

Have your say » | Tagged Uncategorized, awards, david murphy, fast company, press, social entrepreneurship

Green for All Initiative

Posted by admin on 10.03.2007 at 7:35 am

I am excited to share with you some news regarding Better World Books’ support of “Green for All”.   See this from Brad Weirich, Employee Development Manager, who will be involved with this effort going forward (representing Better World Books):

Green for All, a new campaign focused on bringing “green collar” jobs to urban areas, launched on Friday, September 26th, at the Clinton Global Initiative.  The group, created by Van Jones, Co-Founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, seeks to capitalize on the exploding green economy while ensuring that the coming green economic wave impacts on more than one level.

The Green for All campaign is a bold effort to harness the growing power of the green economic revolution to fight the war on poverty.  By securing job training for 250,000 workers from urban communities for the emerging green job market, the program will provide new avenues of opportunity for those who have traditionally been left behind by the nation’s economic growth.

Green for All was launched with the support of over 200 businesses and organizations, including Better World Books.

If you would like to see the full press release, please go here

Have your say » | Tagged Dispatches from the Green House, Impact, david murphy, Dispatches from the Green House, environmental impact, green for all