Charitable giving, the year in review

Princeton University Press is fortunate to be able to make annual charitable donations to organizations whose mission and values are meaningful and in alignment with those of the Press. This includes support for initiatives that work to protect the freedom of speech, promote equitable access to learning and reading materials, bring books to marginalized communities and communities displaced by war and other conflict, provide mentorship to young writers and readers, diversify the publishing industry pipeline, and more. In a spirit of transparency and to help foster awareness for the important work undertaken by these groups, we have in recent years started to share this list annually. A full list of charitable giving can be found below.

The Press also regularly donates books to support student work and research and build global library collections. This autumn, we joined the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) and TSEHAI Publishers at Loyola Marymount University in donating books to help build and grow the collection of the new Abrhot Library in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The AUPresses and TSEHAI donations were coordinated by Elias Wondimu, publisher of TSEHAI and editorial and production editor for the Marymount Institute Press, who collected materials from participating AUPresses member presses this autumn. The Library, which was opened in January 2022 by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Addis Ababa’s major, Adanech Abebe, has the capacity for 1.4 million books. The Press also donated economics titles to help build the library collection of the Center for Economic and Social Studies of Tolima-Colombia (CET), which supports economic research and regional socio-economic development projects in Colombia.

During 2022, donations of PUP books were also made to projects undertaken by students in Latin America, Africa, and the United States. The Press donated books from our Isms series of artist quotations to the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where students from under-resourced cities in the south of Chile were exploring the dissemination of Pop Art. A donation of interdisciplinary titles was made to ADDverse+Poesia, a graduate student organization University of Pittsburgh that celebrates transnational and multilingual Black/Indigenous/LGBTQIA+/disabled voices in poetry. Regionally-focused field guides were donated to the Oliveseed Kenya Trust, an organization that supports conservation in Kenya through literary projects at local schools, and Field ID Guides were donated to The Wildlife Society’s University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point chapter, supporting student research of bumblebees.

The Press donated copies of Abloh-isms, quotes from Virgil Abloh, to the Coalition for the Homeless, which provides meals, crisis services, job training, and special youth programs to 3,500 New Yorkers daily, while advocating for long-term solutions to homelessness. The group honored the artist and designer Virgil Abloh, who passed away in 2021, at this year’s annual fundraiser. Copies of Mary Beard’s Twelve Caesars: Images of Power From the Ancient World to the Modern were also donated to the New York Public Library’s Library Lions gala, at which Beard was among the year’s honorees.

Dozens of PUP books written by New Jersey residents were donated to Drumthwacket, an initiative of the First Lady of New Jersey to curate a library of books published in New Jersey, and by New Jersey authors, at the governor’s mansion. A copy of Monica Bohm-Duchen’s Art and the Second World War and Wizards, Aliens, and Starships were donated to the Princeton University Library Adler Prize, which gives books to student winners of the Elmer Adler Undergraduate Prize for Book Collecting, and books were donated to the UNOW Day Nursery, a childcare center at Princeton University, for their scholarship fund.

We’re so grateful to be able to engage with communities local and global to foster the incredible power of books, ideas, inquiry, and conversation.

Charitable Donations List

In 2022, Princeton University Press made charitable contributions to a diversity of organizations. Here is a full list, which includes staff selections:

Book Aid International is the UK’s leading international book donation and library development charity. Every year Book Aid provides new books to thousands of libraries, schools, universities, refugee camps, hospitals and prisons worldwide.

The City College of New York Publishing Program gives students the knowledge, skills and contacts to enter publishing. A special concern is diversity in book publishing and its impact on cultural production and our national and global market.

The Freedom to Read Foundation is a legal and educational organization affiliated with the American Library Association. The Foundation protects and defends the First Amendment and supports the right of libraries to collect—and individuals to access—information.

HomeFront NJ has worked for the past 25 years to break the cycle of poverty and end homelessness in Central New Jersey.

Girls Write Now breaks down the barriers of gender, race, age, and poverty to mentor the next generation of writers and leaders.

Learning Ally (Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic) is a nonprofit K-12 education solutions program that focuses on multi-sensory supports for students with dyslexia and other reading deficits.

The National Coalition Against Censorship promotes freedom of thought, inquiry and expression and oppose censorship in all its forms.

National Public Radio is an independent, nonprofit media organization founded on a mission to create a more informed public.

People & Stories / Gentes y Cuentos works to create a more equitable society by inviting new audiences to experience our humanistic, literary heritage.

The Telling Room works with young writers to build confidence and strengthen literacy skills.

The Universal Reading Foundation raises funds to distribute books for refugee children from Ukraine and support Ukrainian publishers.

The Princeton Public Library is a resource that seeks to engage, inspire, educate and unite everyone in the Princeton community.

The Arts Council of Princeton builds community through the arts and arts education.

We additionally give annually to the Princeton Fire Department, Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad, and Princeton HealthCare System Foundation.