We are launching a new emergency campaign, The Book Trade Charity’s Cost-of-Living Appeal. Launched on the 185th birthday of the Charity, we aim to raise £185,000 towards our core and vital grants programme, in order to provide much-needed help to colleagues over the tough months ahead.

Why now?

During 2022 we received a high number of requests for financial assistance from individuals and families in need. The need has been so acute that we are now asking for more support from our incredible donors. We are working very hard to secure more funding to help grow our grants programme to support industry colleagues over the challenging years ahead – with your help we can ensure that we never have to turn away an eligible colleague.

To give you a feel for the numbers, during 2022 our Book Trade Charity grants team awarded grants totalling over £249,000 – helping to put food on tables, heat homes and keep the lights on, as well as meeting other individual needs. This puts pressure on our budgets, which is clearly set to continue as the cost-of-living crisis evolves, plunging more colleagues into hardship. But we know that we can rise to this challenge and continue to provide a safety net for families and individuals, alongside our work supporting new entrants to the trade. That is why we have a single-minded ambition to strengthen the core work of our charity - bolstering our renowned grants programme through this appeal.  

President Jonathan Nowell says: ‘For over 185 years The Book Trade Charity (BTBS) has provided vital grants and homes to colleagues in the book industry. We launch special appeals only when we need to: when there was an overwhelming need for low-cost housing or when Covid struck. The current cost-of-living crisis has already driven requests for grants up by a significant amount in some areas. We are launching the appeal now to meet this demand by strengthening our core grants programme and thereby safeguarding our vital work across our industry.’