Minneapolis, MN

WOMENS PRISON BOOK PROJECT

EIN 41-1977201

Justice, Rights & Public Safety Criminal Justice Reform & Reentry Women & girls Justice-involved people

Mission

An all-volunteer nonprofit that provides free, requested books and reading materials to women, trans, and gender-expansive people who are incarcerated, while building connections and educating the public about the harms of the prison system.

IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) public charity Contributions are tax-deductible

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About WOMENS PRISON BOOK PROJECT

Women’s Prison Book Project (WPBP) is an all-volunteer, donor-facing 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Minneapolis that has operated since 1994 to send free reading materials—education, legal self-help, health resources, fiction, and more—to women, trans, and nonbinary people in prisons across the United States. WPBP selects books in response to individual handwritten requests from incarcerated readers, packages them through volunteer shifts, and mails them while tracking and navigating facility-specific mailing restrictions. The project emphasizes solidarity, connection, and access to information as part of broader work to educate the public about the prison industrial complex. Recent public filings and the organization’s own materials show sustained activity through 2024–2025, with regular volunteer-run mailings, community fundraising (including periodic book sales and fundraising drives), and ongoing inclusion in regional prisoner resource directories and donor platforms.

Notable achievements

Established 1994

Founded in 1994, WPBP has maintained continuous volunteer-run operations for three decades focused specifically on meeting the reading needs of people incarcerated in women’s facilities.

High-volume distribution

The project prepares and mails roughly 140 book packages per week (approximately 500 packages per month), fulfilling individual requests and shipping thousands of packages annually to incarcerated readers nationwide.

Sustained community funding model

WPBP operates without paid staff, relying on donated books, volunteer labor, and community fundraising (including recurring GiveMN campaigns and local book-sale/fundraiser events) to cover postage and operational costs.

At a glance

Total assets: $69K
Annual revenue: $108K
Tax status: 501(c)(3)Public charity
EIN: 41-1977201
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Website: wpbp.org
On Mahalo since: May 2026

Financial figures from the IRS Business Master File, the IRS’s registry of tax-exempt organizations.

Recognition

Verified 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization (Tax ID 41-1977201) with public Form 990 filings through fiscal year 2024.

Maintains profiles on major nonprofit platforms and local donor sites (including ProPublica/Nonprofit Explorer, GiveMN, and a Charity Navigator profile; Charity Navigator currently does not provide a program rating for WPBP).

Frequently listed in prisoner resource guides and partnered community spaces; cited regionally as a longstanding books-to-prisoners project serving gender-marginalized incarcerated populations.

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