CIPS Foundation helps children’s charity to turn the page on book poverty
8 May 2025
The Children’s Book Project, a volunteer-powered charity committed to eradicating children’s book poverty, will receive financial and procurement governance support from the CIPS Foundation, a linked charity to the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS).
Enabling access to books for children growing up in poverty is a powerful social equaliser. Inspiring reading material helps to expand children’s perspectives and fulfil their potential, with research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) demonstrating that reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s life outcomes.
Despite this, one in eight disadvantaged pupils in the UK do not have a single book of their own at home, and at the same time a huge surplus of books are discarded annually. The Children’s Book Project supports socio-economically disadvantaged families to make sure children do not miss out on the opportunity to choose and own their own books.
While the charity receives donations from children’s book publishers and has set up book collection points across the UK via its agreement with the retailer Asda, collection and delivery of books remains a significant logistical challenge.
The CIPS Foundation is funding a programme to utilise CIPS Advisory Services to help optimise and futureproof the charity’s supply chain processes in a robust and sustainable way.
Emma Scott, CIPS Foundation lead, says: “the funding will help the Children’s book project overcome logistical challenges around checking, packaging and distributing hundreds of thousands of books each year. This will improve their current supply chain processes and enable the charity to scale up at pace to make greater impact.”
Getting books into children’s hands
Across 20 consultancy days, the programme will help the Children’s Book Project to:
- Identify storage opportunities for donated books, with consideration for flexibility for fluctuations in donation volume
- Optimise the procurement of key expenditure items (such as boxes, stationery and tape)
- Optimise the movement of books, from collections through to donation
- Access to sustainability expertise to help refine the charity’s model
Anna Powell from the Children’s Book Project adds: "We are incredibly grateful to the CIPS Foundation for their generous support. Their commitment to improving supply chains and promoting ethical, sustainable practices aligns perfectly with our mission. This partnership will create a lasting impact on children's lives across the UK and we're excited about the transformative difference we can make together."
The programme will tackle a thorough review of existing procurement and supply chain processes; undertake data and document analysis and interviews; and benchmark against international best practice. This will include a CIPS-based gap analysis and delivering an improvement plan and technical assistance to develop areas such as procurement documentation, governance and guidelines, supplier assessments, sustainability policies and contract management principles.
Gillian Askew FCIPS, director of All Things Procurement, is the delivery partner guiding the charity through the project, utilising CIPS best practice.
Gillian concludes: the Children’s Book Project shows how procurement can be a strategic enabler of real change, especially when the goal is so clear – helping more children access books and the brighter futures that they deserve. Through the CIPS Foundation, we’re proud to apply commercial expertise to support meaningful impact and longer term, values-driven growth for the charity.”
Each year, the CIPS Foundation offers funding opportunities to charities that are committed to improving supply chains and ethical and sustainable standards around the world.
Find out more about the Children’s Book Project.
