“Though he runs an expanding nonprofit, the founder of Bernie’s Book Bank prefers to talk about business concepts such as cost -–per-unit to put books in the hands of children or methods to make a new processing facility partially pay for itself.
“It’s important for us to be as efficient as we can be,” Brian Floriani said.
In the interest of increasing efficiency, Bernie’s Book Bank is moving from its home of four years in Lake Forest to a new facility about a mile east in Lake Bluff. The new space at 917 North Shore Drive is scheduled to open by Dec. 7. The new building measures 35,000 square feet, an increase from the present 5,000 square feet.
“You can see how compressed we are here,” said Jill Rosenberg, gesturing at processing area which contains bins, tables and plastic containers all filled with books. Rosenberg is a former volunteer who became director of communications and marketing.
The new facility will include a catering kitchen. A portion of the facility can be rented out for birthdays, corporate team-building and other events. “All the money they are spending can go to a nonprofit and not a hotel,” Floriani said.
Bernie’s Book Bank aims to distribute 12 books a year to low-income children from birth to sixth grade in the Chicagoland area. By the end of 2015, Bernie’s Book Bank is on target to supply books to more than 130,000 children, Floriani said. In 2016 he aims to increase that to 150,000 children.”
Read more about our emphasis on efficiency in the Chicago Tribunes article.