Bookstores Raise Almost $48,000 for ABFFE

ABFFE Thanks FREADOM Gift Card Stores

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) this week thanked 74 bookstores that raised almost $48,000 to support its work through the sale of Freadom gift cards over the past four years.

ABFFE , which created the Freadom gift card in 2006 as part of the American Bookseller Association’s now-defunct gift card program, provided the card to stores for free in return for a donation of 10 percent of the gift card sale.

“Fundraising ideas are a dime a dozen, but this one really worked thanks to the strong support of booksellers, said ABFFE President Chris Finan. "We are very grateful to those 74 stores.”

Finan also thanked ABA's Jill Perlstein, who was in charge of the gift card program and suggested the idea of creating an ABFFE gift card; artist Roger Roth, who provided the image of the Statue of Liberty that appears on the card and other ABFFE products; and Ruth Liebmann of Random House, who arranged for permission to use the Roth illustration. The graphic originally appeared in The American Story: 100 True Tales From American History, a Random House book by Jennifer Armstrong. Random House also made a donation toward the cost of producing the first Freadom card.

The 74 stores that sold Freadom gift cards are: