Blurb Launches Blurb for Good

Blurb for Good enables anyone to create and use books to support social causes;
Blurb will contribute funds for every book sold to qualified projects

San Francisco, Calif.—June 08, 2010— Blurb®, the creative publishing and marketing platform, today announced the launch of Blurb for Good, a platform that enables citizen philanthropists and nonprofits to create and use books as a means to generate awareness, goodwill and monies for social causes.

“The vision for Blurb has always been inclusive of a platform for social good,” said Eileen Gittins, founder and CEO, Blurb. “We have now reached the scale and platform richness that makes this dream possible. Even before the launch of Blurb for Good, we have seen authors use the Blurb platform to sell over 17,000 cause-related books and raise over $500,000. Blurb for Good provides a means to supercharge efforts to use Blurb books as a means of raising awareness and generating funds for a specific cause."

Citizen philanthropy is a fast growing trend around the world. Social media has given individuals the tools to motivate their friends, family and others to get involved and support causes. In 2009, in the midst of challenging economic times, 92 percent of non-profit organizations saw an increase in the number of gifts received due to online promotion of fundraising for their causes.

Anyone and any organization can join Blurb for Good at www.blurbforgood.com. Blurb for Good leverages the benefits of the Blurb platform, making it easy to design, publish, market and sell professional-quality books, using Blurb’s award-winning Blurb BookSmart® software. Blurb for Good authors can set up a unique page in the Blurb Bookstore to help promote their cause, and their books will be featured in a special section of the Bookstore reserved for cause-related books. Blurb’s social and community marketing tools, including the new Blurb BookShow™ widget, allow customers to share Blurb books anywhere online – on Facebook, blogs, web sites, iPad, anywhere.

Today, Blurb authors keep 100% of their profit. With the launch of Blurb for Good, Blurb is introducing a contribution program that will help authors raise even more funds for their causes. Authors can apply to receive a contribution from Blurb for every book sold. Blurb will provide contributions to qualified authors who are raising money for registered non-profit organizations in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

“Earlier this year, I wanted to do something to support earthquake victims in Haiti,” said Julie Van Rosendaal, founder of the popular food blog DinnerwithJulie.com. “It struck me that a cookbook created by the food blogging community would be a personal way for us to collectively do something that would make a difference by producing a tangible product to sell and raise funds. Thanks to the Canadian government, who matched sales of the book, and to Blurb, who made it possible to get the book from concept to online bookstore in under three weeks, and available to buyers worldwide, Blog Aid: Recipes for Haiti sold more than 1,800 copies in 7 days, raising more than $45,000 for Haitian relief.”

“Photographers at Microsoft produced a 160 page fine art photography book as a Giving Campaign fund raiser for the United Way in fall of 2009,” said Daniel Moore, participant in Photographers at Microsoft 2009. “The project was wildly successful, raising over $50,000 for charity. This was possible due to our partnership with Blurb, who provided high quality print services, on-demand order fulfillment, online store-front, funds collection and disbursement. We were able to deliver a quality product without being either in the printing business or the online sales business. Blurb has been a fantastic partner for us.”

“We have seen Blurb books make a real difference in communities around the world,” said Gittins. “With the launch of Blurb for Good, we look forward to enabling more of these projects and featuring them prominently in our Bookstore for all to discover.”

About Blurb®
Blurb® is a self-publishing platform and creative community that enables individuals to design, publish, share, sell, and distribute photo books, trade books, and magazines in both print and digital formats across the globe using its free, innovative book creation and layout tools. Founded in 2005 by Executive Chairman, Eileen Gittins, Blurb has nearly 2 million independent book authors worldwide, resulting in 3.9 million unique book titles, with more than 14 million units shipped to 80 countries around the world. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and can be found online at www.blurb.com.