My daughter receives books through this program and I was curious how it was sustained at a $2.5/book wholesale cost.

Interestingly, the coordinating body that selects books, facilitates distribution, and negotiates wholesale pricing is the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, but per-book funding is actually entirely through local charities and so on. This means that where charities are unable to act as partners, children will not receive books, but it also means that the program can operate by growing and shrinking as local support (including from state and local government grants) comes online and goes offline while keeping the overhead for local partners low.

Dolly Parton came up with the initial local structure for her region in Tennessee and David Dotson of Dollywood scaled the operation using this decentralized model. Very impressive structure that makes this sustainable.

Here’s the interview where he talks about it: https://www.endbookdeserts.com/dolly-parton-imagination-libr...

Really glad to see this as the top comment.

Parton did a lot of very nice things and was a great contributor to society in good and decent ways that many of her wealth peers totally fail.

But there has since her passing been an element of myth and folklore that has elevated those accomplishments beyond reality.

Her library is a great idea and her support was notable, but the funding in large part comes from government grants and other donors.

To a large degree, the library program is also your tax dollars at work.

Regarding cost per unit. I think the publisher likes this type of partner because they can really get their initial order volume up high without much risk. This allows them to have a super low cost per unit, maximizing profit, from the start.