First Book Marketplace Perks: Promo Codes, Grants & Free Resources

One of the many perks of being a member of the First Book community is having exclusive access to special funding opportunities to help subsidize the cost of books and resources on the First Book Marketplace!

A major part of our mission here at First Book is to make sure our Network of educators, serving children in need, has enough budget to provide books and resources to ensure their students’ success in school and in life. That’s why we work with dozens of corporate and nonprofit partners—and a generous network of individual donors—to raise funds so we can offer promo codes, grant opportunities, and special events so our members can access funding for FREE books and resources!

How to Join the Network

So how do educators get more information about First Book marketplace promo codes, grants, and other funding opportunities?

The first step is becoming a member! It’s 100% free to sign up with First Book and it takes about five minutes to create your First Book Marketplace account. First Book supports all kinds of educators (formal or informal) working with children in need. If you work in a Title I-eligible school, early childhood program, library, community organization, or any other type of program where at least 70% of the children served come from low-income families, you are automatically eligible to sign up.

Once you’re a member, please keep an eye out for our emails! We’ll let you know as soon as any funding opportunities come available. After you sign up, please make sure to add firstbook@firstbook.org to your email contacts/safe senders list to ensure that our messages don’t land in your spam/junk folder. If you’re having trouble finding our emails, please contact our friendly Member Services team at 1-866-READ-NOW or help@firstbook.org and we will do our best to help troubleshoot! Our regular business hours are Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST (excluding major holidays).

Promo Codes + Grant Opportunities

While we work to raise enough funding to be able to offer special opportunities to our growing Network of over 525,000 educators, please note that promo codes and grant programs are often only available while funding lasts. Additionally, funding opportunities are sometimes only available in specific geographic areas or for specific types of programs (e.g., a grant exclusively for libraries in Texas, or a special promo code for programs that operate as USDA Meal Sites). You may not receive announcements about every program, but we’ll let you know when eligible opportunities are available!

Understanding Restricted Promo Codes

We sometimes receive questions like this: “I saw an email about a promo code, but I’m having trouble getting it to work. What do I do?”

First Book Marketplace promo codes are sometimes restricted to specific sections or categories — such as books to promote Diversity & Inclusion or books to support students’ Social & Emotional Learning. If you’re having trouble applying a code, please make sure to check the email message for additional details about restrictions and fine print. 

Our friendly Member Services team is available to assist you should you run into an issue or have questions about promo codes or other funding opportunities available to you! Please always feel welcome to contact us at 1-866-READ-NOW or help@firstbook.org. Our regular business hours are Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST (excluding major holidays).

Additional Perks + Resources

In addition to providing funding via promo codes and grants, there are a ton of exclusive benefits to being a member of the First Book community, such as:

• FREE educational resources. Our members drive everything that we do, and that’s why we create free resources available through the First Book Accelerator^TM. Every now and then we ask our members to share their unique needs and concerns in surveys or focus groups which drives the development of expert-informed free resources for educators on relevant topics like race and social justice, student mental health, and social and emotional learning (SEL).
• Access to the Book Bank. Through our one-of-a-kind Book Bank, you can order brand new books and resources in bulk for just the cost of shipping and handling! Books and educational resources offered in the Book Bank are donated by our generous publisher and vendor partners.
• FREE Digital Library of eBooks. Open eBooks is a FREE eBook library app that contains a rotating catalog of thousands of popular, award-winning eBook titles that students and families can access at home or on-the-go from an Apple or Android mobile phone or tablet! First Book members working in any setting (classrooms, libraries, afterschool programs, etc.) can order free Open eBooks access codes/PINs for students and families in their community, allowing them to log in to the Open eBooks app.

In addition to the options above, First Book members have ongoing, 24/7 access to the First Book Marketplace—our award-winning eCommerce site where you’ll find an incredible selection of relevant books, supplies, activities, digital learning resources, and much more! Everything available on the First Book Marketplace is offered at the lowest possible price to help our members stretch their dollars and reach more kids.

Supporting First Book & the Community

If you’re not eligible to shop the Marketplace, but still want to support the work we do, visit Support Us to learn more about how you can help!

The generosity of our donors and partners helps us support educators who are transforming the lives of children in need by elevating the quality of their education. To date, we have distributed more than 225 million books and resources to schools and programs across the county.

This post was updated June 14, 2022