NORTHAMPTON – Every month, Broadside Bookshop features a nonprofit to raise awareness and funds for each organization.

Ellen Hartwell, an employee at Broadside Bookshop who helps organize the nonprofit program, said the program initially began back in 2014 after the store’s owners saw a similar program at a book conference.

“There was some talk about working with nonprofits and so we have done it our own way, not the way everybody else was doing it,” she said.

Over the course of the last seven years Hartwell said 40 nonprofits have participated in the program and there are two or three nonprofits that participate every year.

To help raise awareness for each organization, Hartwell said the store sets aside a space inside

“The main thing we do is create the window, we do not tend to raise much money, but we do have a collection jar and once a month we sell some advanced reader books the publishers send us to review them. We then put them out to a cart, sell them for a dollar and that money goes toward the non-profit,” she said.

For July, Broadside featured Grow Foods Northampton, who decorated the store window with paint that will be removed at the end of the month.

Hartwell said the amount donated to the nonprofits varies from month to month.

“It depends on the generosity of who goes by and varies so widely from month to month it is hard to predict how much people will give away,” she said.

In many cases, Hartwell said the nonprofits contact her about participating in the program.

“Often, they contact me, they hear word of mouth, they see a display, or they like the idea of it. I would say 90 percent of the non-profits have approached me. For the other 10 percent I look around and see what programs we are not covering in terms of community need and I reach out, but that is very unusual,” she said.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hartwell said two organizations that were scheduled to be featured in 2020 were moved into 2021.

“It took a while once we reopened to start up again. I know I skipped at least two and the ones that I skipped I brought in this year, so they did not miss out, we just postponed them. If somebody cannot quite pull it together, we just feature them next year and they get priority in terms of the scheduling,” she said.

Hartwell said helping the nonprofits is one of the best parts of her job.

“It is one of the best parts of my job because I get to see how caring a community we live in. All of these people are so dedicated to doing something good, it continually renews my faith in humanity,” she said.