We are proud to share that we have just completed and published 56 new Book Dash book translations to our website. Our growing catalogue now has a total of 817 books available across eleven of the official South African Languages.

Children from diverse backgrounds need books that are equally diverse. They need books that speak to the realities around them. That is why, with the help of our partners, we translate Book Dash books into different South African languages – from isiXhosa to Sesotho! 

Because the books are open-licensed, it means that anyone can download a book and translate it into more languages, too.

These titles are now available in all or some of the 11 South African languages, enjoy!

All Book Dash books are open licensed Remember that anyone can translate any of the Book Dash books into your own language! Find free downloadable children’s story books  (and their source files) here: https://bookdash.org/books/ 

Finance Manager (Cape Town)

Overview

Book Dash is a social impact publisher of open, African picture books for very young children. We tackle the complex systems that make having books in the home inaccessible to most children. Using a unique, replicable model, we create, translate, print and distribute high-quality books to preschool children and their families to own. This enriches the home learning environment and is shown to boost child developmental
outcomes. See more at bookdash.org 

Purpose
The Finance Manager leads and is responsible for financial operations, planning, and reporting. This involves providing critical financial insights and guidance to support strategic decision-making and organisational goals. Responsibilities include day-to-day organisational financial management, managing grants, ensuring compliance, and optimising financial systems and technology, all essential to sustaining and advancing the mission.

The role reports to the Executive Director. The successful candidate will be an experienced, hands-on finance professional with strong analytical and technical skills, keen to join a small, dynamic team working to make a meaningful impact on early literacy.

Responsibilities

• Financial Management: Manage daily finance operations, incl. bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounts receivable, stock (inventory) management, project budget management, payroll, supplier payments, cash flow management, and
  monthly accounts reconciliation.
• Budget management & Forecasts: Work closely with the Executive Director and management team to develop and manage forecasts and annual and multi-year budgets and keep track of spending.
• Strategic Financial Planning: Develop and implement the financial strategy aligned with organisational goals and priorities, with management and board where appropriate.
• Business Management: Provide strategic advice and profitability analysis to optimise revenue streams
• Compliance and Risk management: Ensure compliance with all relevant financial regulations, internal controls, and donor requirements. Perform VAT returns and all other statutory submissions. Coordinate and oversee the annual statutory audit.
• Grant Management & Fundraising: Provide support in the proposal development with regard to the budget. Monitor and track grant expenditures, ensuring compliance with donor requirements. Prepare and submit timely and accurate financial reports
  to donors.

Requirements

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance or Accounting.
• Minimum 5 years of financial management experience
• Previous experience gained at a non-profit or publisher would be highly advantageous

Skills & Attributes

• Excellent technical accounting skills
• Excellent understanding of
  • NPO/grant management and/or
  • publishing financial management (inventory etc).
• Highly proficient in using financial and project management software and tools (e.g., Xero, Sage Payroll, Trello, Google Suite etc)
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Ability to work independently as well as part of a team
• Strategic, big-picture thinking combined with attention to detail
• Enthusiasm to collaborate for the good of the whole organisation and its mission.

Start date: Negotiable (15 January 2025 latest). A 30-hour work week would be considered.

Book Dash is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Closing date: 20 October 2024

Application process: Please send your CV and 1-page cover letter motivating why you want to work for Book Dash and highlighting your relevant skills and experience to recruitment@bookdash.org
with the subject line Finance Manager. 

Please accept your application as unsuccessful if you have not heard from us by 20 November 2024.

What does it take to print more than half a million children’s books? Last week, we invited a few partners to see for themselves, in a behind-the-scenes visit to the printers Tandym Print.

As Book Dash celebrates our 10^th anniversary, we’re currently printing a whopping 609,000 books across 11 South African languages. This will take the total number of Book Dash books in the world to well over 4 million. It’s our biggest print run yet, and we suspect it to be the largest-ever print run of children’s storybooks in South Africa. Importantly, it’s coming at a time when young children need books in their homes more than ever. The books are destined for 120 partner organisations across the country, to be distributed through programmes to children to keep and own. Funding comes from donor partners looking to improve systems for early development and literacy levels at scale. 

Why is this such a big deal? Having books at home improves children’s early literacy skills, setting them up for success in all subjects. The book acts as a tool to support the parent-child relationship and for play-based learning. The earlier we start, the greater the gains so Book Dash advocates for book ownership from birth. 

Yet in South Africa, two out of three homes with young children do not have a single children’s picture book, according to the 2023 National Reading Barometer. In the past, cost and availability have limited our ability to get all children owning books, but with Book Dash’s work to optimise for efficiencies in key publishing and distribution processes, that isn’t the case anymore.

Book Dash was born and designed with scale in mind. In 2014, its founders used their publishing expertise to change the landscape of access to books in homes, for all preschool children. During the tour of the printers, we shared how careful decision-making at each step of the publishing, printing and distribution processes makes it possible to drive down costs and get more books to children. The Book Dash model reduces the cost of producing quality, local children’s books by up to 80%. For this print run, the books are just R15. Did you know?

• We assess and print to the exact needs of our partners (in terms of languages and number of children). The bulk of the books go directly from printer to partner. This drastically limits wastage and reduces costs and energy used in packaging, warehousing and logistics.

• We assess and print to the exact needs of our partners (in terms of languages and number of children). The bulk of the books go directly from printer to partner. This drastically limits wastage and reduces costs and energy used in packaging, warehousing and logistics.

• Book Dash books are printed at a 15x15cm format. Not only do these fit perfectly into tiny hands, but this size suits commonly-available paper sizes and minimises paper waste.

• Printers overprint to insure against errors. In agreement with Book Dash, additional copies (called ‘overs’) are first offered to factory staff for their children. The rest are passed on to Book Dash to distribute. A run of this size could result in thousands of additional books into the hands of children.

• It takes five weeks of active production to pull off such a big printing job. Processes start with signed-off proofs and move to plate-making, printing, folding, stitching, trimming and packing per order. The team at Tandym Print is calling May “Book Dash month!”

As we kicked off the tour, we took a moment to reflect on the fact that there are around 1.2 million children born each year in South Africa. The current print run alone represents enough books to give half of the children born in 2024 a book of their own.

Even 4 million books isn’t yet enough to fix the unequal access to books for preschool children – but it’s a significant start and a real effort to build literacy from the ground up. 

Now that we’ve developed a catalogue of 200 local titles, worked out the logistics of printing and distributing half a million books to children responsibly, and know the research supports this work, we’re ready to scale up to reach every child in South Africa. 

Keen to join us in tackling literacy challenges? Want to add books for all children in your programmes? Give us a shout!

Book Dash was nominated for the prestigious ALMA Award 2024.

This global award is given annually to a person or organisation for their outstanding contribution to children’s and young adult literature. It was established in 2002 by the Swedish government to promote every child’s right to great stories. With a prize of five million Swedish kronor, it is the largest award of its kind. Administrated by the Swedish Arts Council.

A total of 245 candidates from 68 countries have been nominated for the 2024 award, including 66 candidates new from previous years. The list include authors and illustrators, as well as storytellers and reading promoters with nominations submitted by organisations from all over the world.

The nomination underscores the impact of our work on the broader community and industry. It indicates that our efforts have not gone unnoticed and have resonated with audiences, peers, or stakeholders. The fact that our work has garnered attention speaks volumes about its influence and relevance. Even in instances where the award is not ultimately conferred, the nomination serves as a testament to the positive imprint our work has left on the field.

From time to time Book Dash organises a Collaborative Print Run, which is a pooled procurement project offering quality authentic children’s storybooks in different South African languages. As everyone’s small orders add up to a large enough volume of books, you help us achieve economies of scale, and very low prices for all.

We do this because giving books to young children to love and own has been shown to make a huge difference to the development of their literacy skills, their socio-emotional skills, their level of school-readiness, and their future in general. We always strive to make giving books as affordable as possible for you and your organisation.

We are offering a variety of Book Dash books (15cm x 15cm) at R15 per book to be delivered in the last quarter of 2023. These books will arrive in time to make excellent inclusions in holiday packs or be given to children as graduation gifts. Alternatively, you can also keep the books for an early start with your 2024 programmes.

Click on the button below for more information on how to order.

Book Dash is over the moon to share that there are now over 3 MILLION Book Dash books in the hands and homes of pre-school children in South Africa and around the world! 🌟 That’s right, beautiful, engaging, relevant books of their own to take home and own. Our creative volunteers, partner organisations and loyal donors are the heroes here. With just under six million pre-school children in South Africa, three million books? That’s big impact! 💪

📚 Owning books prompts children and adults to read together more often, building essential foundations in literacy and social skills. Children who enter school with better pre-literacy and social skills go on to perform better at school and have greater economic prospects.

📈 Of course, we only want to do more! We want every child to benefit from owning books. The Book Dash model and our network of creative superheroes mean we have the books to do it, and at a fraction of the cost it would have been otherwise. We hear from partners and donors that they see Book Dash books everywhere! But it’s not only about quantity — partners report that the quality of the books means that they’re making a huge difference to the children who receive them, the families and homes they go into and the quality of early education programmes across the country. Do you want to make a tangible impact on literacy? Email team@bookdash.org to find out how you can help get more books into children’s hands and homes… and more about why it matters.