Current Status

Grady Kallenbach and Karl Frederick, with the indispensable help of the original store founders and hundreds of donors and loyal customers, have kept Many Rivers Books & Tea going under the new nonprofit entity, Many Rivers Foundation, and continue to expand our community outreach and sales.

Rob Schmidt and Stuart Goodnick continue to provide 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsorship through Tayu Order, Inc. while we seek federal nonprofit certification for the new foundation.

What we did last year

In the past year we resumed pre-Covid store hours and offerings:

• Updated and restocked the entire holiday-depleted inventory
• Hosted several Thursday night book launches, performances, and speaker events
• Hosted several monthly tea tastings
• Opened Sunday hours Noon - 4 PM
• Added over 2,000 donated books to the inventory and created a collection of high value/rare editions
• Purchased a replacement computer and received donations of larger monitors, speakers, and microphones for in-store event use
• Contributed an average of 10 hours of unpaid labor per week, for a savings of over $10K for the year

The projected sales income of $190K for 2025 was optimistic. Actual sales from Feb 1, 2025 through Jan 31, 2026, our first 12 months of operation, were about $135K (just slightly higher than the previous year), and total donations of cash were about $41K. The Fair Market Value of donated books reached just over $20K! At the end of December, 2025, we were able to retire $8K of start-up funding debt owed to Grady and Karl and to allocate a late December $10K cash donation to 2026 operations.

An unexpected requirement arose last year, triggered by the contemplated change in ownership of the store and inventory, originally planned for March of 2025: The Sonoma County Health and Environmental Safety Department (which had annually re-inspected the premises and approved Many Rivers Books & Tea's operating permit every year without fail since the store's inception in November of 2002) introduced several facility changes which would be necessary to continue operations under the new operating organization. In the face of indeterminate costs to accomplish the changes, we decided to defer the sale and continue operations under the original ownership, but with full operating responsibilities handled by Grady and Karl and Many Rivers Foundation.

What we want to do now

This year, in addition to continuing the expanded operations we returned to in 2025, we would like to accomplish the sale/ Transfer of Assets from Tayu Order to Many Rivers Foundation, which could be enabled by making physical upgrades to the tea serving and back room dishwashing areas, and further, to enhance operations by adding storage capacity (racks and shelves), sprucing up the customer-facing parts of the store, and designing and implementing sorely needed website upgrades.

Our need for community funding continues, albeit for a bit less than requested for our first year of operation. For the remainder of 2026, if sales can hold steady at the 2025 level (and there is some doubt about that, considering the recent lull in customer visits, due perhaps to the current uncertain economic climate) we will need additional funding of about $30K to break even (with zero profit) at the end of 2026. We will also look for a third person to join the staff, perhaps as an intern at first, in a regular part-time capacity, in order to ease the work schedules of Grady and Karl, who are both ready to give up hours (and salary) in order to make funds available.

As always, we remain vitally interested in maintaining the peaceful yet responsive environment curated so well by the original founders of Many Rivers Books & Tea, Rob Schmidt, Stuart Goodnick, and Jim Wilson. We are energized by customers who prefer to shop in their small, hometown book and tea shop rather than online, and often call us to see if we have a book they want, or can tell them where to find it.

As we announced a year ago, when we began this endeavor, if you would like to make a cash donation to help us through this year, please make the donation to Tayu Order, Inc. and mail it to us or drop it by the store at 130 South Main St., Suite 101, Sebastopol, CA 95472. You can also donate online through www.gofundme.com/f/save-many-rivers-books-and-tea. Thanks so much for being with us. Your support is what makes it possible for us to be here.

Grady and Karl

How to Support

Tax deductible contributions made out as payable to Tayu Order, Inc. and noted For: Many Rivers Foundation may be mailed to:

Tayu Order, Inc, 133 Fredricks Ranch Lane, Sebastopol, CA 95473

or delivered to the store at 130 S. Main St., Suite 101, Sebastopol, CA 95472. You may also contribute online through our GoFundMe fundraiser at: gofund.me/10f991db or by scanning this QR code: