The Better World Books NOligarchy Profile
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Better World Books earns a NOligarchy Score of 95.08 — placing it first in the Book retailers and news dealers sector from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026 (8 quarters — the two-year tracking period). The score reflects the absence of matched public-record data across every category this index tracks: no federal lobbying filings, no Political Action Committee (PAC) activity, no executive pay disclosures, no stock buybacks, no regulatory fines, and no public subsidies have been linked to this company in available sources. That could mean genuinely restrained conduct — or it could mean records exist that have not yet been matched. The current data does not resolve which.
Current Pillar Scores
Political Access
100.0
Wealth Extraction
74.2
Playing by the Rules
100.0
Score history — 23 quarters
Tier bands show where each quarter's score falls — no numeric y-axis needed. The dashed ring marks the year-over-year comparison point. Tap any quarter but the first to see its pillar breakdown.
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Political Access Grade: 100/100. No federal lobbying expenditure, PAC spending, or executive campaign contributions have been found in available public records for this period. The score reflects the absence of matched data, not a confirmed finding of zero political activity.
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Wealth Extraction Grade: 74.52/100. No stock buyback, dividend, or company-specific executive pay records have been matched to Better World Books. The grade falls below perfect because the company’s private structure means it faces no legal requirement to disclose what its leadership earns relative to its workers — so a sector-wide benchmark, not a disclosed figure, drives the score down from 100.
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Playing by the Rules Grade: 100/100. No regulatory violations or public subsidies have been found in available enforcement databases for this two-year period.
Sector Context: Better World Books ranks 1st out of 15 companies in the Book retailers and news dealers sector, where the average NOligarchy score is 83.5. At 95.08, Better World Books sits more than 11 points above that peer average — an accountability outlier among its competitors, though that gap reflects missing data as much as it reflects confirmed behavior.
The Bottom Line: No Public-Record Data Matched — and That’s Not the Same as a Confirmed Clean Record
Across Q3 2024 through Q2 2026 — the full eight-quarter tracking period — no lobbying filings, PAC contributions, executive donations, CEO pay disclosures, stock buyback records, regulatory fines, or public subsidy grants have been matched to Better World Books in any of the sources this project tracks. The most recent publicly verifiable revenue figure for the company is roughly $65 million, reported by Forbes back in 2013, according to Wikipedia. Whether the absence of matched records reflects genuine restraint by a mission-driven private company, or whether records exist under a different entity name or in sources not yet linked to this company, is something the available data cannot answer. Readers should treat the score as a floor, not a ceiling.
Outside Federal Tracking Coverage
The Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) database returns no filings linked to Better World Books for Q3 2024 through Q2 2026. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) shows no contributions tied to the company. No external lobbying firms, in-house lobbyists, or revolving-door hires from government appear in any available disclosure.
What that means in practice: this project has found no evidence that Better World Books spent money attempting to shape federal policy during the two-year period. Whether that is because no such activity occurred, or because activity exists under a different filing name or entity, is not something the current record can answer.
EXHIBIT — THE RESERVED SEAT
$0 in lobbying · $0 in PAC money
Better World Books filed no federal lobbying and ran no corporate PAC in this window — the reserved seat at the witness table sits empty.
No Matched Pay or Payout Data
No stock buybacks, dividends, or company-specific executive compensation records have been matched to Better World Books. Because the company is privately held, it is not required to publicly disclose what its top leadership earns relative to its workers — a structural gap in the public record that exists regardless of what the company actually pays.
The best available proxy is a sector-wide benchmark: the AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch estimate puts the ratio at 182:1, based on AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch industry benchmarks for comparable companies in this sector. That figure is not drawn from Better World Books’ own filings — it is an industry estimate applied because no company-specific data has been matched. Whether the actual gap at Better World Books is higher, lower, or in the same range is not publicly known.
No Enforcement Records Found in Available Sources
No regulatory violations and no public subsidies appear in available enforcement databases for the two-year period. That result may mean the company has maintained a clean compliance record — or it may mean enforcement actions exist under a different entity name or in jurisdictions not yet covered by the sources this project uses. The data as matched does not distinguish between those possibilities.