The Book Fund began when Mrs. Spurgeon expressed the desire to get a copy of Charles Spurgeon's "Lectures to My Students" into "the hands of every minister in England." So he challenged her to do it, which she did out of household expenses, later supplemented by contributions. Perhaps in the Western world, the availability of books is no longer a major issue, but maybe it would be a good idea for less developed areas. (Probably somebody is already doing it and I'm just behind the times.) Taken from Charles H. Spurgeon: His Faith and Works, H.L. Wayland, 1892.

August, 1876, Mrs. Spurgeon, in "A Letter to Her Friends," published in "The Sword and Trowel," told the story of the first year of the Book Fund. Three thousand and fifty-eight books had been distributed to ministers whose salaries were seventy pounds, sixty pounds, or even less than fifty pounds. The Book Fund, springing thus, without human forethought, into existence, was the product of divine wisdom and of God's thought for his servants. If money is given to a minister, there are a hundred calls for every penny, and soon all is gone; and, beyond a present lessening of hardship, all is as before. The man's earning capacity is no greater; his mind is starved without books; what can he do but starve his people, and they, in turn, starve him? But the gift of books, timely, suggestive, appropriate, furnishing him with new material, helps him to think. All this makes him a new man. The people rub their eyes and say, "What has come over the minister?" and presently they feel that his stipend must be raised. He feeds them, and they, in turn, feed him.

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“A saint cannot do evil before men but he gives opportunity for sinners to speak evil of God. If there be any spots on a Christian's coat, the world will soon spy them.”
–George Swinnock in Works