Articles to Read
Have you settled into a ‘low pay, make do, and do without’ culture?” read this article that cautions not to skimp on overhead:
Gregory, Ann and Howard, Don “The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle,” The Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2009 http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_nonprofit_starvation_cycle/ (September 2, 2009).
Free or Somewhat Free
Joomla: open-source content management systems: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/webbuilding/page11968.cfm
Fund Raising Events
Send me your best Fund Raising event idea! What is working for you?
Grants and Contests
Google Adwords grant: http://www.fundraisingip.com/fundraising/how-to-apply-for-the-google-adwords-grant/
Libraries in Action
Story Time Birthday Parties
The Lower Providence Community Library in Eagleville is offering Story Time Birthday Parties on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. For $125, a person can book a party that includes the use of our Community Room, a private story time program running about 20-30 minutes, a craft, basic decorations (balloons and a Happy Birthday banner), a book for each child to take home selected from our Friends of the Library used books, and a packet of information about the library for parents of all the guests. The parents provide the cake and refreshments, table service, paper products, and any other activities.
They had three parties in the spring but did not offer parties in July and August due to reduced weekend hours—BUT they are ready to start up again! Their party policy is posted at http://lpc.mclinc.org/Birthday%20Party%20Policy.htm.
Miscellaneous
Non-cash Gifts
Will you accept non-cash gifts? Are you kidding me?! Well, you may want to consider what these gifts will cost you.
Look at Dauphin County Library System’s Gift Acceptance Policy for things to think about: http://dcls.org/Documents/Gift%20Acceptance%20Policy.doc (September 3 2009)
According to the August 26, 2009 Philanthropy Today News Updates on The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s website, Americans reported making donations of $46.8 billion in noncash gifts in 2006 (And they only counted those giving $500 or more!): http://philanthropy.com/news/?id=9296&pth&utm_source=pt&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=leftbottom (September 3, 2009) What are YOU willing to accept?
TIP: Educate your patrons about planned giving, bequests, fundraising etc:
Make sure you have titles on these subjects in your collection and consider hosting free workshops on community foundations,
planned giving and related topics etc.
Donation Jars for Other Non-Profits:
Do you or don’t you? A recent question, put out to the community, provided these summarized responses:
We will not collect for any non-profit except United Way (since we receive funding from them) and ourselves and we make no contributions to any worthy causes – we are solicited since we are viewed as a local “business” by many.”
This makes it very easy to say no – we just don’t do it. No blurring of any line. It may seem harsh at times, but with the current funding problems of public libraries it is not difficult. The vast majority understand our reasons.”
I previously worked at a library that passed concurrence with the Donor Bill of Rights that said we could not collect for anything but ourselves because everything that is donated to the library is used by the library. This meant, for example, a group might come in for several hours and, clearly marked as not us, sell candy bars for their mission trip or whatever.
Check out the Donor’s Bill of Rights on the Association of Fundraising Professionals website:
http://www.afpnet.org/ka/ka-3.cfm?content_item_id=9988
