Visit WebJunction's discussion areas on funding. There's a wealth of ideas there from around the country! - Consider all types of relationship building within your community, even with beauty salons, realtors and morgues!
- Create a fundraising action plan
- Establish a Friends group. Friends or no friends, use some of FOLUSA's good ideas
- Figure out what % of town's budget goes to library. Carnegie suggested 1% of his for libraries
- Find champions of libraries in legislature and communicate with them
- Find money for a grant writer
- Form partnerships with other organizations (Schools, Parent/teacher groups, hospitals, social service agencies, parks service) as it's often the expectation of funding agencies that you will be doing this.
- Get a "place at the table" in your community so all come to realize the benefits of partnering with the library: better community learning, health, commerce, quality of life, etc.
- Help town form a long range planning committee and then eventually include the library for future funding
- Hire a development person for grant writing, annual appeals
- Host legislative forum on libraries
- Lead efforts to develop a local task force, advisory board eg. Community Capacity Building Team
- One-on-one meetings with elected officials
- Meet with economic director for our community to learn of new businesses in our town for funding
- Read ALA's Rural Library Fundraising Handbook
- Rotary- visit and join to be part of community
- See more Fundraising for Libraries Resources and Links on LibrarySupportStaff.com
- See more online resources for Rural Librarians Promoting Public Libraries
- Seek out state library coordination for shared/traded services across the state
- Study up on searching for grants
- WebJunction Fundraising section
- WebJunction's Grand Tour of Alternative Funding
- 4th of July Festival hot dog and face painting sales
- Adopt-a-book program
- Annual Halloween Costume Rental
- Annual wreath sale, and May plant sale
- "Arrest" staff & bail money used for technology
- Artist made lobster adornment we sell. Also decorated local made bird houses.
- Ask restaurants to partner in a fundraising event like "take your library to dinner" or Dish Up Literacy
- Author dinner/luncheon
- A theme: the library will drive the town to drink!: a cart outside library for bottle donations. 1 person to do the pick-up
- Be a spider, Build a Web campaign for computers
- Beans and Cornbread dinners
- Bench auction raffle
- Big Belly Banks
- Bike-a-thon
- Bingo for software
- Book and author luncheon
- Booksales
- Book "theme" baskets - annually sold at local Fair, made with donated books
- Campbell's soup labels
- Catfish festival
- Christmas present campaign (library sends card notifying recipient of gift)
- Coffee Bar
- Collaborative Fundraising with library, Lighthouse, Hockamock Players, Odd Fellows Hall, Evening of fun, food & Entertainment.
- Community concert
- Consider alternative fund raising such as E-Bay sales of old books
- Contact Choctaw Nation (other tribe) about bingo game (proceeds for library
- Design and sell afghans with community buildings feature
- Dinner theatre
- Face painting at local events
- Fall chili/chowder cook-off-solicit local restaurants, etc. to provide food, charge a fee for samples of all
- Fashion Show
- Friends Annual Talent Show, $ 1,000 - $1,500. Have kids in it, all parents and relatives come
- Game night with an entry fee
- Garage sales
- Golf tournament
- Granny's Tea Party
- Guilt jar
- Gun club shoots old computers for a fee
- Harvest festival
- Have a used computer sale or raffle when upgrading
- Have library staff/patrons place fundraising ideas in drop box as a contest and reward winner
- Have local craftsmen donate items for auction
- Hold a "Books and Chocolate" fundraiser - plenty of books and chocolate - donations accepted
- Hold a tea for mothers and daughters to raise money for books
- Hold dance party with 50's, 60's theme
- Holiday ornaments/crafts
- Ice cream social
- Indoor golf
- "Keep the change" for the library
- LEAP School, house matching funds
- Library Antique Road Show
- Library T-shirts
- LibraryAID concert, big names donate time, etc...
- Literacy Awareness bracelets (like Lance Armstrong cancer bracelets- $1.00
- Local Celebrity auction
- Local history scavenger hunt (buy items for History Room)
- "Mad hatter's" tea
- Mother's Day Plant Sale
- Muffin/cookie sale by bags - say $2.00 a bag, has brought in $1500.00 for other groups- Partnering with bakers
- Murder mystery dinner - literary
- Partner with local artists to provide works for raffle prizes
- Pay-to-not sing
- Pet contest
- Pie/cake auction
- Place Christmas tree ornaments with books needed for patrons to take and supply
- Plant sale
- Post a "Buy a Book" campaign on your website like the East Meadow Public Library
- Publish or republish city or town book: cookbook by yearly recipe sharing
- Purchase local product for reduced price and sell to public for profit
- Raffles
- Read-a-thon
- Rebates from recycling
- "Ribs for reading"
- Quilting club meets at library and then donates quilt for raffle
- Santa Claus/Easter Bunny photos
- Sell canvas bags with library logo
- Sell duplicated or donated books not suited to your library
- Sell footprints of children placed in cement outside library
- Sell old pieces of building from renovation project
- Sell rooms or collections in the library for a year - name of donor placed on the room or on collection
- Sell storybook cakes
- Sell tote bags, T-shirts, local history books, cookbooks
- Sell used magazines to patrons
- Send home "holiday" jars for library users to collect change and return jars to library as gift
- Silent auction
- "Special" calendar- Superhero librarians, kids reading, local celebs, etc…
- Spice festival
- Stand on corner with sign "will read for funds"
- Tasters Choice luncheon to benefit the library
- Texas Hold'em competition
- Walk for software-create teams-collect money
- Walkway with names-sell individual stones
- Wine tasting party
- Wish tree - pull tab off and buy for library
- Write a cookbook for a fundraiser and call it something like: The Hungry Librarian (thanks esmeralda)
- Consider various levels of grant makers/funders: Local businesses, government (Mayor & council, political representatives-local, state, federal), foundations (local, family, national), individual donors, retired employees and community members.
- Gates, Dell, Toshiba - Educational Computer Grants
- JTG Foundation, walk-in wireless (grants)
- Search Foundation Finder for more grants
- Seek out Minigrants from local business, eg. Walmart, Sam's Club
- Start a foundation- 501c3 for receiving grants
- Work with area Arts & Humanities Council for grant opportunities
- A library endowment, trusts, wills/ bequeath to libraries
- Add funding button on website
- Advertising-plaques or plates-on donated computer equipment.
- Have organizations donate items that match their purpose, i.e. Lions give large print books and audio books
- Ask cable company to donate wireless
- Ask local bank what services/funds they may provide to community groups, often interested in technology funding in particular
- Ask the Internet Service Provider if they'll provide your service for free
- Challenge people in the community to donate $10, then encourage to challenge others
- Contact the Oprah Angel network
- Free-will donation box in the library
- Get businesses to purchase individual volumes of encyclopedia. Get enough money donations - purchase a whole set of encyclopedias
- Libri Foundation- http://www.librifoundation.org
- Offer free advertisement for donors
- Patron donate wireless router
- Pennies for computers from school kids
- Place donation cans in businesses
- Post wish list on Library Web pages, share across the desk or with local businesses
- Put up a picture of what your library wants and see if a donor bites
- Resources - donation jar for summer (tourist) Internet users
- Seek special honorees/benefactors
- Send letters to several foundations
- Solicit gift certificates or prizes from local businesses for special events/programming
- Solicit money from specific groups to purchase specific hardware
- Techsoup.org - great source for super discounted software
- Tourist wifi users
- Use holidays and/or birthdays etc. for gifts from patrons and place book plates in books
- White Pine Public Library has a "parking meter" in front of their circulation desk that collects change from the patrons.
- Alumni of any school you have graduated from
- Banks Community Investment Officer
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Funding through Friends of the library book store
- Gaming tribes helping non-gaming tribes
- Generate competition between ISP's for $ to library
- Have public, businesses adopt a book, magazine, computer, database, etc...
- Have a booster club for the library
- Local store incentive/rebate programs
- Multi-type libraries on the same automated system
- Once a year have a "Last Word Cafe" to accompany a giant book sale
- Operation Round-up from the local Rural Electric Corporation
- Overdue book money
- Participate in E-rate
- Partner with local co-ops
- Printing/copy fees - .20/.40 cents
- See more Funding Strategies on WebJunction
- Social enterprise developing income streams using assets and resources currently available, see Aztec Public Library
- Solicit sponsors for special collections
- Statewide tech. purchasing discounts
- Stewardship funds
- Traditional Registries can be set up for libraries as "wish lists" at many online vendors sites, like Amazon.com.
- Use high School Shop Class to make basic furniture
- Work with Choctaw Nation (other tribe)-they provide computers, you provide classes (finding roll numbers, for example)
- Contact local businesses to provide gifts/services for Customer Appreciation Month
- Make a quilt and people can have their name in a square if they donate to the library
- Send memo updates to your funders- town, city
- When building new construction, recognize contributors on bricks, furniture, and equipment
If you have ideas or resources to add, please share them in the comments area below. Thank you for all your great work!! |
