Hello Montana Librarians,
If you haven't had a chance yet to check out WebJunction, you'll want to do that as soon as you can. There's great stuff on this site--and it's priced right! It's FREE! Just discovered is this great list of fundraising ideas. Some of these are super. Check out number 35--my personal favorite.
Happy Library Marketing!
Lisa
Funding Brainstorm
Description: A list of funding ideas and resources collected from the Rural Library Sustainability workshops, training institutes, and from other discussion areas on WebJunction.
1. Visit WebJunction's discussion areas on funding
http://webjunction.org/forums/category.jspa?categoryID=12. There's a wealth of ideas there from around the country!
2. 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.
3. Ask local bank what services/funds they may provide to community groups, often interested in technology funding in particular
4. Seek out mini-grants from local business, eg. Walmart, Sam's Club
5. Consider all types of relationship building within your community, even with beauty salons, realtors and morgues!
6. Study up on searching <http://librarygrants.blogspot.com/> &
writing for grants.
7. Seek out state library coordination for shared/traded services across the state
8. 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.
9. Social enterprise developing income streams using assets and resources currently available, see Aztec Public Library
10. Establish a Friends group, see starting a friends group http://webjunction.org/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=719&tstart=0 forum on WJ
11. Friends or no friends, use some of FOLUSA's best ideas <http://www.folusa.org/html/best4.html>
12. Post wish list on library Webpages, share across the desk or with local businesses
13. Solicit gift certificates or prizes from local businesses for special events/programming
14. When building new construction, recognize contributors on bricks, furniture, and equipment
15. Ice cream social & silent auction
16. Seek special honorees/benefactors
17. Have a used computer sale when upgrading
18. Encourage patrons to keep the library in the public mind for memorial
19. Help my town form a long range planning committee and then eventually include the library for future funding
20. Consider alternative fund raising such as E-Bay sales of old
books
21. Search Foundation Finder
<http://fdncenter.org/findfunders/;jsessionid=RDKGB5UPXUE4XTQRSI4CGXD5AA
AACI2F> for more grants
22. Work with area Arts & Humanities Council for grant opportunities
23. Contact local businesses to provide gifts/services for Customer Appreciation Month
24. Hold a tea for mothers and daughters to raise money for books
25. Find champions of libraries in legislature and communicate with them
26. Put ads in publications where donors are likely to access-civic newsletters, etc., promoting library as tax shelter and bequest possibility
27. Solicit sponsors for special collections
28. Garage sales, booksales, raffles
29. 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.
30. Lead efforts to develop a local task force, advisory board eg. Community Capacity Building Team
31. See more online resources for Rural Librarians Promoting Public Libraries http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=12793
32. White Pine Public Library has a "parking meter" in front of their circulation desk that collects change from the patrons. They use the change to buy big ticket items that aren't usually covered by technology grants.
33. Post a "Buy a Book" campaign on your website like the East Meadow Public Library <http://www.nassaulibrary.org/emeadow/>
34. Traditional Registries can be set up for libraries as "wish lists" at many online vendors sites, like Amazon.com. If your trustees support this, it requires regular maintenance, but potential great additions to your collections and equipment.
35. Ask restaurants to partner in a fundraising event like "take your library to dinner" or Dish Up Literacy <http://www.dishupliteracy.org/>
36. Write a cookbook for a fundraiser and call it something like: The Hungry Librarian (thanks esmeralda)
37. See more Funding Strategies http://webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=405 on WebJunction
Lisa Mecklenberg Jackson
MLA PR & Marketing Committee Chair
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