Fundraising, con't...

Yesterday at the district meeting we talked about fundraising. The conversation began on the district listserv with Jackie at Chartiers-Houston asking what everyone else was doing with regards to fundraising.

I was reminded of Michael's opening line at one of the trustee trainings:
"We are not only the richest country in the world, we are the richest country in the HISTORY of the world". We may be in a dreaded "recession", but I saw no evidence of it this past weekend. Not at the Mall of GA and Not as I was driving past Bristol after the race--hordes and hordes of people who had just spent lots of money!

We have to get past the "poor me" mentality. How do you know that people won't give to the library if you don't ask them!

Everything I've read lately talks about the importance of having a fundraising plan (within the confines of your strategic plan). Neither needs to be 30 pages long! Keep It Simple!
Know:
how much you need to raise;
the timeframe with which you need to raise it;
why you need to raise it;
how you plan to raise it;
who is going to raise it;
AND the estimated COSTS involved in raising it.

If it is costing you $150 dollars to raise $60, you have to "rethink" your fundraising. Staff time is a huge expense with regards to fundraising. Can you spare your already strapped staff to do fundraising for the library?

DJ Oshry will be here on April 30--the goal is the development of a fundraising plan (so far I have only 3 rsvps for this session, two of which are from the DLC.)
We have to get out of the "pocketbook" method of budgeting and start "planning"!

Here are the ideas that were shared yesterday:

-Community Theater is doing "Beauty & the Beast". Check about partnering with them for a block of tickets. Talk to Patty Thompson at Citizens Library.

-Marianna's former board president, John Sonoga, decided to think outside the box and it worked. For a fund drive mailing, he targeted the graduates of the old Marianna school. That fund drive brought in $4,000! He also devloped the "10/10 Club". Instead of asking people to donate $100, he asked them to donate $10 for 10 months. People who couldn't "afford" to write a check for $100, could afford a $10 check one time a month.

Fredericktown: From their past fund drive, they targeted everyone who had given $50 or more and set a goal to raise $3,000 for an end-of-the-year shortfall. From 30 people they raised $3,000.

Heritage: Tried their fund drive in three phases. March (very successful), August (not so much), but then again in October with just a postcard and raised as much as they did in March. They also have regular quilt raffles. The quilts are made by the group that meets at the library. They went by the daily number for their last raffle and raised $1,000.

Mr. Britten reminded us not to forget alumni! There is a website where alumni are searchable. People who have moved away still feel connected to their hometown and will give!

Don't forget your website. Links other library's use include: google nonprofit, igive.com and surf & donate. Amazon and Barnes and Noble have programs for libraries as well that include a percentage of sales that are generated from your library's webpage.

Sony is giving t.v.'s to libraries. California and Monongahela have received them; Heritage is applying. They also will give away MP3 players. Just ask!

Something that worked at Bentleyville when Elina was director was the "sponsor the library for a day". It is a great "write off" for businesses as well as good PR.

In Charleroi, Ms. Lammy did their fund drive for forever--she got lists of addresses from everywhere, the fire company, the tax office...She built a network of people that helped her accomplish the library's fundraising goal. What a lesson we can learn from Ms. Lammy!

One of the books in the professional collection suggests challenging each board member to ask 5 people for $100. And, as it was pointed out, if each board member first writes their own check, then goes out into their network and asks for 5 more...

Range Resources will give "matching" funds. Heritage is raising $10,000 to get a match from them.

Bentleyville has a Christmas Bingo. There is someone in the community that loves Bingo and did ALL of the work. The total receipts were $9000 and the net raised was $4,909. Not a bad haul for a Bingo planned by a volunteer.

Don't forget local restaurants to partner with for fundraising: Applebees, Kings, Eat n' Park, Ponderosa, Max & Ermas, McDonalds, Krispy Kreme.

Please look over the handouts and pass them onto your board and Friends.

And, please tell your boards and Friends about the session with DJ on April 30. I want to pack the room! It will be a "working session"--every library will walk out of there with a fundraising plan.