Would you give $50 for a fresh loaf of homemade bread? Thirty people in Great Bend, Kansas did just that, and they did it to help their library.

     In January 1988 the library board was facing financial problems. We sat around a table trying to decide how to remedy a decrease in funding due to a decline in city revenue. Assessed valuations were down and the city council had done all it could to prop up our sagging budget, but we were still $10,000 short.

     What could we do?

     Someone thought of a fund-raising letter, but our last direct mail effort didn't generate enough donations to even cover the expenses. Nevertheless, we decided to try again.

     We worked on a letter explaining the library's plight until it fit on one page. We made up a donor card and a return envelope to send with the letter. Then we developed a list of 262 qualified, potential donors. The board discussed premiums, but everything we could afford seemed "tacky."

     Believing that everyone, including the librarian, should give to the fund-raising effort, I volunteered the fruits of my avocation: fresh homemade bread. Everyone in town knows about my bread concession at the farmers market during the summer, so I offered a fresh loaf to everyone who gave $50 or more to the library. We mailed the letters and money rolled in. Thirty happy donors enjoyed a loaf of fresh bread and the library was $3,100 richer.

Librarians and trustees as fund-raisers

Local fixed-mill levies and declining tax bases are hurting library budgets, forcing library trustees to become fund- raisers. This is especially true in small rural communities where populations are dwindling and aging. These shrinking budgets can be enhanced through community-based fund-raising using techniques that have worked for many small libraries.

     Performance precedes funding. Before you can ask anyone for money, you have to define who you are and what your mission is. This may be obvious to you, but not quite so clear to others. List your accomplishments. Tell why someone should give you money. Tell how businesses or individuals benefit from what you do for society. Tell them why giving to your library is a better return on investment than giving to another agency.

     Once you have your mission in mind it is easier to ask for donations. If your library is responsive to the community and is doing a good job, you will get the money you need. The law of the harvest is unrelenting: you have to sow before you reap.

     Board members and librarians from small public libraries are often overwhelmed at the prospect of asking people for money. The high-visibility projects of big libraries are intimidating. It is time small libraries took their rightful place in line and held out their hands for their share. The approach for small libraries may be different, but not much. A well-defined goal, good planning, a lot of hard work, and perseverance will succeed every time.

     When I say small town, I mean towns like McCracken, Kansas, where the population of 292 is declining every month. The library has an operating budget of just over $3,000, yet enough money has been raised in the past few years to build a $60,000 library. Local fund-raisers started ten years ago by selling note cards made from a drawing of the town's old hotel, made famous because it was a location set for the movie Paper Moon. An untold number of soup suppers, bake sales, and auction luncheons have been held to raise enough for the new library.

     Fund-raising is selling something to someone. Even when you ask for an outright gift, you are still selling. If nothing else, you are selling the donor a good feeling about giving to the library. Every gift, regardless of size, must be recognized with a thank-you note. For some people that is all they expect, but premiums tend to increase the number and the size of the gifts. In Great Bend, the bread turned many $25 gifts into $50 gifts. Some time ago when I was the director of the Pickens County (South Carolina) Library, I walked into a bank and asked for $300 to buy 1000 cartoon brochures to promote the library, with the bank's logo on the back cover of the booklet. The bank president liked the idea and authorized the project. The effort was successful because I followed these simple rules for fund-raising:

     o Give the donor something: The bank's name on the back of the booklet.

     o Have a specific project in mind: The booklet.

     o Have a specific donor in mind: The bank.

     o Help the donor visualize the product: A sample copy of the booklet with a paste-up of the custom printed page.

     o Have a specific amount in mind: $300. (I was confident that the amount was within the bank's giving capacity.)

     o Ask for the gift expecting to receive it.

     Asking for the gift takes a certain mind-set. You must approach potential donors with the conviction that they can't wait to fund your exciting project.

Nothing to lose

Here is a little game I played with a library group at a workshop in Prairie View, Kansas, population 123. It shows the importance of asking as though you had nothing to lose. I held up a quarter and said, "I am going to give this quarter to someone. Who would like it?" Several hands went up. 'Who can have it?" I asked. After a few seconds, a woman got up and claimed it. Action got the quarter.

     "While you are up here," I continued, "we are going to play a little game. It is like 'Odd Man,' but I have some new rules. We each flip our quarters. If we match (both heads or both tails) we keep our own quarter. If we don't match you get my quarter." We started to play.

     "How long would you like to play this game?" I asked after she had won two or three quarters.

     "Until you run out of quarters," was the obvious reply. It wasn't long until she had all of my quarters.

     Whenever we ask people for a gift to the library we are starting even. If the prospect says yes, we win. If the answer is no, we are still even. Fundraising is a break-even-or-win game. We can never lose. No one knows how much money people have to give away, but if we don't ask for it someone else will. The point is: Ask! Ask! Ask! Then ask again. Good sales people are successful because they do a lot of asking.

     In fund-raising workshops I use two group discussion activities to encourage brainstorming. They are based on the assumption that people are more inclined to buy something than to give you money. Your profit is the value added as a result of your labor.

The first assignment is:
     From the list of materials below, develop with your group a strategy for raising $1,000. You may use your imagination to fill in the details of size, color, quality, etc. Develop as many projects as you can in the time allotted. You may use some items more than once, if you use them on different projects.

     1,000 sheets of paper
     1 bag of yeast
     1 set of magic markers
     1,000 envelopes
     1 roll of contact paper
     1 hammer
     1 saw
     4 pairs of scissors
     1 container of cinnamon
     1 bag of flour
     1 bag of sugar
     10 pounds of nails
     1 bag of pinto beans
     200 board feet of lumber
     1 container of paint
     $100 cash

     This exercise works because people like to be creative. It gives them a place to start. While it may seem contrived, it moves them easily into the next part, which is to look at their own communities.

Community resources

The next exercise, a community resource inventory, takes the brainstormers from a contrived situation to a real oneãtheir own. It is designed to help groups develop fund-raising strategies based on community resources.

Questions are used to stimulate ideas:
     o What products does our community produce that are unique?

     o What are the human resources of our community?

     o What do the members of our community like to do?

     o How can we turn this interest into a fund-raiser?

     o What events will attract people from outside the community?

     o What community events can we piggyback on to raise money?

     o Is there a community need that can be filled in a way that will make money for our group?

     The library fund-raisers in Prairie View, Kansas discovered that the residents in three nearby towns could call each other toll-free, but they had no unified telephone directory. With a little help from others they published a directory and sold copies to the local residents in each of the towns. A library group in Glasco, Kansas, population 710, teamed up with the free university, a local adult education group that needed money, too. Together they published a "Glasco Trivia Game," with questions and answers submitted by townspeople. The library and the free university divided the work and split the profits. McCracken piggybacked with the town centennial celebration to publish a cookbook that netted $5,000.

     When a fund-raising group is able to focus on a community need and make money by filling it, it is well on its way.

     This leads us to planning, which is based on goal setting, defining objectives, setting priorities, deciding on activities, taking action, and evaluating. The planning model I like the best suggests that we rank our priorities by our ability to control the events and the importance of the outcome.

     If we can do it ourselves and it will have a big bang, we have our top priority. If we have to rely too much on others or if the net effect will be small, why bother?

     Let us suppose that someone o your board is a fantastic fudge make and you want to make fudge and sell it as a fund-raiser for your library. How do you price it?

     Let me illustrate my answer with little story. Two entrepreneurs from Kansas bought a truck and went to Texas where they bought watermelon for 25 cents each. They hauled them to Nebraska where they sold them a four for a dollar. One of the men was so excited about all the money they were making that he said to the other, "Just think of all the money we could make if we had another truck."

     The pricing rule of thumb I use with my bread business is four times the cost of the materials. If you can't make something and sell it for at least four times the cost of the materials, don't bother. Find another activity. I don't like commercially prepared fund-raising activities. I refuse to buy candy or sausage for $6 that I can buy in the store for $4. I would rather give the fund-raisers a $6 donation outright, knowing they would get the full benefit of my gift, rather than see most of it funneled off by big business. People who will give to your library may feel the same way.

Capital fund drives

At the same time, if you need $200,000 for a new library, you will never make it selling fudge at $6 per pound. Everything you do will help, but you need big bucks and the only way you can get them is to go out and ask the people who have large amounts to give.

     Renewed federal funding construction, with a matching grant requirement, has boosted fundraising activities in public libraries. While McCracken was able to obtain its match for a Title II grant with chili suppers, note cards, and cookbooks, Ellsworth, Kansas, population 2,500, needed $400,000 to add on to its library building and make it accessible to the handicapped. I passed on to their fund-raisers some of fund-raising consultant Joan Flanagan's tips for a capital fund drive.

     o First of all, set your goal, then seek a lead giftãyour largest single giftãof at least 10 percent of the goal.

     About this time you need to establish a chart of giving. The one shown here was prepared for the Ellsworth Public Library as a part of the workshop I did for their fundraisers. The week after the workshop, they announced their lead gift of $40,000. Notice that for every gift of a certain size you expect, you have to ask two people.

     If your goal is $200,000, look for a lead gift of $20,000. Board members should ask for the lead gift. If after a reasonable amount of time, you don't have a $20,000 lead gift, review your goal; it may be too high.

     o Something should be contributed by everyone involved. A board member from Ellis, Kansas said, 'When I decided to give a thousand dollars to the library, I was committed! I became a tiger at asking people for money." Psychologists have discovered that people who ask others for donations without having given something themselves are less effective than those who have given. It seems that their eyes drop when making the close. People who have given can say, "I gave to the project; now it is your turn." They are confident and committed.

     o When you set categories of giving don't ask for less than $100. You can accept less, but don't ask for less. If your lowest category of giving is $25 you will receive many $25 gifts. People who will give you $25 may give you $50 or even $100. Let them tell you they can't give $100 right now.

     o Choose, recruit, and train askers. You might have to twist a few arms, but it pays to have the best people possible. They don't have to be Friends of the Library or on the board, they just have to have a love for the library and be willing to work. Don't forget to let them know they are expected to make a donation, too.

     o Develop a list of prospects and rate them. Have the fund-raising group answer this question: "How much can we ask each one to give?" This is a very sensitive issue and must be handled carefully. You don't want to offend anyone. Don't target a single individual by name to be the only donor of a large gift; always have at least two people targeted for each category of giving. Being asked to give too little may be as offensive as being asked to give too much. Actually, it is flattering to be asked for more than you can afford.

     o Prepare written materials (pledge cards, stationery, envelopes, return envelopes, etc.) to be used by the askers when they canvass the town. You will also want sample thank-you notes, a time line' a budget, and the names of leaders for each asker.

     o Assign fund-raisers to prospects they know. Be careful; some askers may know a prospect too well. Do your homework and you will avoid problems.

     o Have a kickoff hoopla. It is best to have 20 percent of your money in the bank by the time you do this; people are reluctant to join up with a losing cause. The rest of your fund-raiser will go better if you can stand up at the kickoff and say to the askers, 'We already have $40,000 in the bank. Now let's go get the rest."

     o Ask, ask, ask, ask! This is the main activity of the fund-raiser. Remember you can only win or break even. You can't lose. You don't have the gift when you start. If you have it when you leave, you win; if not, you break even.

     o Hold regular meetings. Give lots of support and end on time. When it is all over, celebrate, recognize the donors, and recognize the askers. If you follow these points you will succeed.

Persevering and succeeding

Small libraries all over central Kansas are succeeding at fund-raising. They have tried everything from book sales to bake sales, ice cream socials to quilt raffles, letters to Santa in the newspaper to foundation and business solicitations. Everything they try seems to work. So the question seems to be, What are we going to do and when? Rather than, Are we going to do it or not? They don't have a choice if they want to survive. Best of all, they are persevering. It took ten years to get a new library in Ellis and McCracken, but they kept working.

     The techniques and principles of community-based fund-raising have been used successfully by small public libraries in Kansas and South Carolina, and can work anywhere. As Joan Flanagan says, "It doesn't matter how small you are. You can raise as much money as you want to in your own area."

Maintained by James Swan
Last update 17 August 2000
jswan@ckls.org