Fund Development

Libraries must do advocacy and fundraising in order to grow in a time of change and opportunity as government funding at all levels tightens. The Board, Director, and Staff at the Okotoks Public Library created a Vision, wrote a fundraising policy, and then began to implement an active advocacy and fundraising campaign. They set up booths at events, met with community groups, planned and organized fundraisers, and worked with local councils and administration. Specific, practical ideas will be outlined during this workshop. Please bring your questions and ideas for advocacy and fundraising to share during the 10-minute discussion at the end of this session.
LORRAINE CATHRO After a 20-year university teaching career, Lorraine gained marketing experience as a sales representative for Scholastic Publishing and as an investment advisor at a brokerage firm. She now assists in advocacy and fundraising initiatives toward library expansion as a member of the Okotoks Public Library Board.
LARA GRUNOW is very passionate about creating a public library that is the hub for its community and believes that libraries can play an integral role in helping create happier, healthier communities. The key is ensuring that stakeholders, potential community partners, and local residents know how our collections, programs, and services can benefit them. That is why, as newly appointed Library Director, Lara makes a point of getting out of her office and into the community.
PAT COE has previous experience with fundraising and advocacy through a wide variety of volunteer and business activities. As a former volunteer and employee at the Okotoks Public Library, she now serves on the Library Board and is participating in advocacy and fundraising efforts for the expansion of the library.

Every public and system library board in Alberta is eligible to receive provincial funding from the Public Library Services Branch in the form of an operating grant to assist with operating costs. This session will review the funding structure and its intended purpose, and will provide useful techniques to make sure that the application process is a breeze!

Marketing and fundraising are more important in today’s library than ever before. Learn tips and tricks to fund and market new programs and services, as your library expands beyond being only a place to borrow books.
Learning objectives:

• Learn successful marketing and fundraising techniques used by a large Alberta library
• Get new ideas for your own marketing and fundraising strategies
• Gain a better knowledge and understanding of why fundraising should be important for your library

The purpose of this crowdfunding campaign was twofold:

1. To raise funds for student initiatives associated with two of the University of Alberta’s School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) student groups: the Library and Information Studies Student Association (LISSA) and the Forum for Information Professionals (FIP).
2. To create a student run and student led professional developmentopportunity in order to provide real world experience in fundraising for SLIS students.

The intent was to raise $5,000 over a one month period in October that would be evenly divided between the two student groups for their specific purposes. This goal was considered to be both achievable, based on the scope of the campaign, and aspiring in the difficulty associated with raising this amount.

Crowdfunding was always intended to be the primary method for raising funds for the campaign. Since there are several pre-existing crowdfunding platforms that are popularly used, this provided the crowdfunding team with an easily accessible launch point for the campaign.