The John Trigg Ester Library

Capital Campaign Committee Meeting, Nov. 3, 2010

Location: the Annex, studio #9

Agenda:

Preliminaries:

  • Selection of notetaker, co-chairs, mode of committee operation (e.g., parliamentary procedure, consensus, informal gabbing?)
  • Introductions: skills and experience relating to fundraising
  • Overview of current methods of fundraising at the library

Likely methods of support:

  • Endowment
  • Overview of likely funders
  • Brainstorm other methods

Capital campaign planning:

  • Branding
  • Legal considerations, 501(c)(3) rules on donations
  • Research needed
  • GrantStation membership
  • Discussion: timing, strategy, and needs

Assignments:

  • community revenue sharing/draft request letter for consideration
  • draft logos?
  • foundation research?
  • community poll?
  • grants.gov application
  • Timelines and checklists for fundraisers

Scheduling events:

  • Grantwriting workshop scheduling
  • Meeting times for the CCC

Notes:

Call to order 6:05 p.m.

Attendance: Deirdre Helferrich, Roy Earnest, Monique Musick, Greta Burkart, Susan Willsrud

Monique will take notes for the committee

Deirdre’s fundraising experience:

  • Library- original Lallapolooza
  • Learned a lot since then
  • Organize volunteers
  • Solicit donations
  • Track participation
  • Stays calmer organizing volunteers rather than the other jobs
  • Familiar with listing on event calendars, press releases, media relations
  • Good at timing announcements
  • Other? Lots of publicity with UA press, conferences, marketing
  • Phone solicitations in Seattle- horrible at it!
  • Also door-to-door: swore I wouldn’t do it again!
  • Recently taken a grant writing course, submitting follow-up for funding

Roy’s fundraising experience:

  • Fundraising for Nordic Ski club- phone solicitation
  • Attaining fundraising goals
  • Limited sponsorships
  • Really going after individuals
  • Other than Mushing Mag advertising not a lot of other experience
  • Good personality- great phone voice
  • Have to believe in what I’m selling to do it
  • Nordic ski club- easy I believed in it
  • Mushing- the owners weren’t mushers- neither was I- harder
  • Believe in the library- won’t be hard to make the effort
  • Take direction well- if veering off just ask to focus
  • Stay-at-home dad- no problem being directed

Greta’s fundraising experience:

  • Wrote a grant proposal just two days ago
  • Wrote four or five grants for dissertation work, funded Master’s research with grants
  • Scientific grants
  • Some calling for NAEC auction items
  • Helped with Lallapolooza
  • Researched grants for library

Monique’s fundraising:

  • Starting with girl scouts, sports, fundraising for groups
  • Fundraising events- IME, AYP etc.
  • Business marketing
  • Media experience

Susan’s fundraising experience:

  • 10+ years fundraising planning, budgeting and actual fundraising
  • Loves creating a funding plan
  • Grant writing experience- can assist with training
  • Capital projects
  • Long-term fundraising planning
  • Personal time constraints but can help
  • Timelines and checklists for fundraisers
  • Rules for non-profits

Current library fundraising

  • Bookshelf dedications
  • Fundraisers- unrestricted
  • Grant proposals- depends, usually restricted
  • Individual- some are for building specifically
  • Sponsorships
  • Sales
  • Book credit

The more unrestricted funds the better, balance with grants

Endowments-

  • Alaska community foundation supports a lot
  • People’s endowment for the Ester Republic- broad endowment for Ester; They (Peter McRoy, Ray Cameron) may follow up separately

Grants:

  • Equipment grant from Alaska Humanities Forum- does not require 501(c)(3)
  • Alaska Community Revenue Sharing- need to get a letter in by Dec 31- preferably sooner to request consideration
  • State of Alaska Designated Appropriation- Monique wrote a letter for this- reads well

Payroll deduction- Alaska Community Foundation can accept for us- no 501(c)(3) requirement on our part

United Way- in response to Brian McNeill’s request- sent a form for doing payroll deduction- requires 501(c)(3)

Coffee sales- plain coffee sales- regular and decaf- regular income from users, Attract additional users. Library in Minnesota- beautiful, near campus. Ten miles away, prison-like library, had a Dunn Bros. coffee- they got the people. Possibility of a partnership with a coffee company

Restrictions on unrelated funds- does not relate to your mission. Balance your unrestricted- don’t make a for-profit side-job much of the income

Library as a jumping point to a new community.

  • Bike path has already begun the change
  • Community is changing

Website, soliciting pledges for printing a book: Kickstarter, Goes through Amazon, 5% fee, graduated processing fee, max 2.9%, Limited fundraising drive

  • Marketing the site- why not do our own?
  • Credit card processing: We don’t take cc
  • Don’t get the money until you get the minimum threshold of money in the time period
  • Perhaps later on in the organizing process
  • No reason to if we take credit cards

Coffee- draw. Need the DEC 3 compartment sink, hand washing, slop sink (5 sinks total), Allow for catering and special events

Credit cards

  • Changes coming down the pike: Government will be tracking credit card purchases- taxes, IRS will be monitoring credit cards
  • Sometimes credit cards do make people more willing to donate
  • List of goals- phone solicitation- use the web site
  • Deadlines, small projects
  • Credit card rules keep changing- expensive to have a merchant number
  • Pay Pal is an easy option. Confusing at first- they take fees too
  • 3.8% fee for using credit cards PayPal and ACF

Pick Click Give program- PDF- 501(c)(3) required

Grants {501(c)(3)}

  • Dale and Edna Walsh Foundation
  • First National Bank of Alaska
  • Henry W. Bull Foundation
  • Home Depot Building Healthy Communities Grant Program
  • Kresgie Foundation
  • Liatis Foundation
  • Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation
  • MJ Murdock Charitable Trust
  • National Endowment for the Humanities
  • Phillip R. Johnsoson Foundation
  • Rasmuson Foundation
  • USDA Rural Development: Community Facility Grants
  • Library Construction and Major Expansion Grant Program (State of AK DCCED)

Does kickstarter match? - no. Ask a local program using it if it is worth it. Limited population and limited internet access

Fundraising through the phone

  • Target retirees, folks who have left the area but are emotionally attached: Reach outside of Ester
  • Figure out how to make Ester “go”
  • A lot of old money in Fairbanks, or gone, who care about this place
  • Connect to “old Fairbanks”
  • Have an easy-to-understand, quick, way to give (such as kickstart or web donation)
  • How do you find them? Research
  • Sit down making lists- retired UA, etc.
  • Grand-daughter of the founder of Ester

Nancy Lord- Homer library- pick her brain on the what’s and hows, Invite her up to talk with us

We are probably the only library like this (private)

New person at borough- list of potential grants

Community facilities

Lots of possibilities- all require 501(c)(3)

OCLC research papers- Monique found interesting library funding and market research- will read and share- hundreds of pages long

ALA lots of marketing and sampling information for libraries

Marketing research- community-wide survey. Joint effort of JTEL, ECA, EVFD, Calypso etc? Difficult to get all parties involved in a timely fashion

Have to have the data for the marketing plan

Ways of doing the studies:

  • Survey online
  • Paper insert
  • Mass-mailing
  • Pick-up at P.O. etc
  • Interviews- door-to-door
  • Launch at a big event
  • Grant applications want data
  • We have involvement and feedback but nothing quantified
  • Figure out what data the library wants
  • We need direction
  • Rasmuson Foundation- probably happy with what we’ve done
  • Ask people what they want- get additional community input
  • Not a government funded, public library
  • Generally, people like libraries
  • Important to know, with other libraries close by, that people will use it
  • No place for kids in Ester
  • No place for non-drinking, non-smoking adults
  • Community center, kid-friendly environment
  • Also a way to present what we are thinking
  • Community survey
  • No mill rate associated- no tax increases
  • Generate questions
  • Have it online
  • Do outreach
  • Location-based

Homer Township Public Library

  • Opened in Reed school building- federal grant July 1982
  • 1983 passed a referendum making it part of the government
  • New building in 1988

Greta is still researching endowments

Initial thought is that it is better to focus energy on the capital campaign

Focus on programs and developing an organization

Grantors want to know what long-term sustainability plans are in place

Harder to catch the attention of the enormous national foundations

Grant station membership- yay or nay- $$$

  • Calypso uses it twice a year maybe, but it is really useful
  • Small organizations using it once or twice a year could use someone else’s
  • Sometimes it is cheaper to get a membership
  • Orion grassroots network- great job recruitment, free grant station!
  • Grants play a small part of the overall fundraising plan
  • Stay away from all the expensive training opportunities
  • Pool together our resources, do our own grant writing workshop
  • Susan has lots of information and experience
  • Can review grants- feels comfortable with it
  • We can use Calypso’s Grant Station access to check things out

Branding and logos, Marketing plan

  • Logo needs to be based on our brand, our concept
  • Funders don’t necessarily need to see the data
  • Who are we- how do we want to be portrayed?

Rules of funding

  • 1% rule
  • Limits from single sources $25,000
  • Big picture fundraising planning- Susan can help head that up
  • Set up a structure and discuss pros and cons
  • Develop a fundraising plan that we can break into smaller pieces

Timelines and checklists for fundraisers

Monique wants to focus on marketing and branding- logo concepts

Grants.gov application- Greta will look into

Will meet again in two weeks: November 17, 2010

Office donation- great idea. Good to pass it around at annual meeting. Could look for matching funds.

Use for other ideas too: Matching purchases, Pledge and match for all kinds of things

Goal amount $800,000 fundraising plan

Adjourn 8:05 p.m.

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