Gwinnett County Public Library Awarded $20,000 for Career Online High School

| By Sydney Fairman | During their December meeting, the Jackson EMC Foundation board of directors awarded $20,000 in grants to Gwinnett County Public Library to provide financial assistance for Career Online High School. Career Online High School, a nationally accredited program, allows adults the opportunity to earn a high school diploma while gaining career …Read more

Leaving Money on the Table

How to Get Started with Major Gift Fundraising from Individuals

Posted June 29, 2016

By David Baker, JD, Principal, Giving Design Group, Inc.

Giving Design Group, Inc. is one of the few companies that provides comprehensive fundraising & development services for libraries. David Bake, the founder of the organization, shares some knowledge on how to get fundraising for public libraries started. Read what he has to say!

Year after year, about 80% of charitable giving comes from individuals. The most recentGiving USAnumbers tell us that 72% of annual giving comes from individuals and 8% of giving is received from bequests (the last wishes of previously living individuals). Only 15% of annual giving comes from foundations and 5% from corporations.

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Leaving Money on the Table

How to Get Started with Major Gift Fundraising from Individuals

Moving Bolding into the Future in a Time of Change

Multnomah County Library

By Vailey Oehlke

Each of us knows innately how the world around us is changing. From the smartphone in our pocket or purse that connects us with people and information in an instant, to the ongoing threats posed by large scale corporate data breaches, our lives are very different than they were a few short years ago. There isn’t much we can predict with certainty except that more uncertainty is ahead.

And, of course, the public library exists in this same uncertainty. Some see this as a fundamental threat to libraries. I see it as a transformative opportunity to redefine our role of value, contribute to our communities and change lives in a totally unique way. Aren’t we fortunate to be in positions to effect this opportunity?

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The Education Advantage in a Matter of Words

By Bethany Dotson

At the end of January, I had the unique pleasure to travel to snowy and frigid Chicago to interview Valerie Gross, President and CEO of Howard County Public Library (MD). We were there to discuss Valerie’s ideas, laid out most prominently in her book,Transforming Our Image, Building Our Brand: The Education Advantage.

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Libraries: Critically important or critically endangered?

By Harmony Faust

Join us for a live Twitter Chat with Valerie Gross, president & CEO of the Howard County Library System in Maryland (Library of the Year 2013) and author of the provocative new titleTransforming Our Image, Building Our Brand: The Education Advantage.

Hear Valerie’s thoughts on how to keep your library essential, not optional, and chat with your colleagues about important issues like funding, branding and the perceived value of libraries today.

Read moreLibraries: Critically important or critically endangered?