PVLD Director's Blog

Donors and Library Customers

PVLD, or more accurately the Peninsula Friends of the Library, is on the cusp of launching its biggest fundraising campaign ever in support of major facilities improvements at our Malaga Cove and Miraleste branches, as well as to raise an endowment that will provide a stable source of future supplemental funding. This is unknown territory for just about everyone involved. The Friends have been highly successful with their book sales, library shop, and other "grassroots" efforts, but it has been 20 years since they have conducted a major capital campaign (for the library district's first automated system) and raising and managing an endowment is brand new.

Since I personally have virtually no fundraising experience I have been trying to learn as much as I can as fast as I can by talking to people who have done it before, and by reading everything that I can lay my hands on that seems relevant. One of the blogs that I have found very useful is Donor Power, found at www.donorpowerblog.com

Today Donor Power had a link to a fascinating report by the United Kingdom fundraising think tank nfpSynergy (www.nfpsynergy.net )on "The 21^st Century Donor". The report is lengthy – the executive summary alone is 20 pages long – and I haven't yet digested it all, but I was struck by the first page, which summarizes what the 21^st century non-profit will need to do to raise money from the 21^st century donor. The list of action items follows. Read it, and then substitute the word "library" for "charity" and the word "library userr" for "donor". Guess we're not allowing in grappling with changing expectations and changing perceptions of value!

To raise money from the 21st Century donor effectively

the successful 21st Century Charity will need to…

1. Become as distinct, competitive and appealing as the best commercial brands. Charities compete with an individual's personal and leisure spending as much as with other charities.

2. Demonstrate and communicate value-for-money and impact, so that donors can see how their contribution makes a difference to clients and beneficiaries.

3. Engage donors by motivation and giving 'products', as much as on the basis of demography and wealth. Donors like and respond to opportunities to give where the price, the rewards, the package and the relationship are all clearly set out.

4. Offer a wider choice of giving products which match donors' motivation. For example, some donors want giving centred around social interaction such as challenge events and others around the impact of their donation.

5. Blur the boundaries between giving and living – create more active and rewarding lifestyle events, from fun runs to peak challenges, from dinner parties to midnight walks. The best social fundraising makes it unclear whether people are primarily fundraising or primarily having a great time.

6. Make donors stakeholders, with a real say in how they give and how their money gets spent. While this does not mean that donors have the final say in how the money gets spent (unless they are government!) it does mean that their views are really important. Therefore dialogue between donors and service deliverers becomes more important.

7. Stress what a donor can expect out of the giving experience: this might be about the emotional return of giving, the recognition process or the involvement. The more money people give, the more they want to be involved.

8. Appeal intensely to specific, defined target audiences. A lukewarm appeal to the general public is worth far less than a burning passion amongst a key demographic or attitudinal group.

9. Woo more big givers, corporate and individual, via the offer of recognition and the opportunity to change both their own lives and the lives of beneficiaries.

10. Integrate the experience of giving time, money or activism so as to retain loyal supporters able to give different things at different life stages, from nursery to nursing home. Giving and volunteering are better seen as one activity which focuses on giving time or money, depending on life-stage, circumstances and wealth.

Thank you Volunteers!

On Tuesday the Peninsula Friends of the Library hosted the annual PVLD Volunteer Appreciation lunch.  It was a wonderful opportunity to express our appreciation for work that our volunteers do to support the library.  We have over 200 active volunteers who give generously of their time.  This fiscal year we will likely surpass over 26,000 hours of volunteer support! 

Our volunteers

• Operate our monthly book sales at the Malaga Cove and Peninsula Center Libraries and our new Internet book sales
• Operate the wonderful Library Shop at Peninsula Center Library
• Serve as "Information Greeters" - the first line of assistance for customers entering the Peninsula Center Library
• Shelve books, magazines, and newspapers
• Tidy the Peninsula Center library each morning before it opens
• Provide story times at the Malaga Cove Library
• Participate in our oral story telling program at Silver Spur School
• Host monthly craft programs for kids (this is done by our teen volunteers!)
• Serve on Boards and Committees including the Friends of the Library Board, the Library Advisory Committees at each library, and the Peninsula Teen Activities Council
• Support our fundraising and community outreach efforts
• Are Docents in the Local History Room
• Collect oral histories of local residents
• Translate foreign language materials so they can be accurately cataloged
• Repair books and audiovisual materials
• Carry out special projects such as our 40Families local history project

And much more!

Many of our volunteers have given several thousand hours of their time, and volunteer extraordinaire Gene Roder has set a record with over 8,300 hours to date.

We couldn't offer the level and range of services we do without our volunteers - THANK YOU!

Thank you also to Peninsula Friends of the Library for sponsoring our volunteer program, including the Volunteer Appreciation Lunch. 

Photos of the volunteer luncheon (taken by James Davis of our Facilities Department) can be found in the photo album to the left of this posting, or by clicking on http://www.typepad.com/t/app/gallery/manage?set_id=1076294

Libraries and Communities

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Grand Opening of the new Harbory City-Harbor Gateway Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.  It was exciting to see several hundred community members of all ages gathered for the event - the sense of anticipation and pride was palpable.

This community has been asking for a library for over 50 years!  For nearly 50 years the community was served by a bookmobile, before a small storefront library not much bigger than our Annex was opened in 1997. 

The funding source for the library is very interesting.  Over the past 10 or so years the City of Los Angeles Public Library has constructed 32 new libraries using funds from a local bond measure.  ALL of these libraries were constructed on time and under budget!  The Harbor City library was not one of those projects, but the budget surpluses were carefull saved and were used to provide the City's match for State Bond funds from the 2000 Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act.  The Harbor City library qualified for funding as a "joint use" project because of an innovative partnership with Narbonne High School whereby  the school will provide faculty to oversee an after school homework center at the library.

The new library is still relatively small - 14,650 square feet, or about twice the size of the Miraleste Library.  Its efficient design packs in a large multipurpose room, a story time room and children's area, two group study rooms, a teen section, and a computer lab.  The library will house 60,000 volumes and approximately 50 Internet accessible computers.

These figures are impressive - but for me the most rewarding thing was see how hungry people were for library services, and to hear speakers such as LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Councilwoman Janice Hahn speak about the importance of libraries in communities.  Mayor Villaraigosa particularly emphasized the need for the Latino members of the audience to make sure they and their children are literate in English and the role the library can play in this important endeavor. 

In a community like Palos Verdes it can be easy to take libraries for granted.  Yesterday in Harbor City I was reminded that in communities struggling with poverty, illiteracy, and violence the public library is a beacon of hope.

Bragging Rights! Books for Troops

In 2004 the Library Advisory Committee at the Malaga Cove Library decided they wanted to do something to support U.S. military personnel in Iraq and elsewhere.  This idea grew into a wonderful program sponsored by the Peninsula Friends of the Library working with Books for Troops (http://www.booksfortroopsusa.com/) - a national organization that supplies U.S. military personnel with free books. 

Since September 2004 volunteers Pat Foltz and Gene Roeder have shipped 523 boxes weighing 11,324 pounds and containing 26,109 books to personnel in all branches of the military.  Here is Pat Foltz describing the program for local public radio station KPCC -

http://mailafriend.guide.real.com/index.html?link=http%3a%2f%2fwww.publicradio.org%2ftools%2fmedia%2fplayer%2fnoads%2fkpcc%2fnews%2ffeatures%2f2006%2f12%2f20061205_features2.ram

Shipping and other costs are funded entirely by donations directly to the Peninsula Friends of the Library Books for Troops program - none of the money raised by the Friends to support Palos Verdes Library District services and programs is used for this purpose.

Donations of money or good quality paperback books are always appreciated.  For further information call 310-377-9584 x 553

Thank you Pat and Gene for giving us another reason to be proud!