Academic Library Fundraising Benchmarks

The 115+ page study looks closely at the fundraising practices and results of a sample of North American colleges and universities, providing detailed data and analysis on funds raised through grants, annual fund drives, wills, bequests and legacy rights, sale of books and other intellectual property, through efforts of friend of the library groups, events and fundraisers, and online campaigns and endowments, among other vehicles. It helps its readers to answer questions such as: how are libraries raising money? What percentage of academic libraries have their own development staff? What has been the impact of online campaigns? How effective are “Friends of the Library” groups? What percentage of grant revenue comes from corporations? How many special fundraising events do academic libraries hold each year?

Successful Fundraising for the Academic Library: Philanthropy in Higher Education covers fundraising, a task that is often grouped into a combination role that may include, for example, the university museum or performance venue, thus diluting the opportunity for successful fundraising. Because the traditional model for higher education fundraising entails the cultivation of alumni from specific departments and colleges, the library is traditionally left out, often becoming a low-performing development area with smaller appropriations for fundraising positions. Most higher education development professionals consider the library fundraising position a stepping stone into another position with higher pay and more potential for professional advancement down the road rather than as a focus for their career. However, for universities that invest in development professionals who know how to leverage the mission of libraries to the larger alumni and friend community, the results include innovative and successful approaches to messaging that resonates with donors. This book provides information that applies to all fundraising professionals and academic leaders looking to strengthen their programs with philanthropic support, even those beyond university libraries. Makes the case for university libraries as a viable avenue for donor engagement that translates to all academic areas of higher education fundraising Highlights the importance of collaborative relationships and fundraising strategies with academic leaders, donors, and fundraising staff Outlines strategies that have resulted in fundraising success for academic and research libraries at universities of varying size and culture

With more universities facing financial difficulty and academic libraries being asked to do more with less, fundraising has been transformed from a luxury to a necessity. Now, more than ever, academic libraries need to know how to effectively obtain and steward donors. Most fundraising books are written from perspectives that are not always relevant to the complex environment that academic libraries must navigate. Fundraising for Academic Libraries: A Practical Guide for Librarian is written just for academic libraries. The authors demystify fundraising to enable those to work in an academic library to feel confident in their ability to obtain contributions, sponsorships, and grants for their libraries. From major gifts to events to special collections, this book looks at academic library fundraising holistically. Not a one-size-fits-all approach, chapters explore multiple methods that an academic library can use to identify potential donors, ask for gifts, and retain existing contributors. This book also connects readers with extensive fundraising resources so they can readily apply the book’s tips and techniques to their own library environment. Whether they are interested in approaching a local business to provide a prize for a silent auction or asking for an established donor for an estate gift, novice academic library fundraisers will find step-by-step instructions that help them navigate a variety of situations. By providing readers with practical fundraising tools including flow charts, simple proposal and gift templates as well as sample donor correspondence, this book enables academic libraries to be able to start and advance their own development programs.

The study presents detailed data and commentary on how public libraries raise funds through book and other materials sales, grants, events and fundraisers, bequests, sale of naming rights, direct mail and online solicitation, activities of friends of library groups and other means. The study presents data on library receipts through wills, tributes and memorials, as well as channels such as grants and annual fund drives. Data is broken out by size of library for better benchmarking. The report also looks at the activities of friends of the library groups, giving data on size and growth rates and on funds raised.

Of main findings -- List of tables -- Participants -- 1. Intro -- 2. Staff -- 3. Capital budget -- 4. Materials spending -- 5. Grants -- 6. Collection digitization -- 7. Personnel changes -- 8. Technology investment -- 9. Intra-library employee communications -- 10. Relations with consortiums -- 11. Workstations and information literacy -- 12. Relations with college or institutional subsidiaries in foreign countries -- 13. Open access and digital repositories -- 14. Books and journals.

This book provides a friendly, lively discussion of the role of academic library fund-raising written by two experienced library fund-raisers. Short, stand-alone chapters with summary paragraphs Practical, personal success hints throughout Proven fundraising ideas

The primary purpose of this book it to assist library directors and those who want to become fundraisers for libraries to learn more about fundraising and find answers to their questions. The 12 case studies presented in this book address issues of building a major gift program; developing library capital campaigns; competing for National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grants and Kresge Foundation Challenge Grants; building library endowments; finding support for technology and innovation and library renovation; raising funds for a new library; attracting donors through special collections programs; and raising money for international library associations. The book also provides information on the reasons why college and university presidents like to raise money for their libraries. Finally, the book provides an extensive annotated bibliography of the last decades of literature on library fundraising. (AEF).

Academic Library Website Benchmarks is based on data from more than 80 academic libraries in the USA and Canada. The 125+ page study presents detailed data on the composition of the academic library web staff, relations with the college and library information technology departments, use of consultants and freelancers, budgets, future plans, website marketing methods, website revision plans, usage statistics, use of software, development of federated search and online forms and much more. Data is broken out by enrollment size, public and private status, Carnegie Class, as well as for libraries with or without their own web staff.