The Library Board met 12/21/2022. One of the items of information they received was the Friends of the Appleton Public Library Annual Overview given by Kara Sullivan, the executive director of the Friends. She used the opportunity to give an overview of the Friends of APL, their history, and what they do. [I thought it was interesting because (a) they certainly seem to provide a lot of funding to the library and (b) I got the impression that support for the library is not necessarily spontaneous and organic but is driven by this particular organization’s efforts. It sounded like, if someone shows up at a public meeting and advocates for funding for the library, odds are, they were prompted by the Friends of the Appleton Public Library.]
You can download a complete transcript of her presentation to the Library Board below:
The Friends organization started in 1975 and was initially founded to advocate for a new building. They accomplished that goal in 1981 with the erection of the current library building on Oneida Street. After the completion of that building, the Friends operated as a grassroots member organization for several years.
In 1985, a foundation, separate from the Friends, was formed with the goal of creating a $1 million endowment which would be used to enhance library programs and services. That foundation reached their $1 million goal in the mid-1990s and created the Library Foundation Endowment which is now with the Community Foundation.
In 2009, the Library Fund organization and the Friends of the Appleton Public Library decided to merge because they recognized that they shared the same mission which was to fundraise for the library to enhance programs and services beyond what the city pays in tax dollars.
In it’s current iteration, the Friends of the Appleton Public Library has two purposes (1) to fundraise for the library and (2) to advocate for the library.
Under its fundraising umbrella they do things such as:
- Fund high quality programing by providing stipends to presenters.
- Pay for supplies such as food, crafts, paper, paints, and crayons.
- Fund various technology related items such as online subscription services and physical items such as video recording equipment.
- Cover the licensing fees needed for the library to show movies
- Fund the Community Partnership Library Assistant position.
- Hold an annual holiday brunch for APL staff.
- Pay for summer reading program.
Their fundraising activities include:
- Biannual appeals – a year end appeal and a spring drive.
- I Love My Library event in June.
- Biannual book sales. (Those are on pause because they do no have a location while the library is under construction.)
- Small events such as trivia nights.
Their endowment is held at the Community Foundation. The principal is protected in perpetuity and the Friends gets the investment income to distribute as grants to the library and to pay for the Friends’ operating expenses. Per Ms. Sullivan, “We try to operate as lean as possible. We’re a very small organization. We try to do a lot with a little.”
She also noted that the Friends serves as the fiscal agent who administers grants that APL receives. A couple examples of grants they administered were:
- A Public Service Commission grant to buy laptops and put them in all of the libraries in the OWLS network of libraries.
- Two grants to purchase Play and Learn Centers which are “literacy rich environments that you can put in places like a laundromat that provide books for children.”
Under its advocacy umbrella the Friends pushes for the library to be funded as fully as possible. There are two main times of the year when they advocate in support of the library (a) budget season and (b) the aldermanic election season. She noted that while they cannot advocate for a particular candidate they could advocate for the library to be funded and for alderpersons to support the library.
She gave a couple of examples of their advocacy efforts:
- During budget season they tapped into their Advocacy Action Network and got 12 people to come speak in support of the library during the public input session during budget season.
- During the pandemic they sent out postcards reminding local elected officials about the ways in which libraries helped communities during the pandemic.
She finished up by saying that, thanks to a Friends grant, the Appleton Public Library was the first library in Wisconsin to offer free wi-fi, and since 2000 the Friends had given the library $1.75 million in grants. In 2022, they funded 86 programs, events, services, technologies, and initiatives. Before the pandemic that was closer to 110. Finally, over 95% of the library’s Summer Reading Program was funded by Friends’ grants.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=920204&GUID=26083724-4CAB-4B7B-81F8-5CB7479E3928
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