AGENDA #9.2
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TO: |
Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager |
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FROM: |
Kathleen Thompson, Library Director |
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SUBJECT: |
Response to a Petition Regarding a Donor Recognition Policy |
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DATE: |
June 11, 2007 |
The purpose of this memorandum is to respond to the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation’s recent petitions requesting development of a donor recognition policy for the Town.
In 2006, the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation launched its “Ensuring Excellence” campaign, a multi-year effort to secure private support to supplement the Town’s library collection budget. This project was initiated to coincide with the 2010-2011 completion of the library expansion project and to provide the 4 items per capita library collection recommended in the Town’s 2003 Library Master Plan.
In October 2005, the Library Foundation requested that the Council work with the Foundation to explore the possibility of using naming rights as donor incentives for its “Ensuring Excellence” campaign (Attachment 1).
In September 2006, the Library Foundation withdrew its naming rights petition in order to study general practices for donor recognition in other communities and to report to the Council on their findings.
On May 2, 2007, the Library Foundation submitted its report titled Donor Recognition in Selected Libraries: a Report for the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation (Attachment 2) to the Council and requested that the Council work with the Foundation to develop a donor recognition policy to guide the Foundation’s private fundraising efforts for the library.
The Town’s existing Naming Public Facilities policy includes guidelines by which a donor may request special naming recognition for their gift. Currently, there is no policy that covers guidelines for collaborative fundraising projects with organizations outside of Town government.
Of the five communities studied, only Madison (WI) has a formal donor recognition policy.
For its study, the Library Foundation selected five communities with donor recognition and naming opportunities. Madison (WI), Boulder (CO) and Ann Arbor (MI) represent socially progressive peer communities with municipal libraries used for comparison in previous Library Trends reports prepared by the Town Manager for the Council. Bangor (ME) and Clearwater (FL) have facilities designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the firm selected for Chapel Hill’s library expansion.
Programs of donor recognition vary from library to library. Only Madison (WI) has a formal donor recognition policy in place for its library, adopted by its governing Library Board of Directors.
However, each of the communities supplements tax-based dollars with private support to further their municipal library service. Only three of the libraries have foundations. All of the libraries studied use donor recognition and naming opportunities in their fundraising efforts. Common practice among the libraries include naming opportunities for library interior spaces, events, cultural series, book funds, garden benches, auditorium seats, or bricks/tiles displaying benefactors’ names.
The report concludes that a donor recognition program is an important tool in a fundraising campaign because it
The Foundation report deals exclusively with fundraising efforts on behalf of the Library.
We believe that private fundraising could be beneficial to the development of the library collection. It could provide additional funding for some capital additions as well. Also, while not all departments of the Town are candidates for fundraising support from outside organizations, departments that could benefit include the Police, Fire, Library and Parks and Recreation departments. We believe that any policy developed by the Town should be applicable to all Town departments and not library specific.
We recommend that the Council appoint a committee to develop a Town-wide donor recognition policy for the Council’s review in September 2007. We recommend that the Committee include representatives as follows:
That the Council adopt the attached resolution.