Symposium on the Future of Libraries
Properly resourced, public library foundations are positioned to serve as innovation engines that help their libraries move forward. Learn how the King County Library System (KCLS) Foundation and KCLS maximize both efficiency and community engagement through the KCLS Foundation Board's Impact Committee, which formalized the funding process between library and foundation in 2016. This process allows the library ecosystem as a whole to benefit from the flexibility of philanthropic funding to iterate and "fail forward," free up public funding to scale and operationalize what works, and ensure that decisions about programs, services, and community outcomes remain with the library experts.
Join us at this session to learn more and ask questions!
This session is intended to help library staff and leadership, as well as foundation/friends staff, think about the relationship between public libraries and their foundations in new ways. In 2016, the KCLS Foundation established a new Board committee, the Impact Committee, to review and advise on KCLS' annual requests for foundation funding. This process has effectively created a de facto public-private partnership linking KCLS' deep community knowledge with the KCLS Foundation's fundraising expertise and the Impact Committee members' broad experience. Already, this partnership has launched and garnered strong support for the expansion of KCLS' most ambitious program initiative to date, and is entering year three of the KCLS Foundation's largest annual contributions to KCLS' direct programming costs.
Balancing an understanding of KCLS and its Foundation's missions with community needs and demographics, the Impact Committee reviews proposals from KCLS staff and advises KCLS and the KCLS Foundation Board on the most effective use of private funding for maximum community impact and engagement. The Committee is not prescriptive, instead asking staff to define success for each program or service and evaluate progress toward that goal. The Impact Committee's membership pulls from a broad range of expertise in business, philanthropy, community leadership, and librarianship, and uses its members' expertise to enable KCLS and the KCLS Foundation to move in sync in order to best support the library in testing, piloting, and expanding programs and services that meet community needs.
ALA Unit/Subunit: ALA, Center for the Future of Libraries
Meeting Type: Symposium on the Future of Libraries
Cost: Included with full conference registration.
Open/Closed: Open
Elizabeth Castleberry
Executive Director
King County Library System Foundation
Lisa Rosenblum
Executive Director
King County Library System
Nicole Partridge
Business Program Manager
Microsoft Library