Volunteers are ab-so-lutely rabid in their support of the Friends of Sequoya Library, a 501(c)3 filed in 2009. Since then, 26 people have collectively logged more than 5,000 volunteer hours per year. Members pay what they can afford to contribute, from $5 to $25 and up, and even before they legally organized the group into a nonprofit, they’ve been a proactive bunch.
For example, since 2007, when Sequoya Friends launched an independent retail space (located at the downtown library), it’s raised about $70,000 a year to benefit the library. The group also holds monthly sales in the Westgate Shopping Center, for which it sorts and prices over 10,000 items a month, accepting books, magazines, movies, paintings, and postcards for resale.
I bumped into a volunteer recently at a garage sale. She was buying up children’s books for resale, wheedling my neighbor to get her to give her a large discount for buying the entire box of books, and then literally begging the woman to donate, for a tax deduction, any unsold books at the end of the sale. From this garage sale, and many others over the summer, the group stocks its store and donates to the library.
Meanwhile, other volunteers research books online to determine fair pricing, selling more valuable books online. They’ve recruited a professional art appraiser as a volunteer, and a former professional window dresser now creates the group’s artistic retail displays.
The 10-cent and high-dollar sales add up to donations of about $30,000 a year, which go back to the library to support programming. A more significant $202,800 donation was made to the capital campaign to build the new site, with a $30,000 endowment following completion.
“We couldn’t do without our volunteer Friends group,” Branch Supervisor Jane Roughen affirmed. “We wouldn’t have the building we have today, or the programs either, if it were not for our Friends’ generosity and dedication.”
To support an underserved, low-income neighborhood where a different branch library’s capital campaign was struggling, the Sequoya Friends offered a $10,000 match to spur that other campaign to greater success. They followed up on that unprecedented move with a second match offer of $10,000 to assist in the capital campaign for the new Central Library.
(Continued)
Â
Beyond fundraising, Sequoya Friends is a library activist group. Recently, the group committed to providing three years of funding at $6,500 a year to extend hours through the month of May, guaranteeing Sunday hours throughout the school year from September to May. As a result of their support, encouragement, and advocacy, the Sequoya Library has the most heavily circulated public library collection in the state. The group also has successfully interfered with past city plans to close some branches to save money, arguing it cannot be at the expense of neighborhoods losing access to free library services.
It’s really fun for me, writing about the contributions that so many people are making to make this a special place to live, play, and raise a family. Do you know a good news story you’d like shared? Email me today!
Click here to sign up for the free IB ezine – your twice-weekly resource for local business news, analysis, voices, and the names you need to know. If you are not already a subscriber to In Business magazine, be sure to sign up for our monthly print edition here.
