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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Library funding update

As noted in an earlier post, Kellogg-Hubbard was largely successful on town meeting day. We asked the six towns in our service area for $318,000, and $304,000 was approved. Hilari Farrington and I will propose to the board changes to the budget to make up for the $14,000 shortfall. At this point we do not expect that we will have to reduce hours to make up the lost revenue.

A critical source of support for the library is charitable contributions. In 2007, we have budgeted $147,000 in gifts from individuals and businesses. To-date we have raised $37,675 compared to $23,570 for the same period in 2006.

We are ahead of last year for a couple of reasons. First, a business that gave us $5,000 last year gave us the same amount this year, but earlier in the year. Second, we received two major gifts: $6,000 from a relatively new donor, and $10,000 from a donor who gave us $5,000 last year. Third, and sadly, a number of long-time patrons have died and we have received gifts in their memory.

I am inspired by the generosity of these donors. I have been involved in fundraising for some time, and Kellogg-Hubbard has an unusually high number of dependable donors – people who give year after year – and also a number of major donors who give willingly and at increasing levels.

Don’t forget, you can make a donation to Kellogg-Hubbard online.

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