Committee Spotlight - Fundraising Committee
August 6, 2020
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Who puts the “fun” in fundraising? ILA’s Fundraising Committee, that’s who! Welcome new members Rebecca Pfenning and Karen McBride, and thank you Anjelica Rufus-Barnes, Ashely Stewart and Scott Drone-Silvers for their continued service!
Our committee charge is to identify fundraising strategies that will provide long-term financial stability for the association, to include, but not limited to, such areas as grants, the endowment, and scholarships. The committee oversees the Illinois Library Luminaries program, which includes monitoring contributions.
We most recently met during the ILA committee orientation July 16. We had a great discussion about how to make our fundraising more inclusive, including the Luminaries program. The team discussed some ideas to support nominators/fundraisers, expand to possibly include organizations, take a close look at how the program is described and promoted in order to be as inclusive as possible, possible offshoot programs and more. We also plan to research other professional associations's fundraising initiatives to evaluate for possible additions this year or next.
The team also discussed the tremendous groundswell of energy right now for initiatives supporting equity, diversity and inclusion, and that now may be the critical time to fundraise for Diversity Committee initiatives. People genuinely want to do something tangible and of direct value, so we want to work on that now, to tap into that passion and concern. (The Diversity Committee is meeting this month, and we hope they will have some ideas to partner with us. No pressure, but we’re REALLY excited!)
The next committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 18 at 4:00 p.m. on Zoom. Contact committee chair Heidi Smith (hsmith@prpl.org) for log in information.
This spotlight was written by the Fundraising Committee Chair Heidi Smith (pictured). Smith is the library director at the Park Ridge Public Library.
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