The COVID-19 pandemic has upended nearly every aspect of library life, from programming and outreach to collection development and staffing. One vital but less discussed facet: fundraising.
“This [past] year I personally took charge of looking at our donors and thinking, ‘How can we fundraise during this difficult time?’” said Lauren Trujillo, director of the Santa Barbara (Calif.) Public Library Foundation (SBPLF).
Trujillo, along with Andrea Lapsley, president of Texas Library and Archives Foundation (TxLAF) in Austin, moderated “The Future of Library Fundraising,” a United for Libraries-sponsored discussion at the American Library Association’s 2021 Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits Virtual on January 24. The two women talked about the challenges of raising money and maintaining relationships during these unprecedented times, as well as best practices for growing…
