How is EveryLibrary Different And How Does It Support Libraries?

EveryLibrary is a little different in the library advocacy ecosystem.

We are built as a 501c4 in an arena that is dominated by many hard-working and amazingly successful 501c3 organizations who are doing great things for the library community. Some examples of excellent 501c3 organizations that you probably know about are many of our state associations and advocacy groups like Urban Librarians Unite or ALA’s own United for Libraries. However, there are significant differences in the kinds of work that a 501c3 can do and the kinds of work that a 501c4 can do. The biggest difference is that a 501c4 organization is an organization that is built around social welfare and is allowed to take part in direct voter advocacy and can spend money and resources influencing politics beyond simple lobbying. Most importantly, we can, and do, spend money and resources directly influencing elections. This expenditure is extremely important because 85-90 percent of library funding is entirely dependent on the will of the local politicians and the local voters.

Of course, there are many examples of 501c4 organizations that you might have heard of and most national industries have a 501c4 organization fighting for them. For example, the fire department and the police both have 501c4 organizations and both the Sierra Club and the National Rifle Association are 501c4 organizations fighting for the issues that they believe in. However, we at EveryLibrary believe in the power of libraries and librarians and we are using our resources to fight for them across the country. Please help us win for libraries the same way that these other 501c4 organizations help their industries.

EveryLibrary Has a History of Success.

EveryLibrary only exists because of the generosity of the people who support us. Through their generosity, we have been able to help dozens of libraries with pro-bono campaign support and tactical training. We are proud to report that we have helped libraries win over $100 million dollars throughout our first three years.  These include libraries as small as Darby, MT and libraries as large as New Orleans.  Beyond public library ballot campaigns, we have worked to fight against the defunding of school libraries in such places as South Orange, NJ and Cedar Rapids, IA. And while they weren’t on the ballot, we have helped organize communities like Miami-Dade and Dallas to rally local public support for city and county budgets. We have even had to fight against the much better funded and resourced Koch Brothers SuperPAC!

All of this work was done pro-bono for those library communities. It was only possible because of our amazing individual donors and fantastic vendor donors. These fights for libraries are not going to stop, and we are ready to continue this work. That’s where you come in.

There are just two things that we need to win!

We know from experience that there are only two things that politicians and voters respond to: People and Money.  As an organization, we are building up both of these resources to use to fight for libraries. If you are an individual or are part of a corporate team interested in supporting libraries, we have a number of ways that you can help libraries build up these two valuable assets in the fight for libraries. In 2016, we have another 18 campaigns to work on with your support. Here is how you can help:

Individual Supporters

Make a One Time Contribution
Making a one-time donation of $50-$100 really makes a huge impact in the fight for libraries. We use this money to help fund local ballot initiatives and spread the word about the importance of libraries and librarians

Make a Monthly Contribution
Monthly contributions are a great way to ensure that we have continuing funding to pay expenses and make strategic advertising buys to influence outcomes. Monthly contributions typically range from $10-$50.

Share the Pledge and Ask Friends, Family and Colleagues to sign it
Helping us identify library supporters through our ”Pledge to Support Libraries” and sharing our petitions lets us quickly activate more people for library issues, and helps us raise resources through a larger community of library supporters.

Corporate Support

To become a corporate supporter please contact us directly!

Support our Research
There are many research projects that we are working on to help gain the tools we need to fight for libraries. Vendors like Gale Cengage have donated both the money and in-kind donations that allow us to conduct the research we need to win elections for libraries.

Help us Build Our Lists of Library Supporters
There are many ways that your organization can help us build our identified list of library supporters. For example, we worked with Overdrive this election season to place ads on the Overdrive platform to drive traffic to our pledge to support libraries and Better World Books included links in their newsletter to that same pledge. But there are many other ways we can work together to build the public community of library supporters.

Make a Major Contribution
We are supported by a wide range of corporate donors such as; Mango, Gale, Brainfuse, Rosen Publishing, Demco, Ebsco, ByWater Solutions, and many more. We have used this money for matching contribution campaigns, for fundraisers at conferences, and for direct support of our political activities. We can find a way to work with you!