Endowment
Through generous donations and planned gifts from our community, and the Foundation’s wise investing, as of December 31, 2024, the endowment fund balance was approximately $5.98 million. The extraordinary growth in the Endowment from 12/31/22 to 12/31/23 is primarily due to a remarkable Legacy Gift to the MVLF Endowment in 2023: an estate gift of $2.35 million from a long-time Mill Valley resident, Daniel Druckerman (1939-2021). The MVLF is deeply grateful for this gift which will make a significant impact on the Foundation's future support of the Mill Valley Public Library.
As a result of the Endowment’s continuing growth, the grants to the Library have been increasing in recent years. To see the Foundation’s Grant History, click here. The annual grants are used to help support the library’s free, award-
winning programming, expanded digital content and services, technology and more.
About the Endowment
After its founding in 1983, the Foundation’s initial focus was to raise money each year to be fully awarded to the Mill Valley Public Library in the form of grants for programming and other services. However, in 1989 the Foundation determined that funding a long-term endowment to ensure library funding “in perpetuity” was preferable to short-term fundraising , and this became the focus of the Foundation’s fundraising through 2010.
Beginning in 2011, the Foundation once again began to make annual grants to the library (on an individual project basis), while also continuing to grow the Endowment, with the stated goal of having the Endowment reach $2.3 million. This was the amount that the Foundation Board identified as the amount needed to allow a “crossover” to providing annual grants funded by the endowment to the library, funded by a percentage of the Endowment’s previous 3 year-end balances. That goal was finally achieved in late 2018. As a result, beginning in 2019, the Foundation has provided annual grants to the library funded by the endowment. Click here to see the Foundation's Grant History.
The Foundation’s goal is to continue growing the endowment to provide funding for the library in perpetuity, ensuring the library remains a vital resource for generations to come.
Endowment Balance
More details on the development and growth of the Endowment, including the role played in that growth by 2 large bequests: 1) a significant bequest which was instrumental in enabling MVLF to reach in reaching the its 'crossover' goal for activation of the endowment of $2.3 million in late 2018; and 2) a very large bequest of $2.35 million in 2023, can be found here.
The Foundation’s Endowment Fund is managed on a fee for service basis by DTS Group
LLC. In addition to having a Professional Investment Advisor, the MVLF Investment Committee effectively oversees the financial management of the Endowment based on the Foundation’s Investment and Spending Policy. The Investment Committee is composed of MVLF board members with professional investment management expertise, as well as additional investment professionals who provide their services pro bono to the Foundation.