Our Supporters Make it Possible
On behalf of the Mill Valley Library Foundation Board, I am pleased to share with you some details on a meaningful milestone our Foundation achieved. After 36 years of support of our beloved Mill Valley Public Library, the Foundation has reached a capital base sufficient to begin an Endowment. The goal of this Endowment is to perpetually and dependably support the Library's free, award-winning programming that our Foundation has funded through many years of donor support of our Annual Campaigns and event fundraisers such as the Foundation’s Storybook Ball and Beyond The Book Bash. Prior to the start of this Endowment, funding amounts have been varied and unpredictable.
To perpetually provide consistent grant amounts to the Library at levels approaching some of our Foundation’s most successful fundraising years, we determined that a starting Endowment balance of $2.3 million was needed. A successful reprise of our Storybook Ball this past year and a record-setting 2018 Annual Campaign that yielded over $100,000 raised our Endowment account to near $2.0 million. As you may have seen in a recent joint press release issued by the City of Mill Valley and our Foundation, on January 4, 2019 the City transferred a $350,000 portion of a large bequest to the Library that the City received in 2016 from the Zimmer family. This unique public-private partnership enabled our Foundation to cross-over and adopt its Endowment Spending Policy roughly two years ahead of our projections. I am therefore pleased to announce our Endowment will begin distributing annual program grants to the Library with an initial grant of approximately $65,000 this July!
While formalizing and beginning payouts from our nascent Endowment is a noteworthy milestone in our Foundation’s 36-year history, our mission has not ended. As we look to the future, we plan to continue building the Endowment and the vital sustainable funding it can provide our Library in the years to come when government budgets might not be able to fund important functions. For example, when our Endowment reaches our next interim goal of $4 million, it would be able to increase its perpetual annual payout to over $100,000 to help sustain an extraordinary array of award-winning programming that tax-based City funding does not provide for--including After Hours, teen and children's programs, a technology lab and instruction.
To celebrate with our community and to continue to grow the Endowment, the Foundation will be reprising its “Beyond The Book Bash” fundraiser on September 7, 2019 at the Throckmorton Theater. Additionally, we will be introducing a Legacy Giving program this year so that the Foundation can directly accept and manage estate and planned gifts.
Establishment of our Endowment couldn’t have been accomplished without your generous support over many years, for which we are very grateful. We hope you will continue your generosity in the years to come to ensure that our Library has the resources it needs to remain a Mill Valley treasure.
In sincere gratitude on behalf of our entire MVLF Board,
Andrew Shapiro, MVLF Board Chair / President
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