Library finds good partner

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November 19, 2013 - 12:00 AM

Roger Carswell, director of Iola Public Library, may not have an accounting degree on his resume, but he knows the value of a good investment.
As of July, the library’s foundation has made $649.51 on the modest $15,732 it has invested with the Allen County Community Foundation.
“It’s the start of a beautiful relationship,” Carswell said of adding the library foundation’s gifts to the greater corpus of the community foundation.
The library launched an endowment fund in spring 2012, shortly after its renovation was completed in 2011.
“We’d hoped to have $50,000 in two years’ time,” he said. “Obviously, that hasn’t happened.”
The library has appealed to former staff, active library patrons and library friends to help build an endowment to help the library weather cuts in state funding. The library’s budget is funded primarily by the city, which has remained static over the years. Another 15-20 percent of its budget has relied on state funds and other ancillary funds including late charges.
“State funds have been cut by half,” Carswell said.
The premise of the endowment is to build principal, and use its earnings to help support library operations, particularly programs and book purchases.
The advantage of partnering with the community foundation is twofold.
First, the foundation manages all investments under the umbrella of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.
Second, participation with the community foundation drew a 25 percent match from the Kansas Health Foundation through its Grow-to-Grant program.
Gifts made directly to the Allen County Community Foundation or its public health foundation draw a 50 percent from the KHF. Any other gifts, including to the Allen County Regional Hospital, draw a 25 percent match. The matching program through the Kansas Health Foundation is good for five years, and has provided much of the operational support for the local foundation under the direction of Susan Michael.
Recently, the local foundation has made two gifts. One of $1,000 to Hope Unlimited and a second of $500 to the Circles out of Poverty program.
Michael compared the foundation’s purpose to that of the United Way, only on a much smaller scale.
Members of its board of directors determine countywide needs to fund out of the earnings of its investments. Don Copely, Humboldt, serves as the community foundation’s president. The more money the foundation acquires, the more gifts it can bequeath. All gifts to the not-for-profit foundation are tax-deductible.
Gifts to the library’s endowment can be made in numerous ways, including as memorials at the time of one’s death. Life insurance policies also can be directed to fund the library.

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