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Churchill Library Association explains fundraising, endowment and past RFID contribution
Summary
Zip Upham told the Library Board that the Churchill Library Association (a 501(c)(3)) supports programming and collections through donations, an investment account and limited annual grants; the association funded the library’s RFID system during a prior modernization project.
Zip Upham, chairman of the Churchill Library Association, told the Churchill County Library Board of Trustees that the association operates as the library’s fundraising 501(c)(3) and supports programming, collections and specific projects.
Upham said the association evolved from a Friends of the Library group and now helps supplement county funding through donations and events. “The Churchill Library Association is the fundraising arm 5 0 1 c 3 organization for the library,” Upham said.
Upham outlined the group’s activities: a winter donation letter campaign, an annual fall event (Books, Bites & Beverages) that began as a wine tasting, and smaller annual grants. He said the association typically provides “maybe 4 or $5,000 over the course of a year to the library” for items such as books for babies, summer reading and collection requests, and generally avoids paying for infrastructure or fixtures.
The association maintains an investment account managed by Edward Jones that Upham said is “sitting about 200 ks.” He said the library has also used a Morgan Trust gift earmarked for collection development that is being drawn down. During the library’s repurposing project, the association paid for the library’s RFID system and associated checkout and check-in readers, a project Upham described as appropriate when the collection was temporarily moved.
Upham described the association’s approach to investment fees: it keeps a small corporate account with Edward Jones (he said it “fluctuates around a thousand dollars or lehi”) to pay management fees so the endowment principal is not used to cover those costs. That separation, he said, lets the association tell donors their gifts go to the library collection rather than to investment fees.
Upham told trustees that the association’s $200,000 investment balance is intended to generate income for purchases while preserving principal; he emphasized the association is not positioned to fund a major building expansion and that capital costs for a new facility would be driven by county budget decisions and outside grants.
Board members asked questions about donations, how fees are paid, and whether the association could contribute to a future expansion; Upham said the association would participate but could not underwrite a large capital project on its own.
No board action was taken on CLA funding at the meeting.
