Donor Relations as Public Relations: Toward a Philosophy of Fund-Raising - library fund-raising

Library Trends, Wntr, 2000 by Robert Wedgeworth

Infringements on the autonomy of institutions through gifts and grants are more often a very beneficial development. The National Endowment for the Humanities and foundations like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have exerted an enormous influence on the nation's academic libraries to encourage collection growth and investments in the personnel, technologies, and techniques for the preservation of library materials. This has been especially true of the largely private independent research libraries where NEH funds "were made available for programs and efforts that meshed well with the interests of many librarians and directors in `democratizing' their institutions by expanding access and introducing additional services aimed at new constituencies" (Bergman [with Bowen and Nygren], 1996, p. 150).

Alexander (1996) documents the experience of museums in assessing the impact of funding on their operations and aspirations. Her study addresses, "how changes in funding are related to consensus and conflict inside museums, especially between the curatorial and administrative sides" (p. 4). Given the long experience of museums with philanthropy and fund-raising, it would be well for the library field to take note of their experience.

Within the American Library Association, we have witnessed the twists and turns of an organization struggling with the role of fund-raising in the organization. The separate 501C (3) organization established to manage ALA's fund-raising activities (Fund For America's Libraries) has recently been disbanded in favor of an internal organization. More recently, we have seen a growing controversy over the growth of corporate fund-raising to support certain aspects of the Annual Conference:

   The moneys that flow in from these sources can be used for good things, of
   course, and sometimes are, but they do come with a hefty price tag. One of
   the chief debilitating effects resulting from such large sums coming from
   electronic-resource companies is the marginalization of book publishers,
   chiefly small presses, who sit woebegone and doe-eyed at little booths. The
   book publishers--even venerable ones whom you would think would be given a
   place of pride at a conference devoted to reading and learning--literally
   cannot afford the floor space gobbled up by the big vendors for their
   technological trunk shows. (Wisner, 1999, p. 42)

These are not isolated and unrelated events, but a pattern of emerging conflicts and tensions that inevitably surround fund-raising as an activity in the library field. While the benefits of fund-raising are not challenged here, there is a need to be aware of, and to guard against, unacceptable consequences of fund-raising.

CONCLUSION

As we look toward a philosophy of fund-raising or a rationale that helps to explain the nature of fund-raising in academic libraries, it may be helpful to put this activity in the broader context of public relations. Since it involves managing communications with a potentially influential constituency that could exert significant influence over the future of libraries, it needs to be integrated into the overall management function of the library as a specialized form of public relations. While donors have the best interests of the library in mind when contemplating gifts, that does not guarantee that the expressed intention will be consistent with the plans and operations of the library.