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The Chicago Community Trust Supports Library
Foundation's First Strategic Plan
NEWS RELEASE
February 12, 2003
For further information contact:
Judy Hoffman, 847/353-7137
A $10,000 Management and Organizational Development grant from The Chicago
Community Trust was the launching pad for the Library
Community Foundation's first strategic planning project. The yearlong
project started with a feasibility study on the state of fund raising
for Illinois libraries, with a focus on public libraries in the greater
Chicago metro area. This environmental survey is a first for the Foundation
and for Illinois libraries.
The Library Community Foundation
was established specifically to benefit and assist libraries throughout
Illinois. Since it's inception in 1995, the Foundation has grown from
one to 22 fund partners. Originally named the North Suburban Library
Foundation, the organization changed its name in January 2002 to better
reflect its mission and expanding funding base.
"Our rocketing growth almost
took us by surprise, and we knew we had to study our tracks to guarantee
continued steps forward," says Anne Johnson, executive director, Library
Community Foundation. "More than ever libraries need steady and creative
support. The grant from The Chicago Community Trust is the stepping
stone to a higher level of support for public libraries from our Foundation."
The Foundation hired strategic
management and fundraising specialists LatzBruni Partners of River Forest,
IL to direct the extensive yearlong strategic planning project. Information
for the feasibility study is being gathered through multiple focus groups,
written surveys and one-on-one interviews. Stephen Daniels, board chair
and senior research fellow for the American Bar Foundation, is chairing
the strategic planning project.
Founded in 1915, The Chicago
Community Trust is the third largest and second oldest among the nations
more than 600 community foundations. In contrast to corporate and private
foundations, the Trust is a union of gifts and bequests from many sources,
forming endowments of more than $1 billion, the income from which is
used to support more than $38 million in grant making to not-for-profit
organizations serving local residents and to support local programs
like the Library Community Foundation's strategic plan. Sarah Solotaroff,
vice president of programs and a senior program officer at the Trust,
is advisor for this grant project.
The Library Community Foundation
operates as an Illinois non-profit, charitable corporation (501(c)3).
In addition, the Foundation meets the public support requirements that
qualify it as a community foundation. For more information on the Foundation
visit www.librarycommunityfoundation.org.
