Going to the Movies

There's a variety of ways to get money for a project like the new Point Roberts library.  There are local, state, or government funds.  There are business funds for community involvement.  There are charitable foundations/groups (the 501(c)3 tax exempt groups) who give out grants for worthwhile projects; these groups range  from very small foundations who give only small grants, to ones like the (Bill) Gates Foundation who can give enormous grants.  There are private citizens who donate anything from $5.00 to $50,000 dollars.  And there are local businesses who provide various kinds of support to local projects, ranging from giving them discounts on supplies to sponsoring special events.

These last two groups (private local donors and local business support) are very important to all the other groups because it is a way of demonstrating whether a project has local community support.  If your own residents are unwilling to give you any money, if your own local businesses are unwilling to provide some aid, why should the Bill Gates Foundation or the U.S. or Washington State government get involved?  The big donors are looking very carefully to see whether a project has local money behind it.  Locals don't have to provide all the dollars, but they have to provide some of it before the big donors will get involved.

And that's why, when Joan Roberts of Brewster's, offered to put on a series of outdoor summer movies in the yard at Brewster's, with donations to the new library being the price of admission, the Fundraising committee recognized that the offer was a very big deal.  A local business had stood up, early in the game, and said, "I want to help, and here's what I am willing to do."  Some businesses might just offer money, which is great; and others might offer to put on event, as Brewsters is doing, which is equally great.  But whatever is offered is really important, even more than the actual number of dollars involved.

THANKS to Brewsters for stepping forward.  The first movie night was 3 weeks ago, and it raised almost $400 for the Library Fund.  And that $400, along with $92 from the Parks Department's Wine and Cheese Reception a couple of weeks ago, has taken us up to $4,000 in local donations.  The second got rained out, but the next one is next Saturday night, the 30th, at dusk.  If it's not wet or cold, it's a fun evening, but bring your own chairs and a shawl/blanket, maybe.

I've put together a small quilt to track the donations as they come in, from whatever sources.  Using the idea of 500 donors at $1,000 each getting us to our half million dollar goal, the quilt has colored/decorated 2-inch square blocks, each one representing $1,000.  There will be three such quilts over time, but the first one will track the first 168 thousand-dollar worth of donations.  We've got a total of 4 of them as of last week.  And here's the quilt (which will be kept on a wall somewhere over at the Community Center and I'll post photos of it here regularly as well.  Mostly, right now, it's black flannel.  But it's got four squares, representing $4,000.  And it will have more, very soon.  Even unto 168 of them.

Quilt with 4 Squares= Four Library Fundraising Units (LFU's)=$4,000