Huntsville-Madison County Library Foundation

“A copy of the form 990 was emailed to each board member to be reviewed and approved. Full board approval was reached on february 12, 2020.”

“The foundation board holds an orientation session for new members each year in advance of our january board meeting. This year the orientation session was held on january 7th and included all seven new members. The conflict policy was carefully explained and understood by the attendees. The full board met on tuesday, january 14th and the board chair again explained the non-conflict policy to all attendees. Conflict forms were sent out to all board members for renewed review and signature and are being collected for retention.”

“Governing documents are made available to the public upon request.”

“The huntsville library foundation (hlf) was established in 1986 to assist in fundraising for a new downtown library to serve huntsville and madison county. Since that time, the hlf has grown in both scope and board member size. The hlf's primary role today is to raise awareness and funding for the huntsville-madison county public library, currently consisting of 12 locations; 6 within the city of huntsville, and 6 others across madison county: triana public library, madison public library, monrovia public library, tillman d. Hill public library, gurley public library, and elizabeth carpenter public library of new hope. The hmcpl's mission statement is: this is the public's library. We empower individuals to create their own futures, explore the universe of ideas, and connect with our community and the world. All hlf activities and efforts are in support of the library's mission. Therefore, the hlf has dual missions: 1) to advocate for the hmcpl, and 2) to acquire resources that enhance the library's value to the community. In the fall of 2016, the hlf established an advocacy committee, the goal of which is to network with all local and statewide governmental office holders to ensure funding is available for the operational needs of the library's 12 locations but also to expand programming dollars to allow for targeting activities in each location. Since its inception, the committee has been successful in contacting local officials via letter and email to support a small increase in our per capita funding from the state. Our biggest financial challenge over the past several years has been to raise capital campaign dollars in support of one new replacement branch facility located in the city of madison and two new replacement branch facilities in the city of huntsville (one in north huntsville and one in south huntsville). The madison library was opened to the public in january of 2018. We were successful in raising nearly 1 million in needed funds for madison. Construction has begun on the north huntsville library. And the construction bid has been approved for the south huntsville library with construction expected to begin in february of 2020. The hlf plans and hosts a large annual gala in the fall of each year to raise monies. This gala, vive le livre, is a well-loved and well-attended event within the madison county community. On average, 450 guests enjoy an evening of good food and a keynote address from a world-renowned author. Ticket sales and sponsorship opportunities generate profits for the event, all of which is allocated back exclusively to the hmcpl. The hlf hosts 3-4 additional author events throughout the year where we welcome authors on book tour. While these events generated an additional 7,500 approximately for the hlf for 2019, these book talks and signings are also wonderful for building awareness of the hlf and the library's overall mission for our community. In 2019, the hlf provided 60,000 to fund the digital media zone (for downloadable books and music), 12,000 for direct support for materials for all 12 locations, and an additional 20,000 to fund internal grants from various branches and departments.”

“The huntsville library foundation raises funding to support the books and media collections of each of the 12 huntsville-madison county public library branches. We also provide the bulk of the funds needed to provide e-books and music streaming for our online users. In addition, we provide an annual grant opportunity for locations and departments across the system to institute new activities or programs that are community specific. We raise the funding through an annual event well known in the community - vive le livre, which is a dinner and book talk by an outstanding and well-known author. We also host other frequent events through community conversations that make our existence more widely known and provided additional cultural exposure for our community. Another role for the foundation is that of advocacy. We provide information to our community at large and our governmental leaders are fully aware of the fiscal needs of the library's operations. We also seek direct funding from them. With 2019 being our 33rd year of existence, we have a sense of pride and purpose in our relationship with the library.”