ALA Funding Initiatives

To make a gift online, start here: Donate to ALA | ALA Membership. You are welcome to send gifts by check as well to The American Library Association, Development Office, 225 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60601.

ALA Endowment

Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of members and friends of ALA, the ALA Endowment has grown to $60 million (December 2024). Despite tremendous progress, we have not yet reached an endowment total required to provide a steady stream of income that helps support all aspects of ALA's operations. A sufficient endowment will generate reliable and permanent income, ensuring that ALA will continue to play a major role as the voice of America's libraries for generations to come. If you are interested in creating an endowment in your own name, your company name, or to memorialize a loved one or some else who has strongly impacted your life, please contact Amy Katzenberger, Director of Development, akatzenberger@ala.org or by phone, 312-280-5049.

ALA General Scholarships

The American Library Association is committed to promoting and advancing the librarian profession. To demonstrate this commitment, the ALA and its units provide more than $300,000 annually for study in a master's degree in library and information studies from an ALA accredited program, or for a master's degree in school library media program that meets the ALA curriculum guidelines for a National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) accredited unit. If you are interested in creating an ALA scholarship in your own name, your company name, or to memorialize a loved one or some else who has strongly impacted your life, please contact Amy Katzenberger, Director of Development, akatzenberger@ala.org or by phone, 312-280-5049.

ALA Spectrum Scholarship Program

Spectrum is ALA's national diversity and recruitment effort designed to address the specific issue of under representation of critically needed ethnic librarians within the profession while serving as a model for ways to bring attention to larger diversity issues in the future. The Spectrum Scholarship Program provides scholarships and professional development programs to improve service at the local level through the development of a representative workforce that reflects the communities served by all libraries. Your donation will help build the Spectrum endowment to a level where it can permanently sustain scholarships by sending a powerful message that you care about diversity, education and equal access to information for all. If you are interested in creating an ALA Spectrum endowment in your own name, your company name, or to memorialize a loved one or some else who has strongly impacted your life, please contact Amy Katzenberger, Director of Development, akatzenberger@ala.org or by phone, 312-280-5049.

The American Library Association - the largest and most influential library association in the world - has embarked on a special public awareness and advocacy campaign entitled Libraries Transform. At its core, Libraries Transform speaks loudly and clearly about the value of libraries and librarians in the 21st century and has been designed to convey the value of public, school, academic and special libraries as centers for information, learning, literacy and culture at the national, state, and local level. Your contribution and the support of corporate and foundation sponsors can help ALA support the library community to reach the thousands and millions of people that they serve. If your company is interested in sponsoring Libraries Transform, please contact the ALA Development Office by development@ala.org or by telephone at 312-280-5049.

Libraries are often the first place that many people experience live music, poetry, documentary film, dance, art and literature. For Americans without proximity to cultural institutions or the financial means to access cultural events, the free library offers an essential connection to the wider world through the humanities. For that reason, ALA's Public Program Office established the Cultural Communities Fund (CCF) to support diverse and excellent cultural programming in all types of libraries. These programs promote cultural understanding, civic engagement and life-long learning. For more information on how the Cultural Communities Fund supports libraries, please visit the ALA's Public Program Office web pages.

Other Giving Opportunities

The American Library Association affords contributors a range of opportunities to support its mission to provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all. Within the framework of this mission ALA recognizes diversity as a strength and works with its many divisions, offices and round tables to achieve its goals and priorities.

Please use the links above to find out more about these funding initiatives or to make a contribution. Questions? Please contact the Development Office at development@ala.org, or reach out to Amy Katzenberger, Director of Development, akatzenberger@ala.org, or by phone 312-280-5049.