Public Programs Office launches 2007 campaign for ALA Cultural Communities Fund

Contact: Lainie Castle, PPO
312-280-5055


lcastle@ala.org

For Immediate Release
September 12, 2006

Public Programs Office launches 2007 campaign


for ALA Cultural Communities Fund

Annual fund raising goal is $277,000 by July 31, 2007

CHICAGO - This month, the ALA Public Programs Office (PPO) began its 2007 fund raising campaign to build the Cultural Communities Fund (CCF), an endowment created to support local libraries in establishing community and cultural programs. The first endowment of its kind, CCF will help libraries of all types develop and host programs in the arts, humanities, and civic discussion in diverse communities across the country.

The 2007 fund raising goal is to raise $277,000 in order to qualify for matching funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

In 2003, CCF was awarded a $350,000 Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), which requires ALA to raise matching funds on a 3 to 1 basis through July 31, 2008.
The Public Programs Office is pleased to announce that it met and exceeded the 2006 fund raising goal, bringing the total amount raised for the CCF endowment to $640,000.

The ALA Public Programs Office and its Public and Cultural Programs Advisory Committee (PCPAC), chaired by Deborah L. Jacobs, city librarian at The Seattle Public Library, lead fund raising efforts on behalf of CCF.

"It is my pleasure to be a part of ALA's fund raising campaign for the Cultural Communities Fund," said Jacobs. "Awareness of and interest in cultural programming for libraries is growing, and I believe that ALA's work to establish diverse, outstanding national model programs and training opportunities is more important than ever. I truly see my annual donation to CCF as an investment in the future of library programming."

To date, more than 300 individuals, foundations and corporations have contributed to the Cultural Communities Fund, including Benefactors ($50,000 or more): the H. W. Wilson Foundation, Sara Jaffarian, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Public Library Association (PLA), and The Wallace Foundation; Sponsors ($10,000 to $24,000): Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), Barnes & Noble, Logitech and Nextbook; and Founders ($5,000 to $9,999): Deborah and Peter Robertson and Christine Watkins. For a full list of supporters, visit
www.ala.org/ccf.

To help the Public Programs Office get a head start on the 2007 CCF fund raising goal, visit
www.ala.org/ccf to make a credit card donation or download a donation form. Pledges paid by July 31, 2008, will be matched per the terms of the NEH Challenge Grant.

For more information, visit
www.ala.org/ccf. With questions about sponsorship and naming opportunities, contact Joan Claffey, director of the ALA Development Office, at
jclaffey@ala.orgor 312-280-3215.

The mission of its Public Programs Office is to foster cultural programming as an integral part of library service in all types of libraries. More than 8,000 libraries and at least 10 million individuals have participated in library programming initiatives supported by the Public Programs Office. For more information, visit
www.ala.org/publicprograms.