Library Foundation offered grant to help complete Children’s Literacy Endowment Campaign

Nonprofit organization needs to raise another $164,000 by Dec. 31 to win the grant

Photo from the Library Foundation website
Photo from the Library Foundation website

The Library Foundation for Sarasota County has received notice that it will get $50,000 from the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation if it can raise an additional $164,000 it needs for a campaign with a Dec. 31 deadline, the Library Foundation has announced.

The Barancik Foundation support was “designed to motivate people” to donate to the Library Foundation’s Children’s Literacy Endowment by the end of the year, the Library Foundation says in a news release.

The Library Foundation must raise the additional $164,000 by Dec. 31 to reach its $450,000 goal and receive the Barancik Foundation “capping” grant, the news release points out. “To date, more than $336,000 has been raised,” the release says. When completed, the Children’s Literacy Endowment will generate $22,500 in annual revenue to support children’s early literacy programs, such as the Library Foundation’s Imagination Library, the release continues.

“This wonderful grant from the Barancik Foundation will help us do two things: mail books to the homes for 900 eligible Sarasota Country children ages 0-5, through the Imagination Library program, and provide tips to families about how to read to young children and visit the public library,” Linda Getzen, president of the foundation, said in the release. Further, because the endowment income will be generated in perpetuity, librarians will have the opportunity to use the funds for other early literacy programs as they become available, the release points out.

The mission of the Library Foundation for Sarasota County “is to secure the future of our libraries as an indispensable community resource,” the release explains. The foundation raises private funds to complement tax dollars, the release adds.

The Library Foundation is completing the Children’s Literacy Endowment and installing state-of-the-art, audio-visual equipment and videoconferencing technology in the community rooms of eight Sarasota County libraries, the release notes.

For additional information, visit the foundation’s website.