Supporting the Paulding County Carnegie Library
 

Paulding County Carnegie Library Foundation
205 South Main Street
Paulding, Ohio 45879

Telephone:
419.399.2032
 

Vision:

The Paulding County Carnegie Library will build a legacy for the future through the formation of a tax-exempt foundation. This foundation will ensure that excellent library services continue in the future. The foundation serves to further enhance the scope and quality of public library service in Paulding County, Ohio through long-term financial stability.

Mission:

The mission of the Paulding County Carnegie Library Foundation (PCCLF) is to provide the opportunity for citizens to enhance the quality of Paulding County Carnegie Library services to the community by securing resources to support library programs and projects not normally met by public funding.

The methods of giving or resources could include: individual/group donations, corporate/matching gifts, grants, special events, bequests, endowments, memorial gifts, stocks and real estate. A gift to the PCCLF is a gift to the entire county

“Free libraries maintained by the people are cradles of democracy, and their spread can never fail to extend and strengthen the democratic idea, the equality of the citizen and the royalty of man. They are emphatically fruits of the true American ideal.”

-Andrew Carnegie at the 1903 dedication of the
Carnegie Library in Washington, D.C.

History of Funding
The Paulding County Carnegie Library was created through philanthropy. Andrew Carnegie made a promise to the citizens of Paulding County. In 1916 that promise opened as the first Carnegie library funded to serve an entire county. Throughout the years the funding for Ohio’s public libraries varied until the early 1980s when a percentage of the personal income tax was earmarked for Public Libraries. In 1993, this tax became public law.

In 2002 funding for libraries was frozen. In 2008 the library funding formula was changed from a percentage of the personal income tax to 2.2% of Ohio’s general revenue tax. Although this could be a more stable form of funding, it is still dependent on a strong economy. Funding for Ohio’s public libraries has not recovered from pre-2002 levels, although services and library use has dramatically increased

Why a Library Foundation?

The Paulding County Carnegie Library Foundation (PCCLF) was established to support the operations of the library. Recognizing that a great library is not possible through public funding alone, the Foundation will provide opportunities for planned gift giving.

The PCCLF will ensure that donations are utilized for special operational needs of the library and will be administered by a board independent of the library governing Board of Trustees.
 

The PCCLF will provide an opportunity for donors to give to children’s summer reading and other programming, materials acquisition, special needs for reference and genealogy, building projects and much more.
 

Tax dollars have ensured a good library for Paulding County. The PCCLF will enable the citizens of Paulding County to make a good library great!

Foundation Points
 

►Libraries were philanthropic institutions before they were government institutions and are returning to philanthropic ways of funding.
►Libraries cannot do everything they need to do through tax dollars alone.
►A foundation board is separate from the Library Board of Trustees and exists only to solicit gifts from the public and private sector. It is not involved in the governing of the library.
►The library’s core value is that our largest donor is the taxpayer, and an endowment cannot substitute for government responsibility; but it takes the library to a higher level.
►The PCCLF will be formed as a 501c3. Individuals can give through an annual program, capital giving or planned giving.