Lombard library looking at gift funding

Lombard library trustees are turning to donation rather than taxation to fund future growth and renovation.

Trustees sat through two presentations Tuesday night by companies who want to help the library measure its public image and rake in dollars through private contributions. The companies are experts in fundraising.

One of the companies, Naperville-based Pruehs & Associates, LLC, told trustees private fundraising is the wave of the future for tax-supported bodies.

Such fundraising used to have a negative stigma for taxing bodies, said John Pruehs. After all, people "donate" to taxing bodies through their annual tax bills. But in rough economic times, people don't want a tax increase. So taxing bodies are going the way of hospitals and private universities and seeking donors to pull off large projects.

"Everybody's doing it," Pruehs said. "It's about time the libraries did, too."

Lombard trustees want to expand the library, but have already tasted the defeat of one failed attempt at a tax increase.

Trustees have not committed to anything yet, but appear likely to hire a firm to at least measure the library's ability to rake in private donations. Such a study would give trustees a feel for whether or not they could fund an expansion entirely through private money. And, if the private dollars aren't there, surveys and interviews performed in the private fundraising process would provide feedback about what the library must do to put a tax increase that voters will approve on the ballot.

Library trustees expressed an interest in hosting community meetings to get public feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the library regardless of any fundraising campaign. Trustees will discuss the timing of the meetings in more detail at their next meeting.