Activities You Can Support
The Foundation's campaign to develop the library's services and programs must outreach into the community. To effectively increase the quality of life throughout the community it will take time, patience, investment, and most of all people support!
Below are listed some of the areas we know that the Foundation will need community help with. Experienced people will form support committees who work with the resource team to organize bodies of people to help spread the burden of larger projects for the betterment of our community. If you recognize an area you would like to actively be a part of, please fill out the form at the bottom of this page so that we can answer any questions you may have.
Grant Writing
There are many grants out there that will help the Foundation provide vital financing to projects and entities throughout our community that can result in an upturn in our social and economic environment. This area of our activities is very time consuming, and takes patience and determination to achieve a quality end product. Too often grant writing falls on the shoulders of only a few people in our community, but there are many more that are capable of pulling together as a team to share the workload. As a team of grant writers working together, supporting each other’s work, we can achieve our goals and objectives much more quickly and efficiently.
Private Donors
Every year there are thousands of wealthy individuals who want to spread their wealth amongst worthy charities and foundations. In 2008, groups similar to our very own foundation received over fifteen billion dollars in grants and private donations. It will take a focused team to search throughout the USA for the multitude of opportunities these successful individuals, families, and corporations are willing to provide for us.
Local Fundraising
Fundraising should be fun, productive, varied, and coordinated. We need an active and creative team who can provide fundraising opportunities through educational, entertaining, and interesting activities where members of our community can have the opportunity to contribute financially whilst enjoying our fundraising activities around Bloomfield and throughout the county. Fund raising should be a two way street, to receive financial support we should immediately return a benefit to each contributing person or entity. Again this is an area that often falls on the shoulders of only a few which makes this activity burdensome and challenging, this cannot be the same scenario with the foundation. This team will work closely with other teams such as the resources, marketing, sponsorship, and activities teams, to meet goals and objectives.
Networking
Part of the foundation's vision is to unite all charitable and community projects and entities throughout Davis County into a focused cooperative partnership. We need a team of representatives from various groups and entities who will act as advocates for the foundation and will foster positive relationships and provide need assessment.
Sponsorship
Join a decision making team that assess activities and programs either for fundraising, education, or entertainment by our network partners and using board policies make recommendations to the board for sponsorship opportunities to support, promote, and be an advocate for those activities.
Resources
Resources available to the foundation will take many forms. This team will work together with other teams and individuals to make an efficient, effective, response to needs such as office supplies, props, materials, buildings, and any other property of the foundation that can be used for activities and other purposes. This team will also make assessment of current and perceived future resource needs of the foundation as a whole and make recommendations to the board in regard to purchasing or acquisition to meet those needs.
Marketing
Public relations, advertising and promotion, communications with entities in many arenas to work as an advocate for the activities of both our library and our foundation are key to success and development. We need good communicators, those within our community who can effectively transfer our vision to others with impact that creates positive response. Working alongside, and in support of, other foundation teams such as our grant writers and private donor researchers, this team will also advocate for the foundation creating positive response from the philanthropic community locally, nationally, and internationally.
Activities
The foundation looks to increase positive activity throughout the year for the Davis County community. Beyond our fundraising activities we look to provide opportunities for community members to access sources of education and entertainment that increases quality of life, skills and abilities, literacy, and the general health and vitality of our county residents. The activities team will source and recommend to the board available resources and professionals, locally and nationally, who can provide quality services and information that supports our activity strategy in regard to the fore mentioned criteria.
Administration
Our administrative team will provide a vital role for each group within the foundation. Members of this team will help maintain constant interaction between the foundation and its external environment through the use of phone, fax, email, foundation website, and any other communication devices used by the foundation to conduct general communications with all external entities and individuals. Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills are needed to maintain a positive image of the foundation; our administration team will many times each day be the face, and the voice, of the foundation via our wide variety of communication methods. Maintaining an organized office environment involving filing, data input, message taking and delivery, keeping an up-to-date calendar of meetings and activities, and other general office tasks, will contribute to an efficient and effective foundation that can respond to all communications in a professional and timely manner.
Beautification
The visual presentation of our residential and commercial zones is an important part of providing a quality living environment to our community and creating a positive impression for our visitors. Beautification of our towns and countryside combined with all the other activities of our foundation can only enhance the attractiveness of our community to people and organizations that may be looking for a vibrant, active, and progressive community to either reside in or provide business services through. An important part of the foundations vision is to enhance and develop our residential and business communities resulting in increased social and economic strength and stability. The beautification team will provide two essential services that support our vision; to recognize and report to the board ideas and opportunities for beautification in our environment, and to purchase the materials and organize labor needs to implement the decisions of the board.
Empowerment
This team's tasks are to empower individuals, families, and other entities throughout our community. To provide programs, services, and events that inspires and develops the ability to use initiative, common sense, and problem solving skills in our complicated lives. Development of ambition, assertiveness, communication skills, and knowledge, can empower people to achieve and take pride in themselves. Creating social awareness, career path understanding, self confidence, and community spirit, can revive the demoralized and despondent person allowing them to gain direction and purpose again. The empowerment team will comprise of professionals and individuals who are committed to helping others regain belief and motivation to better their current circumstances as well as their future opportunities. Programs such as 'Big Brother Big Sister' and other programs like using help from the marketing and sponsorship teams to bring motivational and educational speakers into our community, will provide a basic cornerstone to a pro-active approach of empowerment that can be built upon. Due to the nature of this team's activities, we will have a board approved criteria for team member selection.
Technology
Free access to computers and other electronic resources helps bridge the digital and information divide. People who are most in need of these resources often have the least access: children, seniors, and the underserved. Cornerstone Campaign funds will be used to supplement the resources available within the foundation and the library to keep pace with innovations that drive the digital age. Members of this team will provide guidance and expertise to answer the needs of the community and the suitability of resources to meet those needs. In addition, the library and the foundation will need to be kept aware of upgrading and system requirements as we grow and evolve. Website development and hosting are important parts of our communications policies and need to be supported.
Training, Development, and Integration
As important as our external networking is to our affectivity and efficiency in working with partners and entities outside the foundation, this team will focus on the internal networking of teams and committees to ensure an effective and efficient working environment for each part of the foundations overall operations. Recognizing and reporting to the board any deficiencies or weaknesses as well as defining strengths and opportunities to promote a proactive approach to development and solidity within our organization is a key function of this team. This team will also work on issues of fluid integration of teams as our focuses and activities change and the vision and strategic plan evolves. The foundation supports the library's mission to connect people with idea, information, technology, resources and each other in ways that enrich their lives and help them to realize their dreams. This team is also tasked to assess training requirements of any or all volunteers or staff members to reach this objective.
Community Research
Especially during the early growth of the foundation this area will be a priority and a major focus of our activity. The foundation is based on certain principles and so our activities, programs, and services will fall within the boundaries of those principles; but without input from the community we serve, we will be making decisions based on our own agenda. Therefore, we need a team that can survey the community, listening and learning from the voice of the community. This team will utilize the support of many other teams within the foundation to find answers and trends that will be reported to the board.
Leo F. Buscaglia
Don't spend your precious time asking "Why isn't the world a better place?"
It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is "How can I make it better?"
To that there is an answer.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Intelligence plus character ~ that is the goal of true education.
