Let's Not Lose Libraries in 2020!

This is a critical time for libraries across the country as we are seeing anti-tax and anti-government groups and politicians come after these institutions. In fact, we’ve seen politicians on both the left and right side of politics threaten to decrease or eliminate library funding and we’ve seen well financed organizations like the Koch Brothers funded, Americans for Prosperity, fight against new libraries in communities. It’s not because they’re against libraries, but because there is no organized opposition to closing a library. They simply don’t think the public will take action when they close a library. But with the right tools and training, the public will fight back. That's why we launched Libraries 2020.

What many politicians and anti-tax and anti-government groups don’t realize is that libraries are a tremendous benefit to communities across the country. For example, they don’t know that the average library returns over $5 in services, programs, savings, and revenue to the community for every $1 spent on them (click to tweet). They probably also don’t understand that illiteracy costs Americans more than 225 billion dollars a year in lost revenue and taxes (click to tweet). They don’t realize that more Americans use libraries than attend the NFL, NHL, NBA, Nascar, or go to the movie theater COMBINED (click to tweet). They probably don’t know that over 90% of Americans believe that closing their local library would hurt their communities (click to tweet).

Every $10 we raise helps us reach 1,000 more Americans who care about libraries.

The problem is that the library and the librarians are virtually helpless when well financed and politically powerful organizations come after libraries! As a government organization and as public employees, they are typically not allowed to fight back or take political action and the people standing up for libraries are usually regular citizens with no political training, background, or resources who care about their library. That means that if we want to keep libraries in America, we have to empower local citizens and local groups to fight against these cuts.

Simply put, without an organization helping communities fight back when their libraries are threatened, many politicians and organizations successfully de-fund local libraries and deny their community of Americans access to them. That’s why we built EveryLibrary as the nation’s first and only Political Action Committee dedicated to helping communities fight against closures and de-funding initiatives and providing pro-bono support to communities and organizations fighting for library funding. And it’s also why we launched Libraries 2020 to raise the money we need to continue to fight for libraries in 2020 and beyond. In fact, over the last 6 years, we've helped libraries secure over 1.7 billion dollars in stable funding. But we can’t do without you.

You have an opportunity to make a big difference in the lives of millions of Americans who use libraries by making a donation to support libraries in 2020 here.

We have a proven history of success and for every $1 that we raise, we are able to help communities secure over $1,600 in stable library funding.

Your contributions go to support 4 critical activities that ensure that libraries will be funded well into the future.

1. Help us make direct contributions to local library campaigns and elections
2. Allow us to provide pro-bono tools and resources to library campaigns for political initiatives
3. Support or oppose legislation that impact libraries’ ability to serve their communities
4. Conduct national voter education about the importance and impact of libraries through television, radio, print, and digital media

Your donations allow us to provide all of this at no cost to the libraries and library organizations that we work with!