Belated Report on Mailing

When the fundraising arm of the Building Expansion Committee in 2008 sent out a mailing to every postal address in Salt Point and Pleasant Valley, we got a good response even though our letter asking for donations had nothing on the outside to indicate that it was from the Pleasant Valley Free Library. When we asked the trustees if they all received the letter, most of the ones not directly involved with fundraising had thrown it away without opening it. We strongly suspected that this was the case throughout the Town of Pleasant Valley.

With that problem in mind, the fundraising committee developed a new letter in April, 2009. This time we had the aid of Kathy Morris, now a trustee and member of the committee, who is a professional public relations consultant. The result was a letter that had a smart new logo on the outside (designed by the husband of trustee Beatrice Simoni, another professional) and a professional look inside. In fact, it was so professional looking that at least one patron called the Library to make sure it wasn't a hoax--it looked so much better than our previous letter.

It has taken a while to gather the information on this mailing, but I can report as of today, it appeared to generate $5,000, about a third of money contributed by individual donors so far. Let me take this opportunity to thank everyone who worked on the mailing as well as the 64 donors. While the building fund is a long way from where we want to be, we are most appreciative of the contributions from patrons. In the near future, we expect to start fundraising events, and we continue to seek foundation and political support. Other libraries have succeeded--although it often takes years--and we can, too.