10 September 2019
Rendering of new East Moline Public Library building; photo credit: East Moline Public Library

Early in 2019, the East Moline Public Library launched a capital campaign to make the case for their new building. To learn more about it, East Moline Public Library Executive Director Laura Long answered our questions on the success of the campaign so far.

Can you start by telling me a little bit about how this campaign began? 

Several years ago, the library was approached with an idea for the Bank across the street, which wanted to downsize, to donate their building to us for renovation into a modern 21st Century library. We were thrilled with the idea of re-using an iconic building in downtown East Moline, and it would save us significant money over building brand new. In anticipation of the capital campaign that this project would require, we began brainstorming ideas for an impactful message to give to the community. We came up with the idea of doing testimonial videos, as real people talking about how the library impacts their lives can be incredibly affective messaging. These videos could then be used as an integral part of our capital campaign. 

How did you identify goals and the messaging necessary for a campaign like this?

We are fortunate to be working with an amazing fundraising consultant who helped us develop the goals and messaging we want to get across. We spent a lot of time thinking about who we wanted to feature in the video, and what aspects of library use each could feature. We wanted to ensure that we had a diverse group of people who used/knew the library in a variety of different ways. We also were looking for people who could talk about more than just a love of reading – people whose lives were impacted by the library in myriad ways. This was, and continues to be, our most important message. That the library is not just a warehouse for books, but offers a multitude of other educational, social, and entertainment opportunities.

How did you get buy-in from key stakeholders? What partnerships did you seek?

I have a wonderful board who had the vision to see what we wanted to accomplish with this campaign. They have been supportive of the ideas from day one, and are excited about all the different ways we have been reaching out to the community. We are also incredibly lucky that our contact with the bank grew up in East Moline, and as the President of the MidWest Division has a lot of influence. He has worked with us in a lot of ways, including participating in the testimonial videos, serving as a leader on the capital campaign committee, and going on local media. We have a partnership with the Moline Foundation, a local community foundation who is running the back end of our capital campaign (collecting pledges, sending reminders, etc.). We have also worked closely with the East Moline Main Street group, who has volunteered their time at our events as well as donated a time slot on a local television station for us to get the word out.

How did you work with local media to promote this project?

The local media has been great about covering our events and following up on our press releases. We got an incredible private donation of over $1 million, and they did coverage on that as well as when the donor came to visit East Moline. So we have gotten a significant amount of free press. We have also paid for some advertising via the Web through OnMedia. We are in the middle of a three month campaign which involves banner ads, SEM, and some pre-roll video. We have gotten some great responses via this ad campaign, and amazingly all of our pre-roll videos are getting an 80% + completion rate (40-50% is more typical). And as mentioned above we will be featured on a local television station for their “Living Local” segment.

What has the response been from the community? 

The community response has been wonderful! I have given presentations at a service club, for City Council and for other interested stakeholders. As well we have had great turnout for our fundraisers. I am excited now that the public face of the campaign has really started to continue to get feedback (and hopefully money!) from the community. 

Anything else that you want us to know about your campaign? 

It’s been a lot of work – but also very rewarding. The videos were entirely unscripted – we came up with some questions and the interviewees answered them. It was so amazing to hear first-hand the impact the library has! They made me tear up, and really brought home the importance of what we do every day. None of this was free, but it was all very low-cost. The website and the video testimonials were less than $3,000 altogether and were well worth the money.

A huge thank you to Laura for answering all of our questions!

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