If approved by its wider membership, the Friends of the Belmont Public Library will merge with the Belmont Library Foundation next month, bringing together the two major fundraising arms of the town’s new library.
Both organizations have voted to approve the merger, but a vote of the Friends membership is set for June 12, where a two-thirds majority is required for passage. Provided membership supports the board’s recommendation, the merger will go into effect June 30, with the Friends retaining its name.
“We felt like the merger made a lot of sense from an efficiency standpoint,” said Cyndi Reitmeyer, president of the Friends of the Belmont Public Library. “Why run two organizations? More importantly, you’re bringing together two wonderful groups—all the members love the library and want to continue to support it, especially the space, as best as possible.”
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According to Reitmeyer, merger conversations “began in earnest” last fall. These conversations included Library Director Paul Struzziero, Library Trustees President Kathy Keohane, and other board members and library officials.
“They’re already thinking: what are some of the needs after we’re in the space for six months, one [year], two years,” Reitmeyer said.
Created for the purpose of raising money to support construction, which is expected to reach completion later this year—the timing of the merger made sense, according to Ed Barker, who is both a member of the library’s Board of Trustees and also a member of the Foundation. To date, the Foundation has raised about $5.3 million of its $5 million goal.
“For the most part, the fundraising is complete because we are in a phase now where we’re spending the money we’ve raised to support construction,” he said, clarifying that any money raised for construction through the Foundation would still be designated for that cause.
The Friends of the Library, meanwhile, exist to support daily library programming, which includes author readings, the ability to offer museum passes, and arts and crafts events, for example.
“It seemed like in the formative days, it made sense to have one entity raising money for a new building, and one entity raising money for the programs,” Barker said.
But now, as the library’s opening draws closer, he said, merging the two organizations would not only create efficiencies in fundraising but also clear up confusion around the different roles each entity plays.
“During the [fundraising] campaign, we had people who would say, ‘Who do I give money to?’” Barker said. “The Friends or the Foundation? Obviously, that’s a problem.”
Both Reitmeyer and Barker emphasized the benefit of bringing the expertise of the Foundation, which has greater experience dealing with larger-scale fundraising efforts, into the fold of the Friends.
“Bringing these two groups together, I do think there’s going to be some opportunities for some additional programming in the new library,” Reitmeyer said.
“This merger is going to really allow the Friends organization to provide better support for the library into the future, because it will capitalize on its well-established reputation within the community for programming support and for community volunteer engagement,” Barker added. “To that end, it’s going to add the network and the relationships that the Foundation was able to develop over the last 20 years, with donors who really understand the importance of supporting the library for the kinds of bigger picture or more ambitious goals that the library has.”
