Library funding effort is proposed

FONTANA: The City Council will decide on a $1.05 million plan to raise construction
money.

Launch Date: 10:00 PM PDT on Sunday, June 11, 2006

By Paul Larocco, The Press-Enterprise

The price of a LIBRARY

$60 million: estimated cost for the 93,000-square-foot Fontana Regional Library and Resource/Technology Center

$20 million: city’s private fundraising goal for the library, meant for naming right and interior furnishings

$1 million: estimated two-year cost to hire staff and support for fundraising efforts

FONTANA - In the case of Fontana’s new downtown library, city leaders are finding it takes money to raise money.

Efforts recently kicked off to find $20 million to supplement the library’s construction costs, but officials say they’ll need more than $1 million to effectively carry out the campaign.

The City Council will consider resolutions Tuesday that would allot $1.05 million to set up a full-time fundraising staff, as well as a nonprofit foundation to coordinate donations and volunteers.

About $500,000 would be spent each of the next two years on two full-time employees and an intern, and to pay for equipment and fundraising consultants, according to city documents.
“A major capital campaign, such as this, takes a major effort in planning and execution on several different levels,” wrote Redevelopment Director Ray Bragg in the request.

Work on the $60 million Fontana Regional Library and Resource/ Technology Center began late last year, with an opening expected in early 2008. The city has set aside about $50 million for the project, but would like to raise an additional $20 million to furnish and equip the interior, which will include a coffee bar, auditorium and the largest technology wing in the county library system. The extra money raised would help offset
unforeseen building costs and provide some operating capital.

Three volunteer committees already have been set up to mobilize fundraisers and comb the region for donors.

They will work under the umbrella of the Fontana Library Foundation Division, a state nonprofit organization that could be formed Tuesday.

“When you have thousands of potential donors, you don’t just have 12 people talking to them,” said Kathleen Fariss, the campaign's director of development.

Fariss said she and her volunteer committees already have raised $1.26 million and are working on closing deals for another $7 million.

She said the bulk of donations could come from large corporations or wealthy businesspeople that want to name entire wings, or even the entire library, after themselves.

A volunteer-led steering committee will be responsible for finding those people.

K.C. Schumann, the Inland marketing director for the University of La Verne, is heading that effort, and said not much spin will be required to obtain donations.

“I think the nature of the project is quite a sell in itself,” Schumann said. “There’s nothing more important to a community than the education of its members.”

Fundraising will continue even past the library's opening, but Fariss said she hopes to have most of the $20 million pledged by early 2008.

City Council members already have given their moral support - Councilwoman Acquanetta Warren is leading an effort to raise $1 million to name the library's children's wing after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Now, they’ll be asked to pledge the city’s financial support, and $1 million is a small price, said Councilman
Frank Scialdone.
“It’s very reasonable,” he said. “We’re going to have to cast our net wide to get this done.”

Special to The Press-Enterprise
Rendering of the Fontana Regional Library and
Resource/Technology Center, a $60 million downtown
project now under construction.