Private Endowment

From large donors who have donated buildings or started endowments for their community libraries, to small donors and volunteers who are the backbones of our communities, most New Mexico rural libraries would not be the the treasures they are without the generosity of private philanthropy.

An endowment to support New Mexico's rural libraries is established at the Santa Fe Community Foundation. Our hope is that the endowment will help libraries grow in prosperous times and sustain them through hard times.

The library in Elida closed when there was an oil downturn. The library in Vaughn closed when the railroad no longer stopped there. These difficult times are when libraries are needed most. When the Molybdenum Mine closed in Questa, the library was there to help residents apply for unemployment, and when the private prison closed in Estancia, the library held a jobs fair.

Most New Mexico rural libraries don't have sufficient sustainable funding. Many library directors are paid between $8.50 and $12/hr despite doing collection development, programing curricula, grant writing, facility management, fund raising, and social work. Many even shovel the snow and sweep the floor.

Our vision is that the New Mexico Private Rural Library Endowment Fund will our address critical funding deficiencies. Please consider donating.

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90 % of available earnings will be distributed annually to about 50 eligible libraries.

10% of available earnings will be available for grants to help libraries suffering emergencies, support the work of the New Mexico Rural Library Initiative, help communities establish libraries or support program development for rural libraries.

The terms of the fund are below (PDF).