Purpose & Goals

In the Summer of 2021, the University Libraries Development Office contacted Library Assessment for assistance evaluating their new fundraising initiative, Donor Community Meetings. Donor Community meetings (DCM)s offered monthly beginning in the Fall of 2020, were conceived to bring like-minded donors and prospects together to build community and generate deep and sustained interest. Approximately five to 10 donors attended each meeting and up to five library employees presented at these meetings. Typically, the meeting was hosted by a Library Development Board (LDB) member, who also participated in preparing speakers for the event. While the initiative slowly gathered momentum, the Development Office and LDB wanted to identify concrete ways in which to grow these nascent coalitions.

Design & Methodology

Library Assessment, in partnership with Development, organized a series of focus groups with Development office staff, librarians who had presented at the meetings, LDB members, and selected donors and prospects to investigate 1) what do participants like about the DCMs?; 2) what kind of content do donors and prospects find engaging?; 3) what suggestions do library stakeholders have for improving DCMs?; and, 4) how can the meetings be structured to sustain the continued interest of participants in 2022 and beyond? Six 90-minute online focus group sessions were conducted on Zoom in the early fall semester with a total of 30 participants. Participants were asked a series of up to 10 open-ended questions dependent on the stakeholder group. Two members of the research team conducted each session—one facilitating and the second observing and taking notes. Questions were sent to participants in advance of each focus group. All sessions were recorded and transcribed by the research team. A verbal consent process was used in all sessions and participants were informed that the transcriptions and recordings would only be made available to members of the research team. In response to the findings and recommendations resulting from the focus groups, the Development department formed a task force comprised of LDB members, Development Office personnel, Senior Library Administrators, and Library Assessment personnel to transform recommendations into implementable actions. In the Fall of 2023, researchers followed up with the Development Office to re-evaluate the Donor Community Meeting initiative. Two development colleagues involved with the task force project initiatives were interviewed. This paper presents the initial study and results and closes the loop by following up after a year of implemented recommendations evaluating the overall success of the collaboration.

Findings

The LDB focus group meetings leveraged recommendations for DCM improvements and identified 9 areas for intervention and improvement. LDB focus group responses were used to develop implementable action planning to improve DCMs. Taskforce members then used their expertise and tacit knowledge to create task lists and methods to operationalize and deploy the interventions. As a result, LDB members and the Development Office rebranded DCMs into “Library Discovery Hours”.

Action & Impact

Due to the aftermath of COVID, the Library Discovery Hours (LDH) did not launch until January of 2023. Attendance was robust across the six LDHs presented in 2023. When comparing Library Discovery Hours before 2023 (with attendance of less than 10 people per session) to 2023, attendance increased over 900% which was well above the donor attendance goal of 200-300% by year-end 2021. The six Library Discovery Hours in 2023 represented changes to practice due to LDB members’ involvement and expertise, improvements in consistent offerings, as well as improved communications and attendance. Additional recommendations including taking LDHs “on the road” to highlight the Commonwealth Campus Libraries will begin in 2024.

Practical Implications & Value

Transforming “Donor Community Meetings” to “Library Discovery Hour” would not have been possible without the perspectives of LDB members. Board members are high-achieving individuals who recognize that when operating as a member of the LDB they’re participating in a community providing a valued opportunity to learn with and from other highly successful individuals. The Penn State Libraries recognize that our Board members are partners in success, eager for active involvement, to share more than their time and financial resources to better our libraries. Focusing their energy and enthusiasm on a library problem that they are equipped to intervene in provided an opportunity for each to make contributions aligned with their expertise, further vesting them in the success of the initiative and libraries. While it will take some time to evaluate the ultimate measure of success of participation in LDH leading to increased donations, indicators of success of the collaboration are many. The rebranding of Library Discovery Hour combined with enhanced marketing and communication strategies, improvements to meeting structures and topics delivered have resulted in vast improvements in registration and attendance catalyzing advocacy for dedicated FTE, and interest among library personnel in attending LDH events and delivering future programming further illustrates success of the effort. Post-event evaluations provide positive feedback on audience member experiences.