Fund raising and the institutional identity of a library: what's the relationship?

Abstract

There has been much reflection in recent years on the use of fund raising and other serious initiatives for the systematic finding and collecting of funds for Italian Libraries. There have been however some changes in the meantime (a further contraction in available resources, an increase in the number of non-profit and cultural organizations that compete in the financing market, the aging of some fund-raising techniques), that would suggest the development of new types of processing, especially of the cultural, ethical and communication aspects for the collection of funds, which have perhaps been overlooked up to now.
This article proposes essentially underlining the strategic, cognitive and not just the technical nature of fund-raising. To do so, it links the latter to the assertion of the social aim of a library, its “good cause”, and its institutional identity. In this regard, the notion of accountability is fundamental. This means the necessity to demonstrate to all those involved what has been achieved, especially with resources received from external funders. To be more specific, accountability is responsibility and transparency together; in other words, the duty to provide all necessary guarantees regarding the ethical seriousness of one's organizational action. In a global society, libraries cannot ignore these factors. Indeed, a combination of careful management, pertinent evaluation, well-directed communication and ethical responsibility can become not only an authentic strong point of library fund-raising, but also a resource for a library's more extensive social legitimization. To this end, the adoption of a charter of values would help libraries to communicate, spread and socially share its institutional identity, clarify its commitment to confront it with thestakeholders and foresee specific evaluation tools and routes of its social impact.