Blog
How should a Friends board of directors prioritize its limited time and precious funds? How should a board approach discussion of sensitive topics? How should board peers hold each other accountable? Propel for Nonprofits covered these and many other important “shoulds” at yesterday’s webinar, "Effective Board Decision-Making." If you missed the hour, you can now catch the training (and Q&A) on MALF’s YouTube channel. Click here to access the slide deck, and here to access the sample “strategy screen” referenced at the end of the program.
MALF wants to hear what you’ve been up to, and our annual Evy Nordley Award is the perfect mechanism for you to share! Any Friends-supported project is eligible for consideration, provided that (1) project implementation began after January 1, 2025; and (2) either the Friends or their Minnesota library was the primary beneficiary. Top prize is $1,000.
The Friends of the Library are unique among charities for our stalwart support of libraries. In most other respects, however, we’re a lot like all Minnesota nonprofits – regardless of their mission bent. With that in mind, MALF’s next two member webinars shine the spotlight on “nonprofit fundamentals” important to our organizations’ health. Please join us live for: "Twelve Golden Rules of Nonprofit Finance" and "Empowering Effective Board Decision-Making."
Libraries are uniquely responsive community hubs. Within their public service mission, they have flexibility to adopt or adapt priorities to match real-time needs. In practice, of course, any library’s ability to do good is constrained by resource limitations… That’s where Friends of the Library can swoop in and make a critical difference. And as of today, 16 groups from across the state have applied for a Minnesota Good Neighbor Grant through MALF in order to do exactly this!
Last week brought exciting news to no fewer than fifty Friends of the Library groups across the country. Penguin Random House announced these as awardees in the second cycle of its annual Grants to U.S. Rural and Small Libraries program.