In recent years, public libraries such as the Youngstown Free Library are facing difficulties obtaining the funding necessary to continue providing those services to the community. Reduced revenues from local governments facing budget crises of their own, rising labor and utility costs, and generous but insufficient donations from the citizenry require the library choose between running a deficit budget or reducing service levels to balance the budget.

The Youngstown Free Library Board of Trustees has created a Sustainability Committee. This committee of Board members works diligently to create revenue that will enable the Library to continue for decades to come. They organize Library fundraisers, apply for private funding grants, and meet with local leaders to advocate for public funding. Currently, they are having discussions about investing limited funds the Library has in order to guarantee regular returns for years to come.

How can you help contribute to the sustainability of the Library? Truly, anything you can do to help the Library will make a difference! Every donation you make helps the Library now, but we also need to think about long-term support for the Library. To that end, the Board of Trustees encourages you to think about adding the Library to your will with an unrestricted legacy gift. It's not glamorous, but your gift would go a long way toward building an investment portfolio whose returns would sustain the Library indefinitely.

Trust is built from financial and organizational transparency.