Your Support Can Make a Difference — Our libraries are true community centers, offering free public access to resources that inspire, educate, and entertain. We invite you to join with us to create a funding partnership that will make an investment in the future of our community. Through the Foundation, you can help make the difference between a good library and a great library.

Your unrestricted gifts enable the library to survey its needs and use your contribution where it is most needed. You may also specify how you want your donation to be used, as long as that purpose is consistent with the Library's goals and policies.

There are a number of ways to give wisely through the Foundation for San Luis Obispo County Public Libraries.

 

Donations — Your donations will help the San Luis Obispo County Libraries provide new books and other library materials. Any public library's reputation is built upon the amount, currency, and pertinency of its book/materials collection. Unfortunately, our library system spends less than half of similar sized-public libraries in the United States on books and materials. Please help us help others in this important effort. You have the opportunity to invest in our county public libraries at various donor giving levels listed on the Contribution Form available in our brochure.

"I go into my library and all history unrolls before me."
–Alexander Smith

Create a Legacy — If you believe in the mission of the Foundation for San Luis Obispo County Public Libraries and its efforts to create a more literate and informed community, consider making a gift to the Foundation. Your gift will help provide resources for future generations of library users. In addition, you may receive substantial financial benefits and tax savings, such as:

• Savings in income taxes by gifts of cash or securities made during this fiscal year.
• Savings in inheritance and gift taxes by bequests, testamentary trusts or gifts, or living trusts.
• Savings in capital gains taxes when gifts of appreciated securities are made.

Be sure to check with your tax advisor or legal counsel to see whether a gift of this type may be of advantage to you. All contributions to the Foundation are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

"The student has his Rome, his Florence, his whole glowing Italy, within the four walls of his library. He has in his books the ruins of an antique world and the glories of a modern one."
–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Planned Giving — You can give to the future of your community by leaving a specific dollar amount or percentage of your assets to the Foundation for San Luis Obispo County Public Libraries through a bequest in your will or other planned gift. Or perhaps you want to make charitable gifts during your lifetime which allow you to take maximum advantage of the charitable deduction on your income tax return. Lifetime gifts can also serve to reduce the size of your estate and allow you to see the impact of your donation on the services of the Library.

"Books are the carriers of civilization"
–Barbara Tushman

Adopt-A-Book — Adopt-A-Book is a rewarding and lasting way to honor a loved one or commemorate an important occasion. Your gift is used to purchase a book or media item for any library in the countywide system. With a minimum donation of $100, bookplates are included recognizing the honored party and/or the donor. For more information visit your local branch library or www.slolibrary.org

"The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries."
–Cosmos, Carl Sagan