DONATIONS

You can make an important contribution to support our work and the values we hold dear; uniting Michigan libraries, advocating for ALL libraries and advancing the library profession by supporting library staff in their careers through education and professional development opportunities.

MLA has specific funds addressing vital issues such as education, advocacy and intellectual freedom that are integral to the values and mission of the organization. All contributions are tax-deductible! With your support, MLA can empower the library leaders of today and tomorrow and continue to enrich the lives of the people that we serve.

Educational Scholarship Fund: Helps underwrite such things as our prestigious Leadership Academy and provides scholarships for library staff to attend workshops and conferences at discounted rates.
Advocacy Resource Fund: This fund enables MLA to advocate for library interests and helps assist libraries and patrons with specific intellectual freedom challenges.
Equity Fund: This fund is used as an individual grant opportunity created to reduce financial barriers and uplift the professional development of individuals currently underrepresented in the library profession.

Learn more about MLA Funds.

Click the donate button below to log in with your user credentials and your donation will be connected to your member record. You can also fill out this form to donate, no login required. All contributions are tax-deductible to the extent the law allows.

Donate

Join MLA’s Legacy Society

Consider leaving a legacy…so your cherished values live on.

When you establish a bequest or other planned gift, you become part of the select group of community-minded individuals that make up MLA’s Legacy Society. As a beneficiary of your deferred gift, MLA is charged with the trust and responsibility of carrying out your wishes. As you know, we have a 130-year commitment to recognize and address library needs. Your gift helps us achieve that.

Planned giving integrates charitable giving with your overall financial and estate planning, potentially reducing your estate taxes while supporting the values that libraries hold dear. There are a number of ways you can give:

Bequests: Make a charitable gift from your estate with a simple bequest, as noted in your will or trust.
Retirement assets: By making MLA the beneficiary of the most-taxed asset, your retirement account, you can leave more favorably-taxed property to your heirs.
Charitable lead trust: Place cash or property into a trust that pays a fixed amount to MLA for a specified number of years. Once this period ends, the assets held by the trust are transferred to the beneficiaries you name.
Charitable remainder trusts: These gifts allow you to receive income for the rest of your life, knowing that whatever remains will benefit your community.
Charitable gift annuities: Receive an income for life, while making an immediate, significant gift.
Life insurance: Simply make MLA the beneficiary of your policy. You give a significant gift to charity and receive tax benefits during your lifetime.

Becoming a Legacy Society member is simple: include the Michigan Library Association in your estate plan through your will or trust, or make a contribution via a charitable gift annuity, life insurance, retirement fund assets or a charitable remainder or lead trust. Then, notify us of your plan so that we can include you on our membership rolls. And you’re done.

If you have questions, please contact Executive Director, Deborah E. Mikula at [email protected]

Thank you to our donors!

Thank you to the listed individuals for their generous donations from 2019 - present.

MLA Scholarship Funds and Other Restricted Funds

The Michigan Library Association is committed to promoting and advancing the library profession.

We have a number of specific funds that are for restricted use only and provide emergency help to libraries who experience challenges in a variety of ways. Monies in each of the following funds will be carried over from year to year and will not revert to MLA’s operating fund. Direct fundraising by MLA continues to enhance these funds and provide libraries with needed support.

Being able to provide resources to those in the library field for scholarships and other challenges is one of MLA’s hallmarks. We hope that you will consider an overall gift to MLA or to any of these funds to help continue to support this valuable work.

Donate

MLA Educational Scholarship Fund

The MLA Educational Scholarship Fund will be geared toward the continued professional development of individual library workers, who are MLA members, and who have an interest in attending any MLA sponsored program and event. This fund will reduce financial barriers and uplift professional development and advance career goals by providing resources to be used for attendance at MLA conferences, workshops, or educational events of applicants’ choosing.

View the Educational Scholarship guidelines

Advocacy Resource Fund

The Advocacy Resource Fund was created to educate and to oppose any current or future legislation, regulations, or executive orders that infringe upon first amendment rights and intellectual freedom. Funds may be allocated or requested by MLA members to provide training for library or school board members and staff on strengthening collection development/diversity and inclusion/other internal policies. Advocacy Resource Funds may also provide funding in response to challenges to intellectual freedom, provide for trauma therapy for library staff, support ongoing communications with legislators, and/or any activity that heightens public awareness of the value and importance of libraries.

View the Advocacy Resource Fund guidelines

MLA Equity Fund*

The MLA Equity Fund supports the Future Pathways Grant Program, an individual grant opportunity created to reduce financial barriers and uplift the professional development of individuals currently underrepresented in the library profession including: Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, North African, and Middle Eastern individuals. These funds can be used for memberships, attendance at workshops, educational events or conferences of applicants’ choosing, or for other purposes that they believe increase their ability to impact and transform the library profession.

Learn more about the Future Pathways Grant Program.

W.H. Kaiser Memorial Fund*

The Walter H. Kaiser Memorial Award honors Walter Kaiser, who served as the director of the Wayne County Federated Library System for 26 years and was a nationally known library consultant, authority in local government, and innovator in technical services. Each year, a small cash award from the Kaiser Memorial Fund is presented to the recipients of six MLA Awards – Lifetime Achievement, Public Librarian of the Year, Support Staff of the Year, Heart of a Champion, Rising Star, and the Frances H. Pletz Award for Excellence in Service to Youth.

*Some funds have permanent donor restrictions for their use and are identified above.