Fiscal Responsibility
How Donated Funds are Used
Our funding focuses on capital projects and the needs of the Library which are not funded through government or grant funding sources. Since our creation, the Foundation has provided funding towards more than 30 projects that are of direct benefit to Library users. These include:
- renovation of Children's area of the Library
- audio/visual equipment for the Library's meeting room
- the new book locker in Upper Gibsons, which allows Library patrons to pick up and drop off books without having to travel to the Library itself
- STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) educational kits which can be signed out from the Library
- iPads for use in the Library
- selected items of Library furniture
- some book club sets
Where Our Funds Come From
We are able to provide ongoing funding to the Library because of the generous support of individuals and other organizations, including individual bequests left to the Foundation.
We invest most of the money we receive, and the returns generated by those investments allow us to provide the library with funds each year. (As of December 31, 2023, the market value of our endowment fund was $184,384.)
Your gift to the Gibsons & District Library Foundation allows us to fund services not covered by core funding - such as access to technology - and to offer support for the growing needs of the Library.
How We Manage Our Funds
The elected members of the Foundation's Board manage the funds we hold. All transactions must be approved at the Board level and the account requires two valid signatures to process transactions.
Our investment decisions are guided by qualified professional advisers working locally in the investment industry and guided by our constitutional mandate to grow the endowments into perpetuity.
We allocate a portion of the return on our investments on an annual basis for specific requests from the Library. When necessary, we may also take a portion of our principal to apply to larger Library projects like the book locker and the upcoming (in 2024) Youth Area Enhancement Project.
Our goal is to provide stable long term funding for Library projects, programs and services without depleting the original seed money (from the Library construction fund in 2002 and the Jean Mainil bequest in 2004).
Fiscal Responsibility
The Gibsons & District Library Foundation is committed to fiscal responsibility. Our objectives are:
- to provide annual funding to the Gibsons & District Public Library in perpetuity
- to ensure that all gifts are used for the purposes intended by the donors
To minimize administrative costs, all Trustees of the Foundation's Board are unpaid volunteers and the Foundation hires no staff.