This January, more than 1,200 Carnegie libraries will be receiving $10,000 checks from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. These gifts anchor a $20 million initiative to celebrate the anniversary by supporting institutions and organizations that foster civic participation across the United States.

All U.S. Carnegie-founded libraries are eligible for the gift, whether or not they still occupy their original Carnegie building. They can use the money “however they wish to celebrate the 250th anniversary, further their mission, and benefit their community,” according to the Carnegie website, and for the most part will not need to report back on how they spent it.

The gifts represent “what we could do to mark the 250th birthday of America that would genuinely benefit the whole country and bring people together that would not be political, not be controversial,” James Marsden, Carnegie manager of special projects, told LJ. “We wanted something that would have as broad an impact as possible, would get out into a lot of different communities—communities that don’t see much interest from big philanthropy.”

Carnegie has supported U.S. libraries in a range of ways. Earlier this year, 11 public library systems received grants of up to $500,000 each as part of a two-year initiative from Carnegie’s Education program to help promote socioeconomic mobility through English language learning and college access.

A year ago, Carnegie President Dame Louise Richardson announced $5 million in funding for New York City’s three public library systems. And the foundation sponsors several American Library Association initiatives, including the I Love My Librarian Awards and the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction.

Additional grant components of the 250th anniversary initiative include:

• $1 million to Carnegie Hall for a “United in Sound: America at 250” festival
• $400,000 to the Museum of the City of New York for general support, including an exhibition on New York City in the Revolutionary War
• $400,000 to The New York Historical (formerly the New-York Historical Society) for general support, including “On Our 250th” programming
• $250,000 to the Albertine Foundation for the Lafayette Scholarships, launched to mark 250 years of Franco-American friendship
• $500,000 to the Silk Road Project for its America 250 program
• $600,000 to the Smithsonian Institution to expand its Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange Program
• $450,000 to the Gilder Lehrman Institute for the Citizenship Test Initiative
• $500,000 to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors for More Perfect, a nonpartisan initiative aimed at renewing American democracy
• $450,000 to the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History, for its Teaching America250 Awards

ONCE A CARNEGIE, ALWAYS A CARNEGIE

Industrialist Andrew Carnegie immigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1848, starting work at a cotton mill at age 12. He went on to become one of the richest Americans in history, toward the end of his life giving away much of his fortune to charities, foundations, universities, and—notably—for the construction of libraries.

He would ultimately fund 2,509 public and academic libraries in the United States, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, and other English-speaking countries between 1883 and 1929. “Carnegie Library” has become shorthand for a particular kind of classical building with a grand entrance up a flight of stairs in front, high ceilings, a centrally located reference desk, reading rooms with large windows, and open stacks.

Of those, 1,681 were free U.S. public libraries. Currently 1,280 are still in operation and acknowledge their link to Carnegie. Approximately 750 continue to use their original buildings, but the foundation is clear about its understanding that another 500 to 600 have needed to relocate to larger, upgraded locations—but as long as their ties to the buildings funded by Andrew Carnegie remain, they are considered Carnegie libraries.

“Communities have different needs,” noted Marsden. “There are a lot of very dry places in the south and southwest where, if you have a building full of timber and books for 130 years, there’s a reasonable chance it will have caught fire.”

He added, “We’ve had quite a few people write in and say, ‘This is marvelous, but we’ve moved—we aren't eligible.’ And I keep running back to say, ‘Yes, you are.’”

Other responses have run the gamut from excitement and gratitude to hangups from recipients who thought, “This is too good to be true—it’s got to be a scam,” said Marsden. When they began making calls over the summer to get updated contact information, “We couldn’t tell them then why we were asking, because we didn’t want this to get out in in rumors and bits and pieces. We wanted to have one big announcement.”

The libraries will be free to use the money however they like and will not be required to account for how they spend it (other than those few considered by the IRS to be private foundations)—undoubtedly a welcome lack of constraints.

“One of the things we really wanted to prioritize was no reporting burden, no expectation on how the funds are used, to accommodate for the needs of different-sized libraries and different kinds of communities,” said Carnegie Program Communications Specialist Angely Montilla.

They are, however, encouraged to share their stories for possible inclusion on Carnegie’s new website featuring user-generated content. The site is part of Carnegie Libraries Across America , an interactive resource where people can locate libraries, explore archival documents and correspondence collected by the foundation, and learn about the origins of each building. Users can also explore Columbia University Libraries Carnegie Corporation of New York Digital Archive .

“Obviously, we don’t know what folks will do just yet, but they range from very practical needs for some libraries to ideas about civic engagement, speaking series, and things like that,” said Montilla. “It’s been fun to hear people immediately share their enthusiasm for what might be possible. And on social media, we’ve seen an incredible outpouring of eagerness, support, excitement, gratitude, and enthusiasm.”