As the fate of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) hangs in the balance, with two active lawsuits contesting the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency, U.S. libraries are contemplating alternative sources for the federal and state money they rely on. Similarly, organizations with the resources to support libraries are considering how they can do so in ways that are both valuable and sustainable.

This spring Penguin Random House (PRH) and United for Libraries—the American Library Association (ALA) division that supports library trustees and boards, Friends, foundations, and advocates—teamed up on a new program to assist small and rural libraries across the country. A total of $25,000 was earmarked for grants of $1,000 and $500, to be awarded to Friends or nonprofit groups that support and fundraise for libraries in their communities. In addition, for libraries that were interested in applying but did not feel they had enough grant-writing experience, United offered free virtual informational sessions beginning in December 2024, which included an overview of the process and tips on applying, a session on grant-writing basics, and a session on how to start a Friends of the Library group for libraries without an active Friends group.

On April 7, 19 cash grants of $1,000 and 12 cash grants of $500 were awarded for projects including summer reading programs for youth, outreach to seniors, bookmobile improvements, technology upgrades, Friends group development, and more. In-kind book donation grants of $500 were awarded to another 20 libraries to purchase PRH titles. Funding is provided by PRH, and the grants administered by United for Libraries.

Grant recipients also receive complimentary online learning, including a year of access to United for Libraries Learning Live monthly webinars, which offer in-depth training on how to leverage the grant funds to build support for the library and its Friends group. Online trainings by United on “Starting a Friends of the Library Group” and “Grant Writing Basics for Small/Rural Libraries and/or Friends Groups,” which were provided to anyone considering applying for the grant, are still available on demand to all at no cost; register here.

“Some of the folks that don’t get as much support and feel alone, particularly at this time, are the smaller libraries and Friends of the Libraries,” United for Libraries President Deborah Doyle told LJ. “With just a little bit of money, just a little bit of support, we can really make a difference.”

FUNDING HELP AND A PATH FOR ADVOCACY

Both partners brought strong insights into how a program like this one could be most useful. Doyle and the United for Libraries board reached out to groups at small libraries to ask whether, and why, a small grant would work. The response: “If a small organization gets a big grant they have to think about how they’re going to administer it,” Doyle said; United wanted to give them something relatively simple to put into action “to either spread the word or to work on a specific project that gave them the feeling they were really helping their library.” Even a grant of $500 can be critical for a small library working with a tightened budget.

Skip Dye, SVP of Library Sales and Digital Strategy at PRH, served as the 2017–18 United for Libraries president and remains invested in their work. He also sits on the board of his local library and has been engaged with Friends groups around the country, and recognized the need for both funding infusions and help with the grant-writing process.

“Especially if they’re small, rural libraries, if they have somebody who writes a grant, it’s not their full-time job. It is one of the 20 things they do, and a lot of times they’ve learned just by doing, not actually having any training,” he told LJ. “One of the things that we liked about the United program was offering people the ability to get grant-writing training and help, and also actually get input on what’s good about your grant, and hopefully having these people feel comfortable enough to go out and write more asks for things.”

The grant program was announced in October 2024 during National Friends of the Library week. The application process was deliberately short and simple, and some 300 libraries and groups submitted applications for projects ranging from programs for kids to expanding book sales, rebuilding a ramp, and new tires for bookmobiles. Membership in United for Libraries was not a prerequisite to apply, as some states have barred libraries from joining ALA or its affiliated groups, or will no longer fund ALA membership dues.

Both United and PRH want to see the program continue in coming years to help shore up the work of small libraries—and Dye would be pleased if other companies and donors joined. In the meantime, United will be tracking the grant recipients and making sure their projects are well publicized. Dye hopes, going forward, that United can expand its trainings to include communications—how to write a press release, create promotional tools, or sell a local radio station on covering an event.

Creating a cohort is also on his wish list. “Librarians are good about working with each other cross-library,” he pointed out. “Friends groups don’t do that. Trustees don’t do that. We need to figure out, is there a better way that we can supply a communication between groups so that they can learn from each other?”

Most of all, both partners want the work funded by the grants to help create a path of advocacy for the organizations that need it most. “We hope that these grants will encourage Friends to really reach out in their community—you can work with your chamber of commerce, with Kiwanis, with the Grange—to tell people what’s going on with libraries,” said Doyle. “We’re trying to encourage them to not be quiet, to not be polite, to say, this is what’s happening, and what’s happening at the national level is going to have an impact. It is going to filter down through the states, through the regions, through the local communities, and it’s going to take the people who are applying for these simple little grants to speak up.”