Program areas at Friends of the Hennepin County Library
Library support: as the Library's nonprofit fundraising partner, fhcl builds Library awareness and appreciation through compelling storytelling and raises significant financial resources for Library strategic priorities, including workforce development, community outreach, youth development and the world class collection. Together, we envision a Hennepin County where Library services ensure that every person has the opportunity and resources to read, graduate, engage, work and learn.
Public awareness and donor engagement: talk of the stacks is a free author lecture series produced by Friends with guest authors who focus on contemporary literature and culture across an array of social, economic and global topics. In total, 2,347 individuals attended five virtual programs and 1,221 accessed on-demand recordings throughout the year at no cost. Volunteer opportunities for the virtual-only format in 2022 remained paused. In addition to these five programs, four author/book club panel events were produced with 905 individuals attending live and another 1,112 attendees viewing the on-demand recording thereafter. (continued on schedule o)further public awareness pieces on behalf of the Library system: 4,300 printed event guides were distributed to audience members at the six in-person pen pals events, and 800 attendees accessed virtual event guides. More than 26,300 print newsletters were distributed. 65+ email communications were sent to 21,900 e-news subscribers. Social media followers (facebook, instagram, twitter, linkedin) grew to 11,480 subscribers, and fhcl website access grew to 94,212 visitors.
Pen pals: pen pals is the highly acclaimed, longest running literary series in the twin cities featuring award-winning, best-selling authors who speak on their life and work as writers. This author lecture series generates income supporting the organization's mission. Twenty-eight (28) volunteers assisted staff at six (6) in-person events, contributing 336 hours to the program. In 2022, 4,383 people attended in-person events, and 2,846 households attended virtual livestream programs or on-demand recordings.