Building the future of a community library

The Jeudevine Memorial Library in Hardwick, VT, is bursting at the seams. Thousands of library patrons enjoy wifi, workshops, and a collection of 8,000+ books, magazines, and DVDs, in an 1896 building designed for a much lower level of activity. Patrons squeeze between narrow stacks, or navigate winding stairs to the library’s only (and unheated) bathroom. Children’s programming happens after hours in the quiet reading area, concurrent events are impossible, and the building lacks an accessible entrance.

The library and the town are ready to solve these problems with a $1.69-million expansion, which will allow the library to serve the entire community, adding multiple reading areas, community meeting rooms, and dedicated teen and children’s spaces. Taxpayer dollars and a bequest will fund more than half the work. Now, the library, led by board chair Jodi Lew-Smith, has to raise the rest.

If you’re going to raise $760,000, a donor packet is key. I designed a cohesive set of materials for Jodi, including a eight-page case statement, a fact sheet, donor forms, and letterhead. The bright, clean materials use colors from the Victorian era and classic typefaces to retain a sense of literary elegance appropriate to the historic building, while photos of patrons and bright charts and graphs show how important the library is to Hardwick and the surrounding towns today.