Have you ever thought about how you can support nonprofits as essential community links and valuable resources for those you serve? On this show Sam Passey, Director of the Uintah County Library in Utah, shares how his library helps nonprofits thrive to best serve constituents and create knowledge about what’s possible in developing opportunities for all.
Transcript
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Adriane Herrick Juarez:
This is Adriane Herrick Juarez. You’re listening to Library Leadership Podcast, where we talk about libraries, and leadership, and speak with guests who share their ideas, innovations, and strategic insights in the profession.
Have you ever thought about how you can support nonprofits as essential community links, and valuable resources for those you serve? On this show Sam Passey, Director of the Uintah County Library in Utah, shares how his library helps nonprofits thrive to best serve constituents and create knowledge about what’s possible in developing opportunities for all. Enjoy the show!
Sam, welcome to the show.
Sam Passey:
Thanks, it’s so good to be here.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #1: It’s great to have you here. Today we are talking about helping nonprofits thrive in your community. As we begin, why should libraries seek to do this? 01:24
Sam Passey:
We have some people in our community that are trying to do amazing things. Some are working by themselves, they don’t know that others might be interested. I think the library could be a great connector of people that are interested in helping improve their communities.
Also, there’s some more established organizations that might have newer people in roles like grant writing, and fundraising where they don’t have a lot of experience—or maybe they feel totally alone. They’re in a big organization, but they’re the only person who works on the nonprofit part of being a nonprofit.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #2: So how do we assess nonprofits in our area to begin establishing relationships? 02:11
Sam Passey:
One of the things that we do every couple years is a big strategic planning process. In that process we will invite community members in and will list a lot of the needs and ideas out there for community support in the area. We pull out whiteboards, and people put stickers on things. As we go through those lists we start evaluating which ones of these things does the library have business doing, and which ones might be done by someone else in the community?
For us, we assess the nonprofits by taking a lot of those lists of other activities that are closely related to the library, but maybe someone’s already doing it, and we say, Well, how can we build relationships with these people, and how can we engage them?
We also keep our eyes and ears open when we attend community meetings, city councils, chambers of commerce, Rotary Clubs to hear who’s doing what. In a town like Vernal, Utah, where I’m located, sometimes the same ten people are out there wearing many, many different hats. If we can help them connect with one another that’s just a fantastic thing and a good way of building relationships.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #3: Once we have a game plan for working with local nonprofits, what is the first step in creating connections? I know you engage in workshops. 03:28
Sam Passey:
Definitely—through a grant a couple years ago, we started The Nonprofit Support Center of Northeast Utah with LCA support. As part of that we were able to bring in a professional grant writer—work with the Utah Nonprofits Association to put on a series of workshops to bring people together. We fed them—that’s key. Food attracts people, especially if they’re working at nonprofits. They may not have budgets for food [laughter].
In these classes we would teach them. We first of all—interview the people in the group, see where they’re from, what they’re interested in, and take note of those things. Then we would introduce them to things like how to run a board for a nonprofit. Why you should have a board. What’s the difference between being legally organized as a nonprofit versus a one-off community project for say Friends of the Kids Bike Park? If they want to put together a new jump, that might be a one-off activity and require different framing and resources than someone who wants to have a long-term nonprofit program that they’re sustaining, and they’ll have different needs.
One of the great things about working with nonprofits, and helping connect them with one another, and us—is again, helping them to feel like they’re part of a community and cohort. So, this first group in 2019 that we started—the pandemic hit the next year and we were able to keep this group together through Zoom meetings. They kind of transitioned out into their own thing. Now people get together for lunch. They bounce ideas off of one another.
We still provide support. Occasionally we’ll have speakers, or new resources that are tailored toward that area. It’s been a fantastic opportunity and a way to find advocates and allies. Our intention wasn’t to go out and develop something like a Friends of the Library out of this, it was, What are you interested in? How can we support you with those needs? Here’s some resources that apply regardless of what your viewpoint, perspective, etc., etc., is.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #4: Excellent. What are typical nonprofit needs that libraries can help fill? 05:50
Sam Passey:
A lot of nonprofits need meeting space. That’s usually the number one request. If you’re in a situation where your library has meeting rooms—do your policies allow outside groups to use those? If not, is there an opportunity to work with your board and relevant elected officials to make that carve-out so nonprofit groups can book those spaces at a reduced rate, or free of charge.
Other needs are things like information. How do we become legally organized? What resources are out there? Grant writing support your library can provide, and our library provides—things like Candid and Foundation Center, which is now called Candid, there are others out there helping teach people how to interpret the IRS 990 forms where grant-making agencies are required to list things like who’s on their boards. What activities are they in? What grants are they giving out? How those might be clues towards finding funding for that group, or that cause—and really, someone to talk to.
Again, this work can feel—nonprofit work can feel very isolating. A lot of times people are engaged in campaigns or causes where they feel like they’re in a minority that’s being squashed. Can we provide a platform for them to feel safe and their voices heard? There’s a fine line that the libraries have to walk because we are open to all. We don’t endorse specific viewpoints. We need to make that clear with our potential partners that regardless of your background, your thought, your specific ideas, we provide the same equitable support in terms of information access, meeting space, and those kinds of things that are so mission-centric to public libraries these days.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #5: Libraries provide a wealth of resources for their communities. It’s a natural fit to have libraries be a part of assisting their efforts. What is a pathway of sustainability in working with nonprofits, and can you share any case studies of success in this area? 07:55
Sam Passey:
Sustainability is really the biggest challenge at the beginning of any cause or nonprofit operation. Oftentimes there’s a lot of interest—we want to start this community garden and a whole lot of people show up to those meetings.
One of the things that we found helps groups with sustainability is to provide volunteer management training. The best thing that we found is to connect people with UServeUtah, which is part of the Department of Cultural & Community Engagement. A couple times a year they put on volunteer management training. They teach the things that you might not think about when you’re working with volunteers. The things that are important so that we can work with volunteers and provide meaningful and ethical service opportunities for people, and help nonprofits achieve their missions.
Beyond volunteer training, again providing continued access to grants management training, periodic organizational development. We don’t host workshops as much as we used to. We’ve identified who those partners are out there, but when we do have something that’s relevant coming up, or a new resource, we proactively will send out information about these resources to this group. We know the individuals that are likely to be interested. Just like we would with readers’ advisory and letting people subscribe to know when the next James Patterson book is coming out—we’ll let them know about the next nonprofit related title, or resource.
We started cataloging the community, a little bit, on our website. We’ve included links to many of these nonprofit—and some government sites that are very hard to find, where there might be an office where there is just one or two people. They don’t have much of a web presence. If we can use the library and our platform to make that information available and accessible, and then proactively point people to it—those are some of the best ways that we can promote sustainability for people working in nonprofits.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #6: Is there anything else you’d like to share? 10:19
Sam Passey:
I just want to commend the many people out there that are doing their best to promote respect, civility—to people of all walks of life. There are so few places, anymore, where people from different backgrounds can connect, can interact with one another. The library is one of those spaces, and it’s becoming even more critical.
So to all the librarians, and library supporters out there who occasionally take angry phone calls; and have people show up at meetings that are mad about a specific cause, or anything; and who will vigorously defend anyone’s right to support and use the library regardless of their thinking; those who support civility, way to go. Pat yourselves on the back. It’s worth it. Don’t give up on this profession. There are people who absolutely need libraries. This is a great time to be a public librarian, and to serve our communities. To work with nonprofit organizations is part of the tapestry of doing that. Strong nonprofits mean strong communities.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #7: Do you have any favorite management or leadership books, or resources, and why? 11:30
Sam Passey:
I am a big fan of the Stephen Covey books—the series, The 7 Habits, and I think there’s an 8th Habit now. I’m a junkie for some of the podcasts—Freakonomics. They put out some fun podcasts. Wisdom From The Top-NPR, some of these…
I’m a leadership podcast junkie. I’ve got a lot of kids and a new puppy. I don’t have a lot of time, myself, physically to read books, but I’m oftentimes walking around, chauffeuring kids, or puppies around and listening to some of these amazing resources. It really is a great age. There’s so much that’s out there. If we as librarians can highlight some of that amazing stuff that otherwise might get lost in the shuffle and the craziness, I think that’s one of the most amazing things that we can do in support of our communities.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #8: Sam, in closing, what do libraries mean to you, personally? 12:38
Sam Passey:
When I was fourteen years old I had knee surgery, and I couldn’t walk around for a couple of months. In those moments, libraries were my lifeline. I wasn’t an active reader much before then beyond what I had to do for school. I had some amazing librarians at the Sandy Library who pointed out to me some wonderful books. I didn’t know there were books of some of my favorite subjects, and that some of the TV shows that I liked had whole expanded universes, and series of books. It really opened this world of ideas and information and escape for me. That’s something that I love to offer to our community members, and I’m so privileged and honored to be at a library working with the public and finding ways to continue to support people in their quest to learn, grow, and discover.
Adriane Herrick Juarez:
Question #9: Libraries are a place for people to learn, grow, and discover, and that includes nonprofits as essential components of our communities. Libraries are doorways to what’s happening in our world to benefit others, and are a natural fit for helping nonprofits best serve those in our areas. We can bring light to resources that are available to people, including those of nonprofits. So, the work you’re doing is excellent. I think sharing it on the show today is going to help librarians think about ways we can assist in this area, so I really appreciate you being on the show. 13:39
Sam Passey:
Thank you so much for having me, it’s been a wonderful time, and it’s great catching up and sharing some of the amazing things that we’re doing at the Uintah County Library. If you’ve got questions please reach out to me.
You’ve been listening to Library Leadership Podcast. This is Adriane Herrick Juarez. For more episodes tune into LibraryLeadershipPodcast.com where you can now subscribe to get episodes delivered right into your email inbox. Our producer is Nathan Sinclair Vineyard. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time.
We would like to thank the Park City Library for their dedicated support of this show. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views of Library Leadership Podcast, or our sponsors.