In celebration of its 5th anniversary, EveryLibrary, a nonprofit library political action committee, is kicking off One Million Americans for Libraries, a campaign aimed at raising library awareness and getting a million supporters on the EveryLibrary Facebook page.
The One Million Americans for Libraries public outreach program is an effort to attract a million supporters to its Facebook page. The program will run from September 5-November 7.
EveryLibrary executive director John Chrastka said the campaign is an effort "to get as many Americans to support libraries as we can. If we can bring out numbers, we can change the agenda around libraries."
The One Million Americans for Libraries campaign will work “state by state” to engage new supporters, taking advantage of mailing lists and the social networks of current supporters at the national and state level. EveryLibrary has also launched an online magazine on Medium, the Web publishing platform.
Founded by Chrastka in 2013 after raising $40,000 on Kickstarter, EveryLibrary provides strategic election consulting to local library districts on ballot initiatives about library funding. A nonprofit library PAC, EveryLibrary trains volunteers, provides financial support and works to get out the vote in support of library funding.
EveryLibrary has an annual budget of about $250,000. The organization has three fulltime staffers. Over the last five years, the organization has worked on ballot initiatives in 63 elections, winning funding in 45 of them. EveryLibrary is looking to influence up to 20 ballot initiatives in 2018.
Chrastka said that while EveryLibrary wants support from a million Americans this year, the organization is looking to attract 3 million supporters on Facebook by 2020.
