San Antonio Public Library Foundation
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Born to Read
As a part of the Public Library’s 100th birthday (2003), the Foundation’s present was simply to give a "birthday gift book” to every baby born during the centennial year. Years later, we continue to provide our San Antonio babies with a literacy bag, a bilingual book (Arte Kids), library information, and a pamphlet with reading strategies.
Literacy Caravan
The Literacy Caravan works to:
--Promote family literacy and its role in a child’s future success.
--Foster a love of reading;
--Increase the number of library card holders in the San Antonio community; and
--Create a connection between families and the library.
Voices of San Antonio History
The history of our great city comes alive through voices and pictures of the men and women who lived it. In a special effort by the Library Foundation, Voices of San Antonio History, a collection of personal stories are being recorded and kept alive for future generations.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
American Library Association 1983
American Library Association 1983
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of children who have emerging literacy skills such as beginning letter recognition and phonological awareness, story comprehension, and use of writing materials.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children, Low-income people
Related Program
Literacy Caravan
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We continue to expand our Literacy Caravan program each year to increase the number of students that we impact. In 2023 we are seeing 600 students.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
By 2025, SAPLF will be recognized as the leading private advocate for SAPL by leveraging our strategic relationships to drive public and private resources to the library. We will partner with the library to strategically identify and promote innovative programs and services that benefit the community.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
SAPLF will use these as Guiding Principles for helping us achieve our 2025 goal:
It is the San Antonio Public Library's (SAPL) responsibility is to promote literacy and education and the responsibility of the San Antonio Public Library Foundation (SAPLF) to strengthen the SAPL.
The SAPLF first and foremost exists to strengthen the SAPL and to serve as a conduit between it and donors in the community that wish to support its efforts.
The strength of SAPLF is in its ability to engage its board members to create a strong network of influential SAPL supporters and advocates.
SAPLF dollars will never replace public funding but rather offer complementary support to mutually-determined programs and services.
It is the job of the SAPL to educate the SAPLF on its priorities and needs and it is the job of the SAPLF to educate its donors on the needs of the SAPL. The SAPLF will work to match SAPL needs and donor interests and passions, but will not commit to funding every SAPL request.
SAPLF donors will support the SAPLF as long as their funds go to programs and services with which they have an emotional connection or personal passion and as long as the SAPLF and the SAPL operate with transparency and accountability as good stewards of those funds.
Innovative programs sponsored by the SAPLF will measurably raise funds, increase awareness and utilization of the SAPL and foster SAPL supporters.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Foundation relies heavily on feedback from our stakeholders to determine the success and overall benefit of our outreach. Whether it is event attendance, gift reporting generated by the Library, word-of-mouth, or data collection through our programs, we are able to best determine relevance of this outreach and if we are “moving the needle" toward our overall goals. In 2016, the Foundation showed its impact and relevance by gifting more the $1M in financial support, and we have fully implemented our 2015 strategic plan that created a new mission statement, a vision statement and a solid set of guiding principles for the organization.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We continue to be mindful of our stakeholders (the Library and our donor base) and work diligently to ensure we regularly revisit our efforts and outreach to determine overall effectiveness and how these are helping the Foundation "move the needle" in advocating and raising money (and awareness) for our Library system.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
San Antonio Public Library Foundation
Board of directorsas of 11/27/2023
Mrs. Liecie Hollis
Phyllis Browning Real Estate
Term: 2023 - 2025
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Not applicable
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 01/10/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.