2024 Fundraising Toolkit

Every year, dozens of folks come together to help us meet our goal. You can be one of those heroes! Read on for resources and guidance:

Your staff are SO grateful for your help and here for you anytime! You can call, email, or schedule time to chat!

Leanna Frick | leanna@toollibrary.org | 410-347-0850 x100

Jump to… How to Create A Fundraising Page | Past Successes | Graphics Tools | Sample Messaging

WAYS TO HELP

I’m extra & all in for SNTL
Create a fundraising page and come up with a personal challenge or game to inspire giving (e.g. raffle off a homemade pie). Ask for donations for your birthday or a holiday. Email folks in your network and create your own social media posts throughout the month. Win the fundraising crown.

I want to do the single most helpful thing
Create a fundraising page and send individual emails to 5-10 people asking for donations.

I have a little time but also social anxiety
Create a fundraising page and post creative, unique stories and images on social media with the link.

I don’t have much time but I love SNTL
Be on the lookout for our and others’ social media posts about the campaign and re-share them. Amplify without over-balancing your packed schedule

I don’t have social media or really can’t handle asking for money
We get it! Email Leanna@toollibrary.org to sign up to make thank-you calls or write cards to people who’ve given in the past.

I don’t have time but do have cool handmade stuff
Contact Leanna by 12/1/24 to contribute a cutting board, knife, lamp, or other item to a mid-December “SNTL-Made” handmade gift raffle! leanna@toollibrary.org or 410-347-0850 x100

Reasons to love the library

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Here are some of our successes from the last year!

Graphics Tools

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Here’s a gallery of our favorite photos! Feel free to use these in your messaging.

Use these Canva templates to create social posts, or go wild and create your own! Drag and drop any photo into the frame (looks like a cartoon landscape) to instantly incorporate it.

Sample Messaging

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Here are some themes and stats that might resonate with you! Feel free to borrow any of this language for emails and posts:

• A place to find community in a changing world

  • How have you found stability, community, or joy through SNTL? While the world burns in so many ways, it’s important to uplift the spaces and places that sustain us.

• A sustainable future

• Environmental sustainability:

• By maintaining a shared set of thousands of community tools, repairing more than a hundred household items at our biannual Fix-It Fairs, and helping people repair and repurpose things at home, SNTL keeps tons of materials out of our landfills each year. 

• Economic sustainability:

• More than two thirds of the Tool Library’s annual budget comes directly from members and learners and a very small portion is funded by restrictive and unpredictable grants. That means our community truly owns the library.

• In just the last year, we saved members more than $1 million compared with the cost of buying everything they borrowed. 

• Last year we added 277 new items to our borrowable inventory, bringing it to more than 3,200 total – all without increasing borrowing costs.

• Despite rising inflation and a recent pay increase for teachers, the cost of our classes hasn’t gone up – meaning more affordable and always-expanding learning and making options for our community. We invest our money in our community.

• Community sustainability:

• Between last year and this year, the number of scholarship requests we received has nearly doubled. In 2024, we were able to fund a little more than half of the total amount requested by our community. In 2025, we hope to fund all of our community’s needs!

• Growth without sacrificing community

• While our number of members has grown, the average membership cost has gotten more affordable. That means that together we are serving more people who wouldn’t be able to access tools and skills without a sliding scale option. The more we share, the more we have.

• Building a movement

• Baltimore is home to one of the largest and oldest tool libraries in the world and is a model for many others. We have helped grow other libraries of things in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, including donating a van full of tools to the inventory at the new tool library in Greenbelt, MD.

Hi Aunt Jane,

With Hanukkah around the corner, I wanted to let you know about an alternative gift I would love to receive: a donation to the Station North Tool Library!

I’ve been taking classes here for 2 years, and I really love the community I’ve found. Essentially, it’s like a book library, but they provide thousands of tools that people can borrow for free to renovate their houses, take care of their gardens, repair their cars and bikes – you name it.

I’m helping fundraise this year as they have some really exciting projects on the horizon, including opening more shop time for members like me.

I would love it if you were able to contribute $25 or more, and/or share the opportunity with people you know who might be interested. Here’s the link to my fundraising page: https://givebutter.com/SNTL2024

Love,
Marianne

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Hello teammates!

Many of you know about my other passion, the Station North Tool Library. I’ve been a member here for just over a year, and it’s such an amazing place. We’re raising funds this fall to support some really exciting projects next year, and I am (of course) competing with other members to see who can raise the most. 

The thing I’m most excited about is hosting more Fix-It Fair events, where anyone can bring a broken appliance or torn shirt or whatever, and get it fixed with the help of volunteers.

You can help us meet our goal with a donation of any size. $25 is a great place to start, but you can also find other need amounts on my fundraising page: https://givebutter.com/SNTL2024.

Thanks!
Jared

How to create a fundraising page

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Start at our crowdfunding page: givebutter.com/SNTL2024