A child looks through books during 2023’s Storybook Breakfast, a fundraiser for Imagination Library of Johnson County. The nonprofit is launching a $1 million fundraising campaign after state lawmakers cut funding for Imagination Library groups out of the budget. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Since it was founded eight years ago, the Imagination Library of Johnson County has built thousands of young readers.
Nearly 5,000 kids ages 5 and younger receive a free book every month thanks to the nonprofit.
The impact has been undeniable — research data from the past three years show that Franklin Community Schools kindergartners enrolled in the Imagination Library for at least 4 1/2 years score higher on kindergarten literacy tests than the school district average.
A new fundraising campaign aims to ensure that progress continues for generations to come.
The Imagination Library of Johnson County has partnered with the Johnson County Community Foundation to launch a $1 million campaign, leaders announced Monday. The effort is in response to the Indiana General Assembly’s decision earlier this year to eliminate state funding for the statewide Imagination Library initiative.
“Since they presented us with this, [the community foundation] has consistently used the language that they want to walk alongside us, to partner with us. That feels really amazing,” said Susan Crisafulli, president and founder of Imagination Library of Johnson County. “It’s something in our eight years of existence we’ve had to scrape together every penny. We’ll still be doing a lot of hard work to raise this $500,000, but I’m just overwhelmingly grateful of this generosity.”
The community foundation is allocating $500,000 toward a dollar-for-dollar matching campaign. Organizers hope to raise a total of $1 million to build a permanent endowment for the Imagination Library of Johnson County. Doing so would generate approximately $40,000 annually, ensuring the program’s sustainability.
Every gift made to the Imagination Library of Johnson County will be matched to the dollar by the Johnson County Community Foundation.
“This is where our community comes in,” said Kim Kasting, president and CEO of the community foundation, in a statement. “We believe in the power of books and the impact of early literacy, and we know our neighbors do, too. Every gift to ILJC will be matched 1:1 by the Foundation, doubling the impact of your generosity.”
Johnson County founded a chapter of the Imagination Library in 2017 in response to low kindergarten readiness rates in the county. Since its start, the organization has distributed more than 218,000 free books to kids under the age of 5. About 4,800 kids are enrolled in the program.
To pay the approximately $6,000 the Imagination Library of Johnson County pays each month for books, local organizers have sought out grants and donations from supporters and various organizations, such as the Johnson County Community Foundation and 100+ Women Who Care Johnson County, which awarded the group a no-strings-attached grant for more than $10,000 on May 1. They also host a Storybook Breakfast fundraiser each year.
“It feels really good to know that as we’re working to support the community, the community in turn is working to support us,” said Kelly Wright, director of Imagination Library of Johnson County. “They’ve done a great job communicating that they understand the value that we’re bringing, and that they want to help us along the way in the long term.”
But the organization received a huge boost in 2023, when then-Gov. Eric Holcomb signed legislation to expand the program to children in every zip code in Indiana. The legislation allotted $6 million over two years — $2 million in the first year and $4 million in the second year, as part of a community share to expand the program.
State lawmakers cut that funding out of its biennial budget bill this spring, and funding for the Imagination Library was eliminated. Shortly after, Indiana First Lady Maureen Braun announced a new fundraising initiative to expand and sustain Imagination Library across the state. The initiative establishes a public-private partnership aimed at supporting the book gifting program, according to an April 29 press release.
On July 30, Braun announced the first major donation toward that initiative – a $500,000 gift from the CenterPoint Energy Foundation.
Still, local leaders searched for ways to more permanently fund the Imagination Library in the county. The Johnson County Community Foundation offered a solution.
“They reached out to us and said they had been following this information about the statewide funding, and they’d love to brainstorm with us,” Crisafulli said. “We set up a meeting, and when we got there, they said they had a fund they were already using for education and literacy that they wanted to designate for us to use for a matching campaign that allowed us to have a more sustainable future.”
The community foundation helped set up a website where people can donate, in addition to promoting the campaign in newsletters and communication on its own. They answered questions Imagination Library had about fundraising and helped develop a strategy moving forward.
“They’re not just supporting us with their words, but also following through with lots of actions that are designed to make this a successful venture,” Crisafulli said.
Imagination Library of Johnson County leaders also have planned a multi-pronged approach to raising money for the fund, Wright said.
They plan to reach out directly to existing donors who have been supportive of both Imagination Library and the community foundation, having conversations about how they can contribute to the campaign.
Organizers are also putting together a donor event specifically for the campaign to be held around October this year.
“That will expand the reach of the people who are brought in to help with this campaign,” Wright said.
Contributors can donate online at onecau.se/imaginationlibrary or mail a check to the foundation.
People wishing to make a non-cash contribution to this campaign can contact the foundation directly at 317-738-2213 for assistance.
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