Minerva
Marketing With Minerva
A Successful Library Fundraising Campaign
Originally presented at the 2006 SUNYLA Annual Conference Poster Session by Kate Pitcher and Liz Argentieri
SUNY Geneseo’s Milne Library is one of many academic libraries realizing the importance of donors in funding their projects. Friends groups can be a huge help in raising not only money, but visibility of the library on campus and in the community.
Donors and friends often come in a variety of “packages”. The mission of the Friends of Milne Library at SUNY Geneseo is primarily to encourage donations through a variety of public relations measures. This includes, but is not limited to, media campaigns, branding, targeted mailings, donor recognition and special events.
Below, we focus on the marketing value of our efforts, especially 2005’s “hunt” for the College’s lost statue of Minerva, and will illustrate how sustained and successful fundraising is managed.
What We Learned
The College's statue of Minerva stood in the old library for most of its existence. As the image of Minerva took hold in our imaginations, the idea that alumni of former Geneseo's School of Library and Information Science could be central to our Friends efforts became more obvious.
The publicized hunt for the College's Minerva statue proved to be an excellent way to increase awareness of the Friends of Milne Library, the Library itself and the College. It was also an effective way to introduce and explain our logo – to provide a little historical background, right up front.
Having a simple and identifiable logo, especially one that carries with it so much of our institution’s history, simplifies design decisions for all of the Friends’ “products” while simultaneously building brand recognition.
Staff limitations and organizational objectives led us to abandon thoughts of including many time-honored features of Friends organizations such as volunteers, book sales, extensive programming and regular meetings. Instead, we decided early on that the Friends of Milne Library would look, feel and operate more like a foundation, making a priority of communicating the Library’s good work and ambitious projects.
What We Did: Minerva Media Campaign
In the process of designing the Friends of Milne Library logo, our curiosity was whetted regarding the truth about the fate of this once-prominent campus statue. Soon we realized that the public might be interested, too, and perhaps have some illuminating information to share with us. This seemed like the perfect idea to build a media campaign around, to generate interest and awareness not only in Minerva but in the Library, College and Friends as well.
We started by creating a series of three “Wanted” posters and distributing them around the campus and town.
At the same time, the College’s media relations staff sent out a press release 
about the campaign and the story eventually found its way into several area newspapers including the Livingston County News, Lake & Valley Clarion, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Buffalo News, Watertown Daily Times and Batavia Daily News. Geneseo campus publications carried the story as well.
The regional publicity generated “buzz” and brought to light additional details regarding the possible fate of the Minerva statue, some of which were incorporated into subsequent publicity. Prior to and throughout the media campaign, library staff were engaged in genuine investigative work, conducting research and interviewing locals with long memories.
Geneseo students also fed into the campaign. A group in an Advanced Television Production class created a documentary entitled “Looking for Minerva”, which premiered at the statue’s dedication event in June 2005 and has been accessible from the Library’s website since.
Alas, the College’s original statue was never found, but an exact replica was commissioned and paid for with a gift from the Class of 2005.
The gala dedication event was held during Geneseo’s 50th (and earlier) class reunion, marking the beginning of the Library’s attempt to “bridge the years” and reach out to alumni. Local press covered this final chapter in the hunt for Minerva.
Where We Are
In addition to cultivating and developing relationships with current and potential donors, the Friends of Milne Library is continuing to build a base of alumni from the College’s former School of 
Library and Information Science. Twice a year, alumni are sent a paper copy of the Library’s newsletter, Milne Library Infobits, with compliments of the Friends. Mailings have included (on Friends letterhead) teasers and information about the Library School reunion that was held in September 2006. Alumni were asked to nominate fellow alumni for the first-ever “Minerva Awards”, to be given out at the Reunion, recognizing excellence in librarianship.
Where We’re Going
We are committed to the work involved in:
- Creating goodwill among Geneseo’s alumni, including library school graduates, and
- Targeting those alumni that can be developed into enthusiastic, possibly lifelong, Friends and donors.
Encouraged by the successful Library School Reunion in fall 2006, we hope to make the Minerva Awards a regular Friends event. With the help of the College’s media relations staff, both the Minerva Awards and the Friends of Milne Library will be publicized in a variety of appropriate outlets.
We continue to find new opportunities to incorporate our Friends logo and the symbolism of Minerva. The newly-redesigned library website, for example, features the logo prominently in its banner, simultaneously benefiting from and promoting its ever-increasing brand recognition.
