My name is Laura Dowling, and I live at 25 Harness Lane. I have been the Treasurer of the Friends of the Goodnow Library for more than 13 years. I will be speaking to you about the Friends’ budget process and our spending practices.


The Friends is an independent, nonprofit organized and staffed by volunteers and is an entity distinct from the Goodnow Library. Its mission to support and stimulate interest in the Goodnow Library has been carried out for more than 30 years including the past 2 years in which we have continued our good works by hosting an outdoor, drive-in summer movie and multiple Zoom programs on cooking and art which were attended by not only Sudbury residents but interested people throughout the country and abroad. We have given away nearly 8,000 books that were donated and ready for our pre-pandemic book and bake sale. The books were donated to elementary schools, Curtis Middle School, many area nursery school and day care centers, little neighborhood libraries and new teachers needing to create libraries in their classrooms.

About seven years ago, under new leadership, the Friends adopted a more business-like approach to funding our activities. To insure we were in line with the guidance from the Attorney General’s closer monitoring of nonprofits, we adopted a formal budget process that would allow us to keep our records in order and track spending. This is how it worked:

We adopted a general rule that our budget for each fiscal year would be based upon the income received during the preceding fiscal year. There were exceptions to this rule depending upon the previous year’s spending and any special programs or resources we wanted to fund outside of the general budget. The Friends’ President and Vice President would meet in person in May with the Library Director and Assistant Director to discuss available monies and library needs. We also reviewed spending for Friends-produced programming, museum pass and film license expenses and expected administrative expenses. With respect to library-produced programming, budget allocations were on a departmental basis. Department heads were free to spend the money allocated to them as they saw fit. There were no conditions attached to this funding,
though we did ask that the Friends be acknowledged for their contributions when the programs were presented, as all charitable funding organizations require. We notified the Library Director in June of each year of the department budget allocations for the coming year.

As Treasurer I would send a report each month to the department heads with their expenditures vs. the budget so they could keep track of their spending. If there were any discrepancies between their records and mine, we would work together to identify and correct any problems.

It is a general rule of practice that a nonprofit should maintain at least a two years expense budget in reserve for operating expenses in case of lean years. Because of the pandemic, we have not done any fundraising since the Fall of 2019. Our annual Book and Bake sale scheduled for April, 2020 was cancelled as a result of the pandemic. Another major fundraising event with the nationally known political satire group, The Capitol Steps, that was scheduled to take place at LS two weeks before the 2020 election was also canceled. Because we adhered to the 2-year reserve recommendation, we were able to fund library programming and other expenses through the pandemic as well as the current year.

We are sharing a number of pages that come from the correspondence to illustrate our budgeting process was well known by library staff and our funding of library-produced programming was not cut nor conditioned.

Let me describe the sources of our money. Nearly 50% of the funds we receive in any given year are generated by book sales and other fundraising activities. Nearly all of the remaining funds we receive come to us in the form of memberships. These memberships give the members a sense of belonging to a committed group of volunteers and entitles them to early access to book sales and other fundraising activities, invitations to special member events, a monthly newsletter and the right to vote for our officers. The remainder of the funds we receive is in the form of unsolicited donations, but it is usually a small percentage of the total. We have not accepted any donations that restrict our use of the money donated. All money received by the Friends, regardless of source, is spent at the discretion of the Friends and consistent with our mission. That is how all independent 501(c)(3) nonprofits operate.

About half of our spending in any given year is in the form of reimbursements or direct payments for library-produced programming. The other half is spent on Friends-produced programming, museum passes, movie license, copier rental (until the Town allocated money through a revolving account to cover this), the entrance garden planting and maintenance and administrative costs. On average we donated $30,000 to the library. That number does not include special projects such as the book drop that cost $7,700 nor the $40,000 we donated toward the redesigned front lobby, nor annual staff appreciation gifts.

In recent filings of the Form 990 EZ tax return we no longer categorize ourselves as a “supporting organization”, as defined by the IRS. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization classified by the IRS as a “Public Charity”. We contacted legal counsel specializing in nonprofit law, and they advised us that we were not a “supporting organization” as defined by the IRS, and that we should apply to the IRS for a formal correction to our classification. We did file the appropriate application which was approved by the IRS. The updated classification makes it easier for us to receive funds from donor-advised accounts, but it does not affect our nonprofit status, nor does it change our charter or our mission.

I will now turn the program over to Claudia Brandon.
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