Presented by John Chrastka during the MLA 2020 Virtual Annual Conference, Oct 14, 2020 "Are you wondering how you can better advocate for your library in the face of COVID-related budget pressures? In this budget climate, library leaders need a highly-engaged plan to advocate for the funding they need to continue enriching their community or school. Join EveryLibrary’s executive director John Chrastka for a discussion of how austerity budgets work and what new advocacy techniques and skills you need to support your next budget request. Come ready to learn what the current revenue forecasts are for states, municipalities and education, along with effective ways to gauge community priorities and sentiments during COVID-19, and some of the best ways to frame your advocacy message in light of current concerns. We hope for you to come away with actionable insights on building coalitions and partnerships to help advocate for your library."

1. Howto
Advocatefor
Your Budget in
the COVIDEra
Mississippi Library Association 2020
John Chrastka, Executive Director
EveryLibrary

2. Revenue
Projections
For States and
Municipalities

3. NASBO
Projections
• Projecting a 20% decline in state tax
revenue during COVID.
• States experienced an 11.6%
decline during the Great Recession.
“States rely on personal income taxes and sales taxes
combined for roughly 75 percent of their general fund
revenue. These revenue sources have been hit hard in
light of stay-at-home orders, business closures, and rising
unemployment claims.”
National Association of State
Budget Officials
http://budgetblog.nasbo.org/budgetblogs/blogs/kathryn-
white/2020/06/25/state-fiscal-outlook-pre-post-covid-19

4. NACO Survey
• Counties expect about a $30 billion
increase in expenditures from the
pandemic through FY 2021.
• Many counties have spent more
than 50% of their budgets on
COVID-19 costs.
National Association of Counties
https://www.usmayors.org/2020/04/14/the-economy-and-cities-what-
americas-leaders-are-seeing/

5. U.S. Conference of
Mayors / NLC
• 9 out of 10 cities face budget
shortfalls this year.
• 43% of all cities reporting
unanticipated spending increases
this year on top of declining
revenues.
Projections of COVID Impact on
Budgets
https://www.naco.org/sites/default/files/documents/Impact%20on%20C
ounty%20Finances-FINAL-v2.pdf

6. Impact on Your
Library Budget
• Local tax receipts matter for
Mississippi public libraries.
• Federal COVID aid to cities, counties,
and states matters to all MS libraries.
• What role does state aid play in your
budget?
• S&P Global is projecting that property
taxes will be stable for the near term.
Your library’s funding mix makes
a difference

7. Austerity
Budgets
How to position yourself for
the coming revenue crisis

8. Austerity Budget
Framework
• Austerity budgets are all about
scarcity.
• Austerity creates a framework where
the solution to scarcity is cuts rather
than efficiencies or new revenue.
• In an austerity budget, there is not a
lot of room to fund the number two
or number three agency or program.

9. Who is Setting the
Agenda?
• City Councils and County Supervisors
in Mississippi may use the COVID
Crisis to downsize government.
• School Admins may use the Crisis to
permanently alter the approach to
learning.
• Colleges and Universities will focus
on core services to retain students.

10. Inside the
Disruption
• Joint City-County or Regional: what is
the status of your contract?
• County or City: what is the status of
the discretionary funds?
• All Publics: what is your state aid
equation?
• Please Support the State Library.

11. P-21 Library
Services
• How is your school library program
uniquely positioned to support
parents, other teachers, and
students during COVID disruptions?
• What role does your campus (Higher
Ed) library have in student retention
and success?

12. Owning the
Framework
“In times of austerity, the advocacy
that works is rooted in the
measurement of your activities
to demonstrate their impacts, not
simply the stories of how people feel
about your (public, school or
academic) library - or the librarians.”
- EveryLibrary

13. What This
Isn’t
Measuring activity and
demonstrating outcomes

14. It’s Not About
Your Pivot
• Every other agency in town has a
great story to tell about Pivoting
during COVID.
• Every other department on campus
or at your school did too.
• You don’t get any bonus points for
showing up.
• Your internal difficulties will be lost
in the noise.

15. Disrupted
Advcacy Frames
for Public Libraries
• Any “Third-place” narratives are very
difficult during COVID.
• Virtual, Digital, and Online measures
of impact are needed.
• There will be few if any ‘nice to have’
features or services for a while.
• New revenue is needed.

16. Disrupted
Advocacy Frames
in Education
• In K-12 Parents are extremely
involved right now and do not want
to be. What can you do to help
them navigate, understand, and
succeed?
• In Higher Ed, the push to full-digital
will be detrimental to your budgets
and staffing.

17. What a
Successful
Advocacy
Frame
Looks Like
A narrative for the
austerity era

18. How people listen
• Compassionately Engaged
• Populations and people
• Pride of Place
• Interesting, thriving, and prosperous
• Data-Driven
• Data as gateway into impacts
• Concerned or Fearful
• Focused on filling gaps
Understanding your audiences

19. Two Possible
Frames for Any
Audience
• Stories of Success that demonstrate
your competencies.
• Stories of Failure that demonstrate
your integrity.
Honestly representing your
successes or your failures

20. Success Stories
Stories of Success that demonstrate
your competencies.
• Show that you are a good candidate
for funding that scales or replicates
a project, program, service, or
approach.
• Measures of activity and impact that
show a potential return on funding
invested.
Scalable or Replicable

21. Fixing Failure
Stories of Failure that demonstrate
your integrity.
• You are the only expert in libraries
in your community. What are the
“library-shaped solutions” to
problems that partners and
policymakers need to hear?
• What will new funding inputs do to
measurably address the gaps?
New inputs that avert or address
a crisis or gap

22. This is the Plan…
Talk about Plan B and Plan A
• Plan A = what happens if you are
properly funded
• Plan B = what happens if you are
under-funded
Then please stick to it.
As the only expert in town about
libraries, they are inclined to
believe you.

23. It’s the Same at
School or on
Campus
• What is your argument for a school
librarian instead of a reading specialist or
a tech teacher or any other position?
• What is your argument for putting an
effective school library’s budgetary needs
in front of other district or school
priorities?
• What does a “plan based” budget that
creates or sustains an effective library
program look like?
As the only expert about
libraries and they are inclined to
believe you.

24. Whichever Story
is True
• During austerity, stories of
competency and measures of success
are budget justifications that should
make your library eligible for funding.
• During austerity, it is very important to
root a true story of failure in your
mission, vision, and values because
folks who share those values want to
see failures corrected.
Who else cares that you are
effective?

25. Spend Some
Money
• Marketing tomorrow to encourage
use and uptake
• Marketing yesterday to tell the story
of your impact
• Spend a few dollars and a few
minutes every day to do it
Outreach, Advertising,
Marketing, Awareness-Building.

26. Who Else in Town
Cares?
• Health and Safety
• Economic Development
• Workforce and Re-tooling
• Early Childhood
• Grade Level Reading
• COVID-Slide
• Housing and Food Security
• Safety and Violence
A lot of other orgs, agencies, groups,
businesses, and stakeholders care
about your budget – if they only knew
about it.

27. Who Else Cares
on Campus?
1. Who else is concerned with the whole life of the
child?
2. Who cares about career readiness?
3. Who cares about college readiness?
4. Who cares about citizenship and community life?
5. Who cares about small populations of students?
6. Who else cares about before and after school?
7. Who cares about school readiness?
8. Who else does a similar job?
9. Who else cares about equity?
Internal and External potential
partners and allies need to be
engaged actively now.

28. Join the Coalition;
Build a Partnership
• Coalitions put you at the table.
• Coalitions are not about service.
Coalitions are about strategy.
• Coalition partners agree to disagree
on certain matters while working to
amplify the shared vision.
• Coalition partners validate the work
and mission of other partners.
If you are not involved as a
coalition partner already, now is
the time.

29. What Funders
and Donors Want
• During the ongoing COVID crisis,
policymakers, elected officials, administrators,
voters, and funders want to see their money
go to effective programs and competent
staffing in ways that deliver results.
• They want to support programs and projects
that can be measured and justified through
data as well as stories.
• They are looking for the right way to apply
limited funding resources - whether taxes or
philanthropy or grants - to solve problems.
If you are not involved as a
coalition partner already, now is
the time.

30. QuestionsandComments?
HowtoAdvocateforYourBudgetintheCOVIDEra
JohnChrastka,EveryLibrary
@everylibrary|@mrchrastka

31. Howto
Advocatefor
Your Budget in
the COVIDEra
Mississippi Library Association 2020
John Chrastka, Executive Director
EveryLibrary