Fund for the Boston Public Library

The mission of the Fund is to provide financial support to the Boston Public Library, ensuring that it remains viable, engaging, accessible, and free to all. The Fund fulfills this mission by working in partnership with the Library, donors and other funders in supporting BPL programs and special initiatives. Support from the Fund supplements, but does not supplant, other BPL resources, including the City of Boston funding.

The Boston Public Library has an exciting new philanthropic direction.

As engraved over the entrance to the Central Library at Copley Square, the BPL is “Free to All.” We take seriously the charge to be an institution of learning and education for people of all ages and walks of life, to support civic engagement, and to serve the needs of our diverse community.

To help us meet this goal in the twenty-first century, a group of visionary philanthropists and funding institutions has come together to create and support a new entity: The Fund for the Boston Public Library. Launched officially in April, 2019, the Fund now serves as the organizational and fiscal successor to the Boston Public Library Foundation.

​Charged by Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Library’s Board of Trustees with re-positioning fundraising efforts on behalf of the Boston Public Library, the fund has put in place a new board of directors, a new executive director, and has a strategic, focused mission to support the Library’s areas of need:

• Programming and services that bring energy and excitement to all of the Library’s inspirational spaces;
• Innovative investments in technology and digital offerings to ensure the Library’s continued position as a national and international leader;
• Restoration of the historic McKim building to ensure greater access to, engagement with, and appreciation of both its architecture and the services and collections within;
• Care of, with increased and improved access to the Library’s world-renowned special collections.

​Last year (2018) alone, the Library circulated more than 5 million objects, offered more than 1.6 million book and audiobook downloads, and provided 13,000 educational programs including reading, literacy, exhibitions, instructional classes, prominent author talks, and new citizenship training. As a pillar of our community and a national leader, the Library’s reach stretches throughout Boston, to the Commonwealth and beyond.