This Holiday Season, Give the Gift of Library Support

Give books! A book is such a personal and meaningful gift and buying one at the Friends Bookstores at the Main and Fort Mason makes your gift even more special. Proceeds from book sales go toward providing necessary financial support and advocacy for the SFPL.

Give a Friends Bookstore Gift Certificate. Available to purchase at both bookstores. Let your loved-ones enjoy restocked selections every day, from new and rare art books to the most incredible collections of history and fiction. They may get lost in the bookstores all day! 

Give a Friends Membership. Members get 10% off all books in our bookstores and over thirty other independent bookstores throughout the city! Along with discounts, members receive invitations to Library and author events, tickets to the Big Book Sale Member Preview, and this At the Library SFPL monthly publication delivered to their home.

Give a gift to Friends. Make an impact for your community, for free public access to our award-winning Library, and exceptional Library programming by making a personally significant gift to Friends. Here are ways that you can give: 

Make a year-end gift online (including tribute gifts): go to FriendsSFPL.org/Support-Us 
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Make a gift of appreciated stock (Beneficiaries of 2019 IPOs encouraged!)

If you are 70.5+ years young, please consider making a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD). A QCD is a direct transfer of funds from an IRA custodian, payable to a qualified charity. QCDs can be counted toward satisfying required minimum distributions (RMDs) for the year. Also, QCDs don't require itemization, which due to the recent tax law changes, means you can take advantage of the higher standard deduction, but still use a QCD for charitable giving.
Example: A married couple both over age 65 now receives a $27,200 standard deduction; so itemized deductions must exceed that amount to reduce taxable income. Under the new tax laws, itemized deductions for all taxes are limited to $10,000. Further, home mortgages may be virtually paid off and medical deductions are still not allowable except in the rare year of serious illness. This all means that if you directly donate the “remaining” $17,200 and claim it as a charitable itemized deduction, it will produce no additional tax benefit. As an alternative, you can transfer the $17,200 directly from one's IRA under QCD and reduce your adjustable gross income (AGI) by that full amount while still preserving the full $27,200 standard deduction. (The standard deduction for single filers is $13,600.)
Information on all ways to give can be found at FriendsSFPL.org/Support-Us, and you can also contact Craig Palmer, Chief of Advancement directly at (415) 477-5235 and [email protected].