Friends provides over $1 million in direct support to the San Francisco Public Library. While the city covers the Library’s staffing and operational costs, private donations allow Friends to fund expenses that fall outside of the city’s capacity and to quickly respond to needs. Support includes fees for subcontracted service providers; honorariums for authors, artists and curators; collections acquisition; equipment; program supplies; food; multilingual materials production; and professional training to keep librarians on the leading edge of innovation. Friends’ support is spread throughout:

​Additionally, we work in tandem with SFPL on key signature community partnerships, including Summer Stride, One City One Book, the Effie Lee Morris Children’s Literature Lecture Series, Connect with Tech Week, the James Hormel LGBTQIA Endowment, the Wiley Innovation Fund, and the Lisa Brown and Daniel Handler Writer’s Residency. 

​Library Laureates 2019 celebration. Top right: Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Elaine Castillo, Thi Bui and Marie Ciepiela. Lower left: Daniel Handler and Dave Eggers.

Amy Freed whose play Freedomland was a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, talks about being a 2019 Library Laureate. 

Jade Chang, author of The Wangs Vs. The World talks about being a 2019 Library Laureate. 

TJ Stiles talks talks about being a 2019 Library Laureate.