The strongest libraries are built across generations. A gift in your will can help the Orange County Public Library continue serving readers, families, and researchers long into the future.
The Friends have supported the library since 1981. Some parents bringing their children to storytime today may have attended programs supported by our earliest members. A legacy gift can carry that tradition forward for the people who come next.
A legacy of library stewardship
Rebecca B. Wall: a gift to the library
Rebecca B. Wall was a career librarian and devoted supporter of the Orange County Public Library. In April 1987, the library received $50,000 from her estate. By 2010, the gift had grown to more than $100,000. Her commitment to preserving and sharing local history is commemorated in the library’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection.
Nearly forty years after Wall’s gift, the Friends created Orange County Indexed as our own form of stewardship. It helps people begin with the Wall Collection and resources available through the library, then follow connections to books, newspapers, photographs, archives, and other materials held across North Carolina.
Wall could not have anticipated the digital tools available today. Her legacy nevertheless continues to create new paths into Orange County’s history.
Sandra Peterson: a gift to the Friends
Sandra Peterson, a former president of the Friends, remembered the organization in her estate. Following her death in 2011, the Friends received a $10,000 bequest and placed it in its agency account with the Triangle Community Foundation.
Her gift strengthened the Friends’ ability to support the library beyond a single program or budget year. It also demonstrated how someone who had given her time to the organization could extend that service into the future.
These gifts followed different paths, Wall’s to the library and Peterson’s to the Friends, but both show how one person’s foresight can benefit a community for generations.
How a bequest to the Friends works
A bequest to the Friends can be any amount. You may leave a specific sum, a percentage of your estate, or a portion of what remains after your loved ones have been provided for.
An unrestricted bequest gives future Friends boards the flexibility to respond to the library’s changing priorities. Because the Friends is an all-volunteer nonprofit, we keep operating costs low and direct our resources toward supporting the library.
You may also name the Friends as a beneficiary of a retirement account or life insurance policy. For many people, this is a simple way to make a future gift without changing a will.
Sample language for your will
Your attorney can help you choose wording that fits your plans. The following may be used as a starting point:
“I give to Friends of the Orange County Public Library, Inc. (EIN 58-1507922), a North Carolina nonprofit corporation located in Hillsborough, North Carolina, [the sum of $______ / ______ percent of my residuary estate] to be used for its general charitable purposes.”
Let us know
We are friends of librarians, not lawyers, so please speak with your attorney or financial advisor about what is right for you.
If you decide to include the Friends in your plans, we would be honored to know. There is no obligation to tell us, but it would give us an opportunity to thank you and learn what the library has meant to you.
You can reach us through our contact form or write to:
Friends of the Orange County Public Library, Inc.
137 W. Margaret Lane
Hillsborough, NC 27278
EIN 58-1507922
Historical information about Rebecca B. Wall’s bequest is drawn from the August 5, 2010 edition of The Carrboro Citizen and the Orange County Public Library. Information about Sandra Peterson’s bequest comes from the Friends’ June 2012 newsletter.
