CAMPAIGN FAST FACTS
Ways to Reach Us
Facebook: Sawyer Free 2025
Instagram: Sawyer Free 2025
YouTube: Sawyer Library Foundation 2025
Call 978.225.0915
Text to donate to Sawyer Free 2025: Text “325182” to 1-855-575-7888
Checks to: SF2025, 2 Dale Avenue, Gloucester, MA 01930. (Pay to the order of: “Sawyer Library Foundation”)
Campaign Bullets
✓ What is Sawyer Free Library 2025?
Sawyer Free 2025 (visit sawyerfree2025.org) is a philanthropic capital campaign to fund a comprehensive renovation and modernization of Gloucester’s existing library building, designed by local architect Don Monell. The project will preserve the original exterior and also double the size of the existing library’s footprint by constructing a 15,000-square foot addition that extends the library toward School Street.
The project’s design principles are grounded in the human experience and a mission to put people first. The newly renovated and expanded Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library will stand as an exemplar of what a 21st century educational, cultural, civic and community hub can and should be in terms of architecture, accessibility, sustainability, the use of natural resources and light, layouts, lines of sight, air quality and public safety. The interior will comprise three, seamlessly navigable floors featuring multimodal wayfinding, state-of-the-science embedded technology and customized acoustical elements.
Sawyer Free 2025 constitutes a once-in-a-lifetime transformational investment in a vital community resource that will exponentially amplify the library’s ability to deliver critical services and outcomes not only for Gloucester, but for communities across Cape Ann and the North Shore as a place of equity, inclusion, connection, creation, compassion, renewal and advancement.
The project’s total projected cost is $28 million, a sum that includes built-in inflation costs through completion of the project in 2025. The completion of the new facility will result in a 25-percent increase in annual visitors, a 25-percent increase in the number of public programs offered each month and a 50-percent increase in the number of programs hosted at the library by partner agencies.
To learn more, find the “Visit Our Future” tile at sawyerfree2025.org, which goes live on May 10.
✓ Who put forward the building design?
Oudens Ello Architecture, which won a national AIA/ALA Library Building Award in 2018 for its design on the Eastham Public Library and a 2021 AIA New England Merit Award for its design of the Norwell Public Library.
✓ Who is paying for the Sawyer Free Library renovation and addition?
The project is structured such that no public funds will cover any costs once the campaign is complete. Sawyer Free 2025 will ultimately be fully funded by philanthropic donations set in motion by an integrated media capital campaign under the direction of the Sawyer Library Foundation.
The Sawyer Free Library 2025 campaign employs no full-time paid staff and every member of the Sawyer Library Foundation Board is a volunteer. Campaign marketing costs are a pre-budgeted component of the campaign. Accordingly, 100 percent of donations will go to fund the library renovation and expansion project.
A provisional award of a $9.3 million matching grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners will account for just over one third of the project’s total projected cost. Including the MBLC grant, the campaign has already raised $14.1 million in pledged donations.
✓ How Will The Campaign Roll Out
The campaign will employ traditional methods to engage the community and raise awareness via print and digital earned media as well paid media, including television advertising on Comcast cable and streaming platforms, sponsorship spots on WBUR-FM broadcast and streaming channels and other local radio advertising.
Sawyer Free 2025 will also deploy robust, state-of-the-science assets across digital and social media, including an interactive campaign website built by a user-experience designer, text to donate functionality and other easy ways to give electronically, SEO-optimized campaign pages on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, SEM-optimized social media ad placement, contests and staged crowdsourced events designed to go viral and targeted email marketing.
Other traditional campaign-awareness tools will include visibility assets (signage, banners, mailers), campaign-awareness community events, a public display of the project and even broader outreach made possible by the library’s more than 100 North Shore nonprofit and civil service providers, including Wellspring, Pathways for Children, The Open Door, The Cape Ann Museum, the Cape Ann YMCA and the City of Gloucester, among many others.
The principal agency behind the Sawyer Free 2025 integrated media plan and strategic marketing campaign is GloWEST Communications, LLC. Supporting agencies include Simplicity Lab, DGA Productions, Clyde Media Productions, Octocog, Armstrong Brand Consulting and Tracy Davis PR.
✓ How do I know the Sawyer Library Foundation is tax-exempt?
View the Sawyer Library Foundation’s Determination Letter as a 501(c)(3) organization issued by the IRS at sawyerfree2025.org. Our EIN is: 84-2837206. All donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
✓ How does Sawyer Free Library 2025 keep payment data secure?
The Sawyer Library Foundation uses the Donorbox.org payment gateway for online donations. Payment gateways encrypt credit card information to process payments, protecting donors from card data theft and fraud. Donorbox serves the non-profit and charitable endeavors sector exclusively. Gifts can also be made through PayPal and Venmo within the donorbox gateway.
Recognized as a Capterra “Shortlist” top-performing fundraising software in 2021, the Donorbox platform is Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard-compliant. This is the most stringent level of certification available in the electronic payments industry. Donorbox also features an added layer of protection by using an independent vendor—the Stripe Radar fraud detection system—which is one of the world’s most secure and trusted payment providers, currently used by Twitter, Shopify, Kickstarter and Lyft.
✓ Are There Other Ways to Give to Sawyer Free 2025?
- Visit sawyerfree2025.org
- Text to donate: Text “325182” to 1-855-575-7888
- Checks to: SF2025, 2 Dale Avenue, Gloucester, MA 01930 (Pay to the order of: “Sawyer Library Foundation”)
- Volunteer! Reach out if you want to pitch in at the library or on behalf of the capital campaign, either in person or virtually. Help your neighbors, serve your community and share your expertise. No matter what kind of volunteer work you do for us, you are contributing in invaluable ways.
Good Morning Gloucester 