Whitefish library creates endowment fund from bequest

The Whitefish Community Library has created an endowment fund using $100,000 from a bequest left to the library in August by longtime Whitefish summer resident Harriet Glanville.

Glanville, a former physical education teacher and high-ranking amateur golfer who died in January, gave $198,000 to the Whitefish library because she remembered the library as a place where she and her mother felt at home when they were in Montana.

The Library Board earlier this month voted to establish an endowment account with the Whitefish Community Foundation, which is guardian to several local agency endowment funds.

The foundation administers an annual community grant program where nonprofits can turn to find funding for special projects and programs, as well as an emergency grant program for unexpected disasters. At this year’s awards ceremony, the Whitefish Community Library benefitted from a $6,000 grant to purchase electronic books and other materials and received an additional $500 from the John Kramer Family Fund.

The foundation’s funding does not come from a single source, but rather through donors such as Glanville and other individuals with one thing in common — they all care about Whitefish.

“I am so impressed by how many organizations designed to assist our neighbors benefit from the generosity of the Whitefish Community Foundation,” Library Director Joey Kositzky said.

The Whitefish City Council decided in 2010 to end its agreement with Flathead County for library services and instead operate an independent city library. Located at 9 Spokane Ave., the 9,500-square-foot library was built in 1997-98 as half of the Whitefish Community Center Project.

The Library Board encourages people to remember the Whitefish Community Library in their wills or trusts. For more information consult a tax or financial professional or inquire at www.whitefishlibrary.org about how donations may benefit the Whitefish community while offering personal tax benefits.

“In a sense, giving to the library not only has the immediate benefit of supplying books, programs and other materials for its patrons, but can have a much wider impact on the larger community through the interest an endowment account can accrue,” Library Board Chairman Michael Collins said in a prepared statement. “We [the board] felt investing in the Whitefish Community Foundation was a terrific win-win for all of Whitefish and hope other people will remember the library with their charitable giving.”