CALS Foundation
The mission of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) Foundation is to provide support for educational and cultural programming for the patrons, communities, and neighborhoods being served by the Central Arkansas Library System and its branches. The CALS Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization, and donations are tax deductible.
Donations to the CALS Foundation are essential for library programs like Summer @ CALS, Six Bridges Book Festival, Be Mighty Little Rock, the Rock It! Lab entrepreneurship center, and others. Donations also support programs at neighborhood branches.
Invest in Central Arkansas by investing in your library. Your generosity helps CALS make a bigger impact.
Ways of Giving
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Donations of any size will help strengthen your library. Give to your favorite branch or program or designate your gift to wherever it’s needed most. You can give once or schedule a recurring monthly gift. To donate by check: print this donation form, fill it out, and mail it with your check to: CALS Foundation, 100 Rock Street, Little Rock, AR, 72201. To donate over the phone: please call 501-320-5750. Click the button below to donate online.
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Did you know that when you donate appreciated stock, you may avoid the tax on the gain while deducting 100% of the value of the contribution? That makes stock gifting one of the most tax-advantaged ways to give. And when you donate stock, we get to keep the proceeds that would have gone to pay taxes — it’s a win-win for you and us!
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Give a donation in someone’s name to honor or remember a friend, family member, or colleague. When a tribute gift is given, the honoree will receive a letter acknowledging your generosity and a bookplate will be placed in a book. Be sure to fill in the Tribute Name and acknowledgment information.
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Sponsorships
Sign up to sponsor the 2026 Six Bridges Book Festival – the preeminent literary event in Arkansas. This year will be our twenty-third festival. To support this popular celebration of books and reading, contact etborne@cals.org or 501-320-5750.
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Planned Giving
Make a planned gift that can help ensure quality materials, programming, and services for our libraries for years to come. For more information, contact etborne@cals.org or 501-320-5750.
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IRA Qualified Charitable Distributions
You may be eligible to make a gift from your Individual Retirement Account to the CALS Foundation and have it count toward your required minimum distribution. For more information, contact etborne@cals.org or 501-320-5750.
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Sign up for Kroger Rewards and a portion of your purchases at Kroger will be donated to the CALS Foundation. Visit krogercommunityrewards.com, click “Create an Account” to sign in, and select CALS Foundation as your organization to support.
Community Impact
Libraries enrich, educate, and entertain children and adults. Libraries boost literacy, lifelong learning, and cultural awareness. Here at CALS, we help connect children and teens with free after-school meals, provide free math tutoring to students, and assist job seekers and under-resourced entrepreneurs.
In December 2021, CALS was honored to be recognized with the Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize – an annual prize given by Library Journal to one public library in the country. In April 2022, CALS was named a finalist for the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, which is the highest federal honor for libraries.
Your donations to the CALS Foundation will help your library continue to serve thousands of Arkansans through our exceptional and free community programs.
Contribute to a Little Free Pantry
In partnership with CALS, Be Mighty Little Rock supports ten Little Free Pantries and one Community Fridge in Central Arkansas. The CALS Foundation invites you to contribute items to this initiative. You can donate non-perishable items at the following branch locations: Children’s Library, Dee Brown Library, Fletcher Library, Maumelle Library, McMath Library, Millie Brooks Library (Wrightsville), Nixon Library (Jacksonville), Rooker Library, Terry Library, Thompson Library. Or donate perishable items to the Community Fridge at McMath Library. You may also donate via our Amazon Wish List.
More Information
Created in 1975, the Central Arkansas Library System is recognized as a leading community institution. The library’s mission is to provide resources and services to help residents reach their full potential, and to inspire discovery, learning, and cultural expression. CALS is the largest public library in Arkansas, with approximately 11% of the state’s population living in our service area. We have 15 branches in urban, suburban, and rural locations across Pulaski and Perry Counties. View the CALS Board of Directors list here.
The CALS Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, supports educational and cultural programming for the patrons, communities, and neighborhoods being served by the Central Arkansas Library System and its branches. Donations to the CALS Foundation are tax deductible for federal income tax purposes.
Our Tax ID # is 27-2094612.
CALS is a community leader for our efforts improving literacy, the exchange of ideas, workforce development, and social engagement. The library has a large portfolio of programs designed to provide enrichment and eliminate barriers within our community.
Donating to the CALS Foundation helps ensure the success of these programs:
- Be Mighty Little Rock CALS is a leader in fighting endemic child hunger through after-school, weekend, and summer meal programs. In 2018, CALS and the City of Little Rock launched a program called Be Mighty to connect kids and teens with free USDA meals. In addition to serving free meals from library branches, CALS operates Little Free Pantries onsite at our locations, provides a community fridge at the McMath Library, provides nutrition education, and operates teaching gardens.
- Count UP Count UP offers free one-on-one math tutoring to K-12 students in Pulaski and Perry counties. Students are able to work with tutors in real time to solve unique challenges or participate in ongoing tutoring.
- Encyclopedia of Arkansas CALS’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas is housed within our Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art, which is the largest free-standing facility dedicated to the study of Arkansas. The EOA is the only state encyclopedia in the country to be produced by a library system and is the premier source of information on Arkansas.
- Rock It! Lab To address economic inequities, CALS partnered with Benito Lubazibwa and Remix Ideas to launch Rock It! Lab in 2020. Rock It! Lab is a center for entrepreneurs housed in the historic Cox Building on our Main Library campus. It provides mentor matching, workshops on practical topics for businessowners, networking opportunities, and business education classes. The goal of the lab is to inspire, educate, and connect under-resourced entrepreneurs – participants are predominantly Black and Hispanic – and to create pathways for them to achieve economic mobility. The lab features a coworking space, a makerspace, and a retail area.
- Six Bridges Book Festival The library’s book festival celebrates reading and encourages the development of a more literate populace in Central Arkansas. Through the festival’s Writers in the Schools initiative, presenting authors visit area schools to talk about the writing process with students, who also receive free books.
- Summer @ CALS Summer @ CALS encourages reading and engagement in library activities for all ages.
In 2023, the Central Arkansas Library System served thousands of meals to kids, offered a world-class Summer @ CALS, mentored entrepreneurs, tutored math, and offered help with technology. Many of these resources and programs were only available thanks to the generosity of donors.
As CALS’s Director of Development, I am grateful for everyone who has made such an important difference at the library – through donations, sponsorships, volunteer service, and more.
If you are interested in exploring how you can support your library, I would love to have the opportunity to meet and visit with you. Please be in touch if you’d like to swap book recommendations, share why your library is meaningful to you, or talk about ways that you can make a difference for CALS.
Eliza Borné, CALS Director of Development
501-320-5750
etborne@cals.org.
Checks can be mailed to:
CALS Foundation
Main Library
100 Rock Street
Little Rock, AR 72201