Support Graves Library Today!

Annual giving to the Graves Library provides critical support to our programs and allows us to maintain our building, grounds, and facilities as well as expand programming opportunities, enhance literacy and education, and encourage the developing minds of our patrons.  Our staff, volunteers, trustees and friends know that they can help meet patrons’ needs while enjoying tax benefits for their generosity.  Memorial or In Honor Of gifts to the Library are also a special way to cherish and remember loved ones.

If you would like to donate to our Annual Fund Drive, please send your contribution to: Annual Fund Drive, Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library, P.O. Box 391, Kennebunkport, ME 04046.  Donating online is easy too–click on the “Donate” button on this page or the Home page and submit your contribution via our secure PayPal account. You will receive a hand-written receipt of your donation.

Would you like to make a gift of appreciated stock or a required distribution?  Does your company match gifts to non-profits?  This can double or triple your gift to Graves Library.  Please email Mary-Lou Boucouvalas at mlbgraves@gmail.com for stock delivery instructions or call the Library at (207) 967-2778.

Currently, the Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library, a 501(c)(3) organization, has over 6,100 cardholders and a collection of more than 37,000 pieces.  The Library is open 38.5 hours per week and provides over 400 quality programs to individuals of all ages.

Approximately 40 percent of the Library’s annual budget is requested from the Town of Kennebunkport on an annual basis.  The remaining 60 percent is predicated on the success of volunteer fundraising efforts.  While the Library has been fortunate to receive memorial gifts over the years to help build an endowment, only four percent of the balance is withdrawn for operations each year to ensure that the future of the Library’s holdings will exist to support the life-long mission to all cardholders.

Fundraising efforts include an ongoing used and rare books sale, an annual appeal and several unique special events.  In 2010, the Library hosted Pulitzer Prize winning author, Richard Russo, for an event held at the Colony Hotel.  In 2012, the Library was honored to host another Pulitzer Prize winner and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, author David McCullough.  In 2013, we celebrated the publication of our own book with author/historian Joyce Butler, Kennebunkport : the Evolution of an American Town; and, historians David Oshinsky (2014), Douglas Brinkley (2015), Mark Updegrove (2016), William Martin (2017), Nathaniel Philbrick (2018), Mark Wortman (2019), Lisa Wingate (2020), John Grisham (2021), David Maraniss (2022).