For the past 25 years, Heights Libraries has published a Certified Annual Financial Report (CAFR), going above and beyond what most libraries do to report their financial position to both the state and the community. For the accuracy and thoroughness of this report, we regularly earn an award from the Government Financial Office Association, and we take out an ad in the Plain Dealer to make sure people know that this report is available in print and online for anyone to read.
In recent years, we have also placed a brief annual report, with some of the highlights of the past year along with our revenue and expenses, in the fall issue of our Check Us Out program guide, which is mailed to every residence in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights community (and starts on page 21).
Why do we make this effort? Why do we get our financials and our annual report into as many hands as possible?
Trust.
We want each of you to know how your tax dollars are spent. Building maintenance and repairs, expanding our collections, and paying our staff are all crucial to our operations. But we also want each of you to see how we strive to meet the needs of every member of our community: the young family with a newborn, the refugee looking for help, the unemployed who need an affordable way to learn new skills, the child looking for help with homework, the homebound adult who can’t get to our buildings, and, of course, the many people looking for entertainment, information, and inspiration from our programs, books, movies, and music.
Our annual report is also a way for us to celebrate the significant financial support we receive from our hard-working, dedicated volunteer groups, the Friends of the Heights Libraries and the Fund for the Future of Heights Libraries (FFHL). These groups both raise money for Heights Libraries, with one designated for immediate use (Friends) and one for long-term planning (FFHL). Their reports can be found on pp. 26-27.
Have questions about anything you see in this report, or our full CAFR report? Don’t hesitate to ask.