Give to the Libraries
Your gift helps us better serve our students, faculty, Minnesotans, and scholars around the world.
Thank you for your interest in supporting the University Libraries. Your gift helps us build on our work that powers curiosity, discovery, and connection. Through your generosity, we are better able to serve our students and faculty, Minnesota residents, and scholars from around the world.
We can help you plan your impact. Please contact Heather Beaton, Director of Development, for further information at 612-624-8207 or hbeaton@umn.edu.
Student success
Your support directly helps U of M students:
- Graduate on time
- Get better grades
- Save money on required textbooks and other course materials
Your gift to the Libraries benefits all University of Minnesota students.
Transformational spaces
You can spark innovation and creativity and enrich learning by supporting technology for our innovation hubs, virtual reality labs, makerspaces, and more.
Your gift to the Libraries benefits all University of Minnesota students and faculty.
Inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility initiatives
Your support enriches our collections, making them more diverse and inclusive for our students. Your support for programs like Mapping Prejudice makes a difference in discovering and illuminating systemic racism in our communities. Please consider a gift to initiatives that reject racism and advance social justice.
Racial Equity Collections Fund
The Racial Equity Collections Fund was created to supplement Libraries-wide collecting efforts to amplify diverse voices and perspectives in all subject areas, especially with regard to race, racism, and intersectional histories of prejudice and liberation.
Mapping Prejudice
The Mapping Prejudice project documents the history of racial injustice through restrictive housing deeds and has illuminated the structural racism of a city long known for its progressive politics and pointed the way forward in this moment of historic reckoning.
Friends of the Libraries
Your generous contributions help students and are the lifeblood of our innovative event series, Friends Forum: A Series for Curious Minds. Make an impact — support the Friends!
Archives and Special Collections
Your gifts have made us one of the largest special collections in the country with incredible breadth and depth — led by expert curators who ensure that our treasures will always be available to educators, researchers, and the public. Please consider a gift to support one or more of our 17 special collections.
- Andersen Horticultural Library
- Charles Babbage Institute Archives
- Givens Collection of African American Literature
- Immigration History Research Center Archives
- James Ford Bell Library
- Kerlan Childrens Literature Research Collections
- Kerlan Collection Endowed Chair
- Northwest Architectural Archives
- Performing Arts Archives
- Sherlock Holmes Collections
- Social Welfare History Archives
- Special Collections and Rare Books
- Tretter Collection GLBT Studies
- University Archives
- Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
- Upper Midwest Literary Archives
- Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine
- YMCA Archives (Kautz Family)
Philanthropy at work
Book donations
The Libraries is unable to accept most donations of books and other material including personal or departmental libraries. This policy is due to serious space constraints and the high cost of sorting, reviewing, and processing donated material. Consider one of these other options for passing along your material: the Friends of the Andersen Horticultural Library for their annual book sale, your local public library, used book stores, or charitable organizations such as Better World Books or Books for Africa.
If you feel your potential gift is of critical research interest to the Libraries (rare or unique items only), please provide additional information via our online form.
If your gift contains archival/unpublished materials/personal papers, please contact Archives and Special Collections at ascref@umn.edu.