Imagination Library Denver stopped delivering books last May.
The program, which is associated with country superstar Dolly Parton, had been hit by a sharp increase in enrollment and book costs — just as it lost funding from family foundations.
But the stop wouldn’t last long. A surge in donations from individuals kickstarted the program last August, and it’s still going strong in 2026.
“So many individual donors stepped up,” said Brigid Moore, the director of ILD who took over the position in September. “Then large family donations came through, so we were able to fundraise enough to restart the books.”
ILD collected roughly $65,000 in its Colorado Gives fundraiser and delivered about 39,000 books from August to December.
The program even made an addition: Families can sign up to receive books in English and Spanish. The bilingual program had been in the works before the funding crisis began.
“The state still matches half of the cost of the books, so with that exciting campaign, I feel like we're on a great trajectory,” Moore said. “As of right now, there's no threat to this program at all.”
Mesa County faced similar problems.
In Mesa County, Imagination Library was operated by the nonprofit United Way.
United Way decided to shut down its Imagination Library branch on July 1.
Officials were concerned that the books were not being read — a concern shared by some other foundations that pulled their funding from ILD. Delivering to rural Western Colorado addresses was also difficult.
United Way decided to replace the program with a new one called “Book Exchange” instead.
Imagination Library Mesa County, however, is back up and running.
The program was paused for three months after United Way withdrew, but was then picked up by the Horizon Sunrise Rotary Club of Grand Junction.
“They were very excited about the possibility of restarting the program and fundraising to get enough money in the bank to run it again,” said Laura Douglas, director of Imagination Library of Colorado.
The Rotary Club donated $4,000 and spearheaded a fundraiser to reactivate the program.
In August, the book deliveries restarted, and by October, the Rotary Club had raised $14,000 more.
“So for the new year, 3,611 children will be receiving Imagination Library books in all ZIP codes in Mesa County,” Douglas said. “In March, we will hit our 3 million mailed books goal.”
