Political action committee EveryLibrary has released its 2025 annual impact report, detailing its recent efforts to create pro-library model legislation and encourage coalition-building related to librarianship.
Founded in 2012, the 501(c)(4) nonprofit supports grassroots organizations and offers pro bono consulting on public library ballot measures, right to read legislation, and other legal issues. Over the past year, EveryLibrary reports adding 175,000 users, becoming a network capable of outreach to approximately 575,000 advocates.
For cofounder and executive director John Chrastka, EveryLibrary’s most influential 2025 campaign was going to bat for the Institute of Museum and Library services. After a damaging White House executive order threatened to dismantle the federal agency, EveryLibrary focused on the congressionally mandated obligations of IMLS.
“We kept coming back to that framework around the rule of law, again and again,” Chrastka told PW. “We brought out over a quarter million people on that campaign alone, by having that conversation about where we need to be as a country in terms of following the law.”
EveryLibrary also expanded its National Library Alliance over the past year, establishing a coalition of 14 organizations so far that includes Right to Read Alabama, Let Utah Read, and Freedom to Read Projects in Florida, Tennessee, and Texas.
“We’ve been proud to be the digital, fundraising, and financial backbone for a lot of these organizations,” Chrastka said, explaining that EveryLibrary helps local organizers kickstart their advocacy. “They want to get moving on these issues that we all believe in.”
A recent example is Freedom to Read New Mexico. “The website was up in six hours,” Chrastka said. “There’s a group of legitimate, authentic stakeholders in that state, and we can show up for them” with resources including tech support, issue briefs, and PR assistance.
EveryLibrary, he added, is “also the fiscal agent for Authors Against Book Bans," handling the group’s nonprofit compliance and fundraising compliance. “We’ve got a good track record of helping groups get going fast, and they’ve been looking for a way to move their volunteer-led work forward.”
In looking back at 2025, Chrastka sees an opportunity to strategize for future initiatives. First, he wants to see libraries lobbying more effectively for funding. And while EveryLibrary already has a Fight for the First campaign around First Amendment rights, in 2026 it will pursue a growing emphasis on what Chrastka called “the civil rights side of reading,” with a foundation in the Civil Rights Act.
“We’ve been able to support some new frameworks for collection development around civil rights and identity, and I think it’s the place where we need to be going,” he said. “The First Amendment in our thesis is about collection retention. But why do you bring a book into the library?”
Collection development is an ethical and professional duty, he noted, and representation is essential: “If we're looking at a statutory basis for DEI in libraries, it's got to come from the civil rights framework. The humanity of the reader is what we want to center.”
Moving forward, EveryLibrary plans to continue fundraising and increasing its network. “Americans have a tendency to put their money behind their morals, and the library is a real value system,” Chrastka said. “Being seen as an organization that’s supporting the institution, the profession, and the people that the library's intended to serve is a big deal for us.”
