Glad Day:
The Next Chapter

Glad Day Lit has secured a new low-cost space to continue the essential community programming and non-profit work we do, with the help of the City of Toronto. The space at 32 Lisgar Street will include a small bookstore and cafe counter, a communal lounge, areas for events and a park out front! While this is not a long-term solution for Glad Day, it is a stable ‘home base’ while we continue working with the City of Toronto to find a sustainable ‘forever home’.

Glad Day would not have survived without your help. A year ago, we were facing immediate eviction. We set a goal of $300,000 to avoid shutting down and give us one more year to find creative ways of surviving. We raised almost $200,000 from over 2,400 donors. You can see how those funds were used HERE. This funding gave us time to find this practical solution that reduces our facility costs by 95% while we continue to explore long-term spaces and creative strategies. The combined efforts of donors, customers, artists, volunteers, staff, stakeholders and supporters near and far has made this new chapter possible.

We need your continued support to make this next chapter of Glad Day a success. We will require new funds to set up and operate in this short-term space on Lisgar, which is a brand new, fully accessible building with tons of potential, but it is currently a blank canvas. We will need furniture, bookshelves, books and merchandise. While our facility costs will be very low in this new model, our revenue may also be low. We are not sure what the revenue from sober drinks, books, merch and ticket sales will look like. That’s why we need your help to outfit the space, provide an initial fund for operating costs, and to keep paying authors and artists for events.

Our goal is to raise $150,000 to keep Glad Day alive in this period of change and transition.

Here is a breakdown of our fundraising goals:

  • $30,000 - Funds to pay authors, performers and artists, including for event programming 

  • $30,000 - Funds to revitalize the books and art, including an intentional curation of the book selection, with community input

  • $25,000 - Funds to design and outfit the new space and purchase equipment

  • $25,000 - Funds to subsidize 6 months of operating costs in the new space

  • $20,000 - Moving, storage and administration costs 

  • $15,000 - Helping Glad Day continue on Church Street a bit longer

  • $5,000 - Donation processing fees

F.A.Q.

What happens to Glad Day on Church Street?
We are expecting to keep Glad Day Bookshop on Church Street operating until at least the end of June. 

We are working closely with City of Toronto staff and our City Councillor Chris Moise on a strategy to bring Glad Day back to the Church Street area as a non-profit that is resilient and will survive in these current times of intense financial and political challenges. 

How long will Glad Day Lit be at the new space on Lisgar?
We are not entirely sure, but we assume we will be at the new space for at least a year. The City has told us we will be given lots of notice before we would need to move. We also may have the option to stay for a longer term. We will have a better idea of these variables in a few months. 

Why does Glad Day need to buy new books, merch and furniture?
Our book collection has suffered after many years of financial constraint. We want to recommit to a rich, responsive and diverse collection of books at this new location so we need funds for that. Also, Glad Day Lit, the non-profit moving to Lisgar, is a separate entity from Glad Day Bookshop. Most of the stuff at the Church Street location doesn't belong to Glad Day Lit.