Reading, Grants, and Fundraising Ideas

For your reading pleasure. Take a look at these:

"The Sustainability Factor: How Nonprofit Organizations Can Thrive in the Emerging Economy"
(at least read pages 8-13)

"How to Strike Effective Alliances and Partnerships"
(Harvard Business Review) Eight factors that make alliances work.

Grants and Contests:

American Masterpieces: Chamber Music (National Endowment for the Arts) Grants area available for chamber music performances in conjunction with educational activities (must have a 3 year history of programming that includes the production or presentation of chamber music performance and educational activities prior to the application deadline)
Amount: $5,000 to $75,000 (requires a non federal match of at least 1 to 1)
Deadline: October 8, 2009
More Info: Click HERE

America's Historical and Cultural Organizations and Interpreting America's Historic Places grant (National Endowment for the Arts' Division of Public Programs)
Grants support interpretive exhibitions, reading or film discussion series, historic site interpretation, lecture series and symposia, and digital projects. NEH especially encourages projects that offer multiple formats and make creative use of new technology to deliver humanities content.
For application guidelines: Click HERE
Application document: Click HERE

Libraries in Action:

Sharing what we have and what we know is a library attribute that any other entity would have a difficult time duplicating. Washington District has a great District newsletter

-here's a gem on fund raising: Click HERE

Some Districts also have newsletters targeting board members! What a great place to include fund raising expectations and tips!

Online Money:
New and inventive ways to raise funds for your library!
Tweetraising: The Potential For Charities On Twitter: Click HERE

Volunteer Help:
In this economic downturn utilizing all your resources is key. Are you a small library without a development office? Is the library director doing it all-as well as researching and writing grants? Think about getting some free help if you can't afford to hire a grant writer! Or, perhaps several libraries can go together and share someone. Put out a call in your community for someone who could assist in writing grants.

It should be seen as a high-prestige volunteer position and advertised as such (word of mouth or put an ad in the paper!). A job description is essential (all volunteers should have one) and you can be selective! They have the satisfaction of helping the library and personal publicity when the grants start rolling in!

This volunteer can be on the look out for appropriate grants and do most of the legwork.The librarian will still need to give input and do some work but it will cut down on missed opportunities and passing up grants due to too little time.

Also, many grants ask for the same things-they want a copy of your 990 or your mission statement, demographics, etc. When time or a volunteer's availability allows, gather multiple copies of these items in one place for ready accessibility when a grant opportunity presents itself.

Special thanks to Diana Megdad of Commonwealth Libraries for providing such a wealth of information.