United for Libraries Citizens-Save-Libraries Grants

Deadline: Cycle 1 grants April 15, 2013; Cycle 2 grants April 15, 2014.

United for Libraries has secured $75,000 from the Neal-Schuman Foundation to support library advocacy at the local level for libraries with troubled budgets. The Citizens-Save-Libraries grants will send expert advocates to 20 locations over the course of 2 years to help Friends of the Library groups, library directors and Trustees  develop individual blueprints for advocacy campaigns to restore, increase or save threatened library budgets. Selected libraries will receive two days of on-site, in-person training.

For more information and to apply, visit the website. 

Ezra Jack Keats Foundation Minigrant Program

Deadline: March 15, 2013

The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation offers minigrants of $500 to public schools and public libraries for programs that encourage literacy and creativity in children. Programs relating to the work of Ezra Jack Keats (writer and illustrator) are welcome, but not required. Creative programs funded in the past have included:

• Ongoing pen-pal projects bringing disparate communities together,
• Multi-cultural portrait projects,
• Art projects culminating in art shows, murals, or quilts,
• Bookmaking,
• Creation and performance of puppet shows,
• Inter-generational journals.

To read more information and to apply, visit the website.