Build-A-Bear Literacy and Education Grants

Deadline: August 31, 2012.

Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. is accepting grant applications as part of its annual giving program. The Build-A-Bear Workshop Bear Hugs Foundation supports charities in the US and Canada through grant programs including Literacy and Education Grants which provide support for children in literacy and education programs such as summer reading programs, early childhood education programs, and literacy programs for children with special needs. Grants are a one-time contribution, and range from $1,000 to $5,000 USD.

 For more information visit the Build-A-Bear Workshop website.

Small Grants to Libraries (NEH)

America’s Music: A Film History of Our Popular Music from Blues to Bluegrass to Broadway is a six-week public program featuring documentary film screenings and scholar-led discussions of twentieth-century American popular music. The six sessions focus on these uniquely American musical genres: blues and gospel, Broadway, jazz, bluegrass and country, rock n’ roll, and mambo and hip hop. The project will provide DVDs of compelling documentary films, discussion guidelines, original essays by eminent scholars, extensive resource guides, and Web support. The project will offer participating organizations training in how to organize, promote, and run the series successfully. All libraries and nonprofit organizations selected to implement the public program will receive grants of $2,500 for project expenses. Fifty organizations (libraries and other eligible nonprofits) will be selected to receive a grant to present this series of community programs on the history of American popular music. The grantee institutions are expected to offer the programs between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2013.

Amount: $2,500

Date due: March 14, 2012

For more information, click here.

Sparks! Ignitition Grants for Libraries

The Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries and Museums are a special funding opportunity within the IMLS National Leadership Grants program. These small grants encourage libraries, museums, and archives to test and evaluate specific innovations in the ways they operate and the services they provide. Sparks Grants support the deployment, testing, and evaluation of promising and groundbreaking new tools, products, services, or organizational practices. You may propose activities or approaches that involve risk, as long as the risk is balanced by significant potential for improvement in the ways libraries and museums serve their communities.

Successful proposals will address problems, challenges, or needs of broad relevance to libraries, museums, and/or archives. A proposed project should test a specific, innovative response to the identified problem and present a plan to make the findings widely and openly accessible.

Amount: $25,000

Date due: February 12, 2012

For more information, click here.

America's Historical and Cultural Organizations Grants

Deadlines: January 11, 2012, and August 15, 2012.

The Division of Public Programs at the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities funds humanities projects that are intended for broad public audiences at museums, libraries, historic sites and other historical and cultural organizations.

New application guidelines are now posted on the NEH Web site for the America's Historical and Cultural Organizations grant competition.

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.

 

America’s Historical and Cultural Organizations awards typically do not exceed $400,000, projects of a smaller scope are also considered. Example grant projects include:

• traveling exhibitions that are presented at multiple venues;
• long-term exhibitions at one institution;
• interpretive websites or other digital formats;
• interpretation of historic places or areas;
• reading and discussion programs;
• panel exhibitions that travel widely, reach a broad audience, and take advantage of complementary programming formats (e.g., reading and discussion series, radio, or other media) to enhance the visitor experience; and
• other project formats that creatively engage audiences in humanities ideas.

Become a Foundation Center Cooperating Collection

The Foundation Center is looking for host organizations to join their network of more than 450 Cooperating Collections across the country and in several locations around the world. These funding information centers are available to grantseekers at no cost and and provide access to Foundation Directory Online grantseeking database, Foundation Grants to Individuals Online, Philanthropy In/Sight, an interactive mapping tool that reveals patterns of giving and funding relationships, a core collection of Foundation Center directories and publications, and a selection of supplementary materials and services in areas useful to grantseekers. The CCs offer educational sessions for the public, including classes on the basics of grantseeking and dialogues with local donors. And they serve as hosts for free Center webinars and the Center's fee-based, full-day grantseeker training courses.

The Foundation Center is expanding the CC network to ensure that grantseekers across the nation, and selectively in other locations around the globe, have access to high-quality resources and expertise, enabling them to attract and sustain support for their organizations. Qualified institutions include (but are not limited to):

• Public, academic, or special libraries
• Nonprofit resource centers
• Community or other foundations
• State associations
• United Way agencies
• Non-governmental organizations in locations outside the U.S.

Host institutions must:

• Be open to the public, without restriction, at least 25 hours per week
• Be located in an area serving at least 100 nonprofit organizations
• Provide access to a computer(s) connected to the Internet for public use
• Have staff available to develop expertise in foundation funding resources and to assist the public in their use
• Be prepared to offer public training on the basics of grantseeking
• Send a representative to regional and/or national meetings of Cooperating Collection supervisors held at various locations and/or participate in virtual conferences held by the Center
• Pay an annual membership fee of $995 (billed on a calendar year basis)

More details are available on the Foundation Center website.

DonorsChoose.org

While not officially a grant, I couldn't resist posting this wonderful website for public school teachers AND public school librarians. You can post your project and list resources requested and then individual donors view proposals and make donations. 63% of projects get fully funded, and $86 million dollars has been donated to over 210,000 projects. Each proposal gets its own page with a written description from the teacher and detailed information on the classroom, project, school and funding needed. Since many individuals prefer to give locally, make sure your school library has a proposal available on DonorsChoose.org for funding!

Beyond Words: the Dollar General School Library Relief Fund

Deadline: Ongoing, applications reviewed monthly,

Dollar General, in collaboration with the American Library Association (ALA), the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and the National Education Association (NEA), is sponsoring a school library disaster relief fund for public school libraries in the states served by Dollar General.

Grants will be awarded to public school libraries that have incurred substantial damage or hardship due to a natural disaster (tornado, earthquake, hurricane, flood, avalanche, mudslide), fire or an act recognized by the federal government as terrorism. Grants for $5,000 to $15,000 are to replace or supplement books, media and/or library equipment in the school library setting. The impact can be through direct loss or through an increase in enrollment due to displaced/evacuated students. More information and the grant application are available through the AASL website.