Calling All Grant Seekers
Grant seekers now have a new resource available at the Hastings Public Library thanks to the funding provided by the Hastings Community Foundation. The library recently became one of The Foundation Center's (New York) Cooperating Collection locations. As a Cooperating Collection the library has access to their Foundation Directory Online. This online directory provides a multitude of searching options – everything from details about a specific foundation to what grants have been awarded in certain subject areas, the amount and to whom. It also enables one to search the 990, the Internal Revenue Department form that non profit corporations are required to file annually. Access to this online directory is available only at the library and not from your home computer. The library has two computers reserved for researching the Foundation Directory Online and other databases.
In addition to the information in this database the Foundation Center’s website http://foundationcenter.org also provides excellent information about getting started in a grant search, tutorials to lead one through the process and links to additional resources.
As a Cooperating Collection location the library received a collection of books for the grant seeker. “A Guide to Grantseeking on the Web” contains abstracts of over 3,000 grantmaker websites including government, private foundations, community foundations and corporations.
What does it take to write a successful grant proposal? The “Guide to Winning Proposals” provides the full text of a wide variety of proposals. Also included here are the Funder’s Comments which pinpoint the reasons the organization was successful and received the funding requested – information that very often is more valuable than seeing samples of proposals.
Need some assistance with your education, an art project, research or even a medical condition? “Foundation Grants to Individuals” lists brief profiles of thousands of foundations and their areas of support. The indices allow this huge volume to be searched in a number of ways – by geographic focus, educational institution, subject, and grantmaker.
The books on grant resources and grant writing are located in a special area near the research computers which is identified in the library catalog as “Grant Center”. All the books are available for check out.
In order to assist users with this wealth of material, seminars on how to use the Foundation Directory Online and other resources will be held several times a year. The first one is scheduled on Wednesday, July 25, at 7 p.m. at the Library.
For more information and to print a brochure see our Grant Center page.