Type of Grant: Collection Development

We all need books! A responsible Youth Services Librarian is aware of the fact that weeding and replacement are key to keeping a children’s or teen collection relevant in our face-paced world. While the classics always have a place, those books can become worn to the point of destruction, requiring replacement. What many might called “fad” books often require that a library buy multiple copies of the same single title or series (who wouldn’t want 10 copies of each of the Hunger Games titles? How do you augment your collection when funds are limited? There are tons and tons of grants that give you money to purchase print materials, but there are also “grants” that actually give you the physical books. Read on to learn about getting these types of grants for the youth services department of your school or public library.

Type of Grant: Programming

How do you bring the young in to the library and keep them coming back? Programming! There are many, many grants available to fund small scale, single time events AND for long-term programming intended to transform the way libraries are used by youth. The key to getting a grant for your program is to make certain that what you are trying to do with the program is in line with current research, user needs, and that you can figure out a way to measure the outcomes of your programming (both qualitatively and quantitatively.) Programming grants fund everything from training your staff might need for implementation of the program to money for supplies (you need a cauldron to mix that Butter Beer, right?)

General Resources that help you plan for and write Grant Proposals: These sources were chosen for this compilation because they were featured on Library-based websites, referred to in professionally published literature about writing grants for libraries, and/or were reviewed in Library and Information Science publications such as Booklist.

Web Sources

Kent State Adult Literacy Program-List of Tips for writing grants

http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/grants/first.html#TOP

School Grants.org

http://www.schoolgrants.org/index.htm

It has tips for writing, plus links to all sorts of grants that you can apply for. The focus is on K-12 education.

Wallace Foundation

Although they are not currently handing out grants for libraries, they did complete a $40 million project concerning the essential nature of libraries in the education of the young and you can access the research and outcomes of this grant-based project from this link. Excellent to cite these studies if you are asked to prove how library services support and enhance the education of children, K-12.

http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/Libraries/Pages/default.aspx

Excellent Article to get you thinking about the “bare bones” of Grant Writing:

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/08242010/winning-grants-game-plan

Print Sources:

Winning Grants: A How-To-Do-It Manual For Librarians With Multimedia Tutorials And Grant Development Tools

By Pamela H. MacKellar and Stephanie K. Gerding


ISBN 978-1-55570-700-2. 2010. 275 pp. Neil Shuman. Book and Multimedia DVD: $99.95.

Companion Website:

http://www.librarygrants.blogspot.com/

Writing for a Good Cause: The Complete Guide to Crafting Proposals and Other Persuasive Pieces for Nonprofits

By Joseph Barbato and Danielle Furlich

ISBN 978-0684857404. 2000. 332 pp. Touchstone. $16.99.

The Only Grant-Writing Book You'll Ever Need: Top Grant Writers and Grant Givers Share Their Secrets

By Ellen Karsh and Arlen Sue Fox

ISBN 978-0465018697. 2009. 448 pp. Basic Books (3rd Edition.) $19.95.

Top 10 Musts for Grant Writing in Youth Services Librarians

1.  Criteria

  1. Before you spend a lot of time and effort on writing a grant, be absolutely sure that your institution is actually eligible for the grant (usually called “criteria”)

2.  Know the mission of your institution

  1. Do you have a mission statement specific to serving youth through the library?
  2. Do you have institutional goals or objectives?
  3. These will be key to showing the grantors that you are a fit for their funding.

3.  Know the mission of the Grantor

  1. Be sure to be able to articulate how your institutions mission, goals, and objectives are in line with those of the grantor

4.  Research

  1. READ, READ, and READ some more!
  2. Find studies that support the worth of the program you are seeking funding for.

5.  Include as many stakeholders as possible.

  1. Figure how who else in your community might be a part of the program you are seeking to fund with a grant.
  2. Contact them and request an opportunity to meet with them or make a presentation explaining why their partnership in pursuit and use of this grant would be mutually beneficial
  3. Get someone from the organization(s) to help you write the grant.

6.  Written proposal should connote positivity.

  1. The proposal should sound as though you have already gotten the grant!
  2. Say things like “with the money we will implement…”
  3. Never say, “if we get this grant we will…”

7.  The bottom line

  1. Unless the grantor institution requires it, keep the budget as simple and concise as possible.
  2. Justify “prices” with reputable sources.

8.  PROOF READ

  1. Have as many people as possible read your proposal for:
  2. Content
  3. Use a blank proposal application and the criteria as a “checklist” to make sure you have told the grantors exactly what they asked to know
  4. Spelling and grammar errors

9.  Submission

  1. Make sure you are honoring the grantor’s preferred method of submission.

10. Evaluation

  1. Keep excellent records of how the grant funds are used.
  2. Statistics!!! (did your program increase the circulation of a certain book or type of material, did it increase traffic in the library?)
  3. Take pictures/Make videos (with proper permissions, of course!) as you program or shelve the books the grant allowed you to purchase
  4. Ask for testimonials from patrons who benefit from the program
  5. Connect your program to larger local, state, or national goals in the areas of early childhood and teen literacy, life-long learning, and 21st Century skills