Who needs crack when you can win grants!

A few years ago I took a Public Library Administration course and one of the assignments was to write a grant.  This was an assignment that changed my life.  The course instructor made the case for grant writing by saying the obvious, as future leaders in the library world, we HAVE to find additional funding opportunities.  I’m not a Director…yet, but I’m still on the librarian leadership path (at least in my own mind).  I jumped into the assignment with great enthusiasm and wrote grant for a program that I had been thinking about for a long time.  I wanted to create an Empowerment Academy for the teens I serve.  I wanted a program that ran for 6-7 consecutive weeks which exposed the YAs to science, technology, literature, art, cultural pride and civic responsibility.  I already have a generous regular programming budget, but I didn’t feel comfortable taking regular programming money to finance my experiment.  

I applied to the Margaret A. Edwards Trust for a small $500 grant to fund the program.  They turned me down, BUT one of the foundation members wrote me a nice letter encouraging me to apply again the next year.

I applied again in 2010 and BAM, I won the grant.  Thank you Mae Edwards Trust!

In subsequent years I won and didn’t win grants from various places in the constant search for monies to finance the Empowerment Academy.  So far since 2010 I’ve won $10,500 from Best Buy, Target and the Margaret A. Edwards Trust.

Needless to say the Empowerment Academy has grown and many teens have taken advantage of it.  I’ll write more about it, another time.  Back to my point.  Do you want a 3-D printer but there’s no money in the budget?  Would you just like more funds to allow you to buy books for the library?  Inter-generational programming, gaming systems, etc a generous grant could make it happen.  

For me grant writing is a bit addictive, when I receive that letter congratulating me on winning funds, the rush is sweet.  I’ve been known to do a happy dance around the library…so yeah who needs crack cocaine (never taken it) when you can win grants.

So get to writing!

 

Below is a great resource for finding grants in library land:

http://librarygrants.blogspot.com/

 

 

Who needs crack cocaine when you can write grants!

 

A few years ago I took a Public Library Administration course and one of the assignments was to write a grant.  This was an assignment that changed my life.  The course instructor made the case for grant writing by saying the obvious, as future leaders in the library world, we HAVE to find additional funding opportunities.  I’m not a Director…yet, but I’m still on the librarian leadership path (at least in my own mind).  I jumped into the assignment with great enthusiasm and wrote grant for a program that I had been thinking about for a long time.  I wanted to create an Empowerment Academy for the teens I serve.  I wanted a program that ran for 6-7 consecutive weeks which exposed the YAs to science, technology, literature, art, cultural pride and civic responsibility.  I already have a generous regular programming budget, but I didn’t feel comfortable taking regular programming money to finance my experiment.  

I applied to the Margaret A. Edwards Trust for a small $500 grant to fund the program.  They turned me down, BUT one of the foundation members wrote me a nice letter encouraging me to apply again the next year.

I applied again in 2010 and BAM, I won the grant.  Thank you Mae Edwards Trust!

In subsequent years I won and didn’t win grants from various places in the constant search for monies to finance the Empowerment Academy.  So far since 2010 I’ve won $10,500 from Best Buy, Target and the Margaret A. Edwards Trust.

Needless to say the Empowerment Academy has grown and many teens have taken advantage of it.  I’ll write more about it, another time.  Back to my point.  Do you want a 3-D printer but there’s no money in the budget?  Would you just like more funds to allow you to buy books for the library?  Inter-generational programming, gaming systems, etc a generous grant could make it happen.  

For me grant writing is a bit addictive, when I receive that letter congratulating me on winning funds, the rush is sweet.  I’ve been known to do a happy dance around the library…so yeah who needs crack cocaine (never taken it) when you can win grants.

So get to writing!

 

Below is a great resource for finding grants in library land:

http://librarygrants.blogspot.com/