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The Literacy Empowerment Foundation (LEF) has increased the size of the matching grants available to $16,000.00 per school. A school can now order $32,000.00 worth of books and pay only $16,000.00. (Any amount purchased from $100.00 to $16,000.00 will be matched.)

Here are the details: The Matching Book Grant Program offers Guided Reading and Independent Reading Collections. Guided Reading Collections consist of 6 copies each of 18 titles. Independent Reading Collections consist of one copy each of 108 titles. With each set of Guided Reading and/or Independent Reading Collections purchased at the regular price, an additional set of your choice will be included free of charge.

Matching Book Grants allow your school to double its purchasing power. This is a limited time offer that requires no special screening or applications. Offer expires June 15, 2008.

www.lefbooks.org

The James Patterson Awards are $250,000 in annual cash prizes intended to celebrate the people, companies, schools and other institiutions who find original and effective ways to spread the excitement of books and reading. This year, the awards are open to both U.S. and Canadian residents.

www.pattersonpageturner.org 

The Collaboration Prize is a $250,000 award for nonprofits that have chosen cooperation over competition. The prize recognizes collaborations among two or more nonprofit organizations that each would otherwise provide the same or similar programs or services and compete for clients, financial resources and staff. The Prize also seeks to build an information base of effective practice models that can be studied and used by academics, nonprofit leaders and grantmakers to inspire and advance their work. The Prize was created and is currently funded by The Lodestar Foundation. Libraries or friends groups should be registered as a 501(c)(3) organization and may be nominated by their board. Deadline: July 21, 2008.

Visit www.thecollaborationprize.org for details.

ALA World Book Award for Info Literacy World Book and ALA announce the creation of the new World Book/ALA Information Literacy Goal Award, a grant of $5,000 to a public and school library literacy program. The award is designed to encourage and support innovative and effective information literacy programs in today’s school and public libraries.

Information literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information, not only for school-age children but now can be considered a lifelong venture as formats of information and methods of access to information rapidly evolve. An eligible literacy program should focus on school library users or public library users who are likely to need the most help to obtain access to information, in print or digital form, and to evaluate the quality of the information available to them, especially information they may find outside the school library, school classroom, or public library. The ultimate goal should be to help people of all ages become effective users of information by fostering a better understanding of the research process. The two page application can be accessed online through the ALA Web site. Deadline: Dec. 1, 2008

Nominations Invited for Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration. The Program in Research in Information Technology of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation invites nominations for the 2008 Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration. These awards recognize not-for-profit organizations that are making substantial contributions of their own resources toward the development of open source software and the fostering of collaborative communities to sustain open source development. Awards are given at two levels: $50,000 awards to recognize important organizational contributions to open source projects that currently or potentially provide significant benefits to at least one traditional Mellon constituency; and $100,000 awards to recognize highly significant contributions to open source projects offering larger benefits to more or larger constituencies.

Projects should provide a direct and demonstrably significant benefit to one or more of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's traditional constituencies: higher education, with a special emphasis on the arts and humanities; libraries and scholarly communications; performing arts; conservation and the environment; and museums and art conservation. Visit the Mellon Foundation Web site for complete program information and application procedures.

Target's Local Store Grants Program. Target Corporation's Local Store Grants provide funding support to "Target" communities in the areas of arts, reading programs, and family violence prevention. To be eligible, organizations must be located in communities where Target does business. Grants will be awarded to nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations, schools, libraries, or public agencies for nonprofit programs that impact arts, early childhood reading, or family violence prevention. The average grant amount is between $1,000 and $3,000. For communities offering unique opportunities outside the scope of the program's focus areas, Target provides each store limited funds for Target GiftCard donations. GiftCard donations are available March through December, as funding permits. Visit the Target Web site for complete program information.

Kresge Foundation: Capital Challenge Grant Program. The mission of the Kresge Foundation is to strengthen nonprofit organizations throughout the United States that advance the well-being of humanity. The Foundation’s six major areas of interest are health, environment, arts and culture, education, human services, and community development. Through the Capital Challenge Grant Program, the Foundation supports organizations’ immediate capital needs, such as building construction or renovation, the purchase of real estate, and the purchase of major equipment. Grants are awarded on a challenge basis, usually one-third to one-fifth of the amount an organization has to raise to complete its campaign goal. The Foundation accepts online letters of intent for this program throughout the year. Visit Kresge Foundation: Capital Challenge Grant Program to review the Capital Challenge Grant Program guidelines.

Libri Foundation - Books for Children. The Libri Foundation is a nationwide non-profit organization which donates new, quality, hardcover children's books to small, rural public libraries throughout the United States. Since October 1990, the Foundation has donated over $3,500,000 worth of new children's books to more than 2,600 libraries in 48 states, including Alaska and Hawaii.

Matching Grant

In order to encourage and reward local support of libraries, The Libri Foundation will match any amount of money raised by your local sponsors from $50 to $350 on a 2-to-1 ratio. Thus, a library can receive up to $1,050 worth of new children's books. After a library receives a grant, local sponsors (such as formal or informal Friends groups, civic or social organizations, local businesses, etc.) have four months, or longer if necessary, to raise their matching funds.

The librarian of each participating library selects the books her library will receive from a booklist provided by the Foundation. The 700-plus fiction and nonfiction titles on the booklist reflect the very best of children's literature published primarily in the last three years. These titles, which are for children ages 12 and under, are award-winners or have received starred reviews in library, literary, or education journals. The booklist also includes a selection of classic children's titles.

Qualifying

Libraries are qualified on an individual basis. In general, county libraries should serve a population under 16,000 and town libraries should serve a population under 10,000 (usually under 5,000). Libraries should be in a rural area, have a limited operating budget, and an active children's department.

Please note: Rural is usually considered to be at least 30 miles from a city with a population over 40,000. Town libraries with total operating budgets over $150,000 and county libraries with total operating budgets over $350,000 are rarely given grants.

Applications are accepted from independent libraries as well as libraries which are part of a county, regional, or cooperative library system.

A school library may apply only if it also serves as the public library (i.e. it is open to the everyone in the community, has some summer hours, and there is no public library in town).

A branch library may apply if the community it is in meets the definition of rural. If the branch library receives its funding from its parent institution, then the parent institution's total operating budget, not just the branch library's total operating budget, must meet the budget guidelines.

Previous Books for Children grant recipients are eligible to apply for another grant three years after the receipt of their last grant.

Libraries that do not fulfill all grant requirements, including the final report, may not apply for another grant.

Deadlines

The remaining application deadline for 2008 is: (postmarked by) August 15th. Grants will be awarded August 31st.

Application guidelines and forms may be downloaded from the Foundation's Web site.

For more information about The Libri Foundation or its Books for Children program, please contact Ms. Barbara J. McKillip, President, The Libri Foundation, PO Box 10246, Eugene, OR 97440. 541-747-9655 (phone); 541-747-4348 (fax); libri@librifoundation.org. Normal office hours are: Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Pacific Time.

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