I am looking for funraising sources (foundations,philanthropists, etc)
to support a library associated with my Temple (Jewish). Our needs are
for books, personel and technology. I have contacted Combined Jewish
Philanthropies (CJP>org) and Hebrew College.

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Request for Question Clarification by tar_heel_v-ga on 24 Oct 2002 06:11 PDT

Where are you located?  There are some philanthropic groups that are
regionally based and focus their giving in a specific area.  Are you
looking for donations/grants, actual donations of items such as books,
or are you looking for assistance in your own fund raising campaign?

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Clarification of Question by benny116-ga on 24 Oct 2002 08:51 PDT

Hi,
We are located in Acton, MA and are looking for financial support to
either purchase books and a computer or to help us hire professional
staff. I think we would accept books but we already have a nice
collection and in fact give away duplicate copies of many books.

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Clarification of Question by benny116-ga on 24 Oct 2002 09:25 PDT

If you have fund raising ideas those too would be welcome.

Greetings!  I recommend that you definitely utilize the Foundation
Center software to search for organizations which will support your
efforts.

The Foundation Center is the best place to find philanthropic
organizations.  Its mission states it was created "to support and
improve institutional philanthropy by promoting public understanding
of the field and helping grantseekers succeed. To achieve our mission,
we:
   Collect, organize, and communicate information on U.S. philanthropy
   Conduct and facilitate research on trends in the field 
   Provide education and training on the grantseeking process 
   Ensure public access to information and services through our World
     Wide Web site, print and electronic publications, five
     library/learning centers, and a national network of cooperating
     collections."
 
The Foundation Center was founded in 1956 and is "the nation's leading
authority on institutional philanthropy and is dedicated to serving
grantseekers, grantmakers, researchers, policymakers, the media, and
the general public."
 
How do you make use of The Foundation Center and its listings? You may
subscribe to their online service for $19.95 per month but you may
also make free use of the software in some public libraries.  I took a
free course at a large Tennessee public library and the course taught
me how to navigate the software (how to search for what I needed), and
I recommend you do the same - it was a two-hour free course and the
instructor showed me how to easily find the foundations that would
meet the needs of the organizations for which I was looking.

I searched "foundation center library massachusetts" and found two
libraries which have the software.  Here are the library phone numbers
and addresses:

*BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Soc. Sci. Reference
700 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 536-5400 

*WORCESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY
Grants Resource Center
2 Salem Square
Worcester, MA 01608
(508) 799-1654

Two other locations were also mentioned.  Here is their contact
information:

*ASSOCIATED GRANT MAKERS (AGM) 
55 Court St., Room 520
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 426-2606 

WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS FUNDING RESOURCE CENTER
65 Elliot St. 
Springfield, MA 01101-1730
(413) 452-0697 

In regards to receiving computers for your library, you will find
among the Foundation Center listings a site for the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation.  That organization has supplied countless computers
to libraries and I would wager Massachusetts libraries have taken
advantage of their generosity.  The web site for the Gates Foundation
is located at http://www.gatesfoundation.org/

It may be a library that has successfully received computers from the
Gates Foundation could point you in the direction of a good
grantwriter for the project.  Grantwriters typically receive 10% of
the grant after it is awarded for their time in writing the grant
proposal and in maintaining the paperwork on the use of the grant
funds.  Usually if the grant is not secured, there is no fee required.

Fundraising ideas might include a plea to the Jewish authors of
Massachusetts (certainly to Jewish authors and their supporters in any
state).  There is an organization titled The National Yiddish Book
Center in Amherst, MA, that might be very helpful to your programs. 
They are located on the campus of Hampshire College and their contact
information is:

The National Yiddish Book Center
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building
1021 West Street
Amherst, MA 01002 

Phone/Fax
Telephone: 413-256-4900
Fax: 413-256-4700

Email
General: yiddish@bikher.org
Membership: members@bikher.org
Yiddish Books: orders@bikher.org
Book Center Store: bookstore@bikher.org
Visitors Center: glansky@bikher.org

The Trust for Jewish Philanthropy may also be able to suggest sources
for your funding.  Their web site is located at
http://www.thetrust.org/ir_home.html.

I also located a resource page for fundraising at the Gerald Tucker
Memorial Medical Library.  The heading is "Funding Resources on the
Web" and it's located at
http://library.nationaljewish.org/Resources/Grants_info.html

I hope my research proves of assistance in your quest and if you need
any clarification before you rate my answer, please request it and I
will be happy to conduct further research.


SEARCH TERMS and LINKS:

foundation center library massachusetts  [Google search]
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=foundation+center+library+massachusetts

The Foundation Center - Cooperating Collections
http://fdncenter.org/collections/ccma.html


foundation center  [Google search]
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=foundation+center

The Foundation Center - Your gateway to philanthropy on the World
http://fdncenter.org/

About the Foundation Center
http://fdncenter.org/about/


bill and melinda gates foundation  [Google search]
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=bill+and+melinda+gates+foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/


jewish authors of massachusetts  [Google search]
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=jewish+authors+of+massachusetts

National Yiddish Book Center
http://yiddishbookcenter.org/story.php?n=calendar


philanthropic jewish organizations  [Google search]
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=philanthropic+jewish+organizations

The Trust for Jewish Philanthropy
http://www.thetrust.org/ir_home.html

About the Trust
http://www.thetrust.org/aboutus_home.html

Trust for Jewish Philanthropy (New York contacts)
http://www.thetrust.org/ir_LL_category.html?state=ny


jewish library fundraising ideas  [Google search]
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=jewish+library+fundraising+ideas

National Jewish - Funding Resources on the Web
http://library.nationaljewish.org/Resources/Grants_info.html

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Clarification of Answer by journalist-ga on 25 Oct 2002 21:45 PDT

I am delighted you find the information of assistance, and thank you
so much for your added generosity!

Thanks you for your fast, detailed, and on-point response.

You should contact the Jewish Librarians mailing list, HaSafran, with
your question. Subscribtion info at

http://www.jewishlibraries.org/ajlweb/newsresources_files/hasafran.htm

The Church & Synagogue Library Association may also have resources
that you can use: http://www.worldaccessnet.com/~csla/.  One of their
publications (number 13, I think) is about fundraising & budgeting. 
Unfortunately it is out of print at the website, but is still
available in a variety of academic and theological libraries. 
However, it mainly talks about low-key options like book sales etc. 
The CSLA is also heavily weighted toward church libraries, as well, so
you'll probably also want to check out HaSafran (which I hadn't known
about until now).

My church library mainly supports itself through a book sale that is
held twice in the fall and twice in the spring.  This raises between
$500 and $1000 annually, which is clearly not enough to support
personnel but does supplement our book purchases pretty nicely.  We
also take donations from our members, and sell the duplicates to used
book stores (though I am thinking of having an annual used book sale
for those too).

Other suggestions I have seen have included purchasing books then
having a "book sale" where parishioners "buy" a book, inscribe their
name in the front (on a bookplate), and then the book is accessed into
the library's collection in honor of the person.  Several libraries
have a campaign to establish an ongoing fund to support specific areas
of the collection (children's books, theological texts, historical
texts, etc.).

You might also see if there are people who would be willing to donate
a computer to your library.  That's how we got ours - it's not
brand-new, but it works just fine for our needs (it can get on the
Internet and it runs the catalog).

Another source for you might be the Foundation Directory, which has
listings of major philanthropic organizations that offer assistance on
any number of topics.  Most academic libraries have a copy.

librariankt