Greening Libraries / Greener Communities (3) – Afternoon Breakouts – Greening Funding, Greening Gadgets, Greening Buildings
Posted by Beth Evans on November 6, 2008
The LACUNY Institute “Greening Libraries ==> Greener Communities” was held on Friday, October 31, 2008 at the Bronx Library Center, a branch of the New York Public Library. The conference was co-sponsored by the Library Association of the City University of New York and the New York Public Library. It received support from the New York Library Club, Springer, EBSCO and BUSCA.
The program broke at mid-day for a green box lunch that supported local business and included wraps served on plates made from recycled yogurt containers and cloth napkins (that were all collected after the meal to be saved for use at future events), fresh apples and cider from a New York State farm, and handy recycling and composting bins.
On hand were representatives from Con Edison and Springer. The CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities had materials on display. A tour of the Bronx Library Center provided a chance to learn first hand how the green building was constructed and functions.
The first part of the afternoon program offered three breakout sessions.
Session A: Ines Sucre, Reference Librarian, Foundation Center, spoke about “Greening Funds.”
Efforts by libraries to retrofit for sustainablity could use a boost from some outside funding. This is where the Foundation Center can help. Sucre noted that the Center produces trend reports and offers free and fee-based services. Its partnerships with public library branches supply free access to its databases. Sucre recommended that the audience read the Philanthropy News Digest, available on the Center’s web site, and also check out the RFP Bulletin to get ideas about what kinds of requests for funding have been written in the past. Sucre pointed out that only 20% funders have web sites so they often go to the Foundation Center to post their RFPs. Other features of the Foundation Center worth examining include its blog (often the source of book reviews), the Foundation Center statistics, and archived webinars and videos.
The Foundation Center web site includes five search tools. The web site itself can be searched. The Catalog of Non-Profit Literature is a searchable database of the literature of philanthropy . The Foundation Finder allows a search by name for basic information about private and community foundations in the U.S. Sucre noted the Foundation Finder which is similar to a service available on the Guidestar web site and acknowledged that an advantage of using Guidestar is that their site also includes foundations that have not yet offered grants. The 990 Finder ) allows visitors to look up the IRS returns (Forms 990 and 990-PF) of private foundations, public charities, and other nonprofits When examining a potential donor, libraries should take a look at the 990-PF’s to see patterns of funding. Sucre directed the audience specifically to p, 11 to examine the grants list of the organization. Lastly, the Foundation Directory Online Subscription Service with monthly or annual subscription options allows you to search the databases of over 90,000 grantmakers and more than 900,000 grants. Although, as noted, some libraries offer access to the database, you can only save searches if you have a private account. Sucre encouraged participants to register on the web site and to be careful when searching to only get the subject areas of interest.
Libraries will be happy to learn that the Foundation Center currently has information for grants for preservation in libraries archives and museum. And libraries thinking green should investigate trends in environmental funding, historically a small area of philanthropy. Education gets most grant money. But the good news is that giving for the environment and animals rose 10% in 2006.
Sucre described the foundation landscape. Private foundations only fund other non-profits. There are three types of foundations: independent (most are like this), company-sponsored, and operating (usually non-grant making). Foundations are required to make a 5% payout. The current distribution of giving shows that 39% of foundations have given 26% of all the funding in 2006. Small foundations are better bets for project level funding. Sucre advices that since some foundations do not give to uninvited fund seekers, send a query letter first before sending a proposal.
Session B. The second session offered Pamela Lieber, Supervising Librarian of the Adult Collection, Bronx Library Center spoke about Greening Gadgets.
BLOGGER NOTE: WERE YOU THERE? IF SO, WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD YOUR NOTES FROM THE SESSION TO OUR BLOG? Contact Beth Evans, bevans at brooklyn dot cuny dot edu and Beth will be happy to include your notes in the LACUNY blog.
Session C. The third breakout session was a panel on Greening Buildings. Speaking on the panel, moderated by Sarah Laleman Ward (Moderator), Outreach Reference & Instruction Librarian, Hunter College Library, CUNY, were Daniel Heuberger AIA, Dattner Architects, Jim Lloyd, Assistant Vice President of Campus Operations, Baruch College, CUNY and John Denham, DenhamWolf.
BLOGGER NOTE: WERE YOU THERE? IF SO, WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD YOUR NOTES FROM THE SESSION TO OUR BLOG? Contact Beth Evans, bevans at brooklyn dot cuny dot edu and Beth will be happy to include your notes in the LACUNY blog.
