A blog highlighting special funding streams of interest to the Connecticut library community.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
TRIAD Annual Conference: RESPONDING TO ELDER ABUSE, Fairfield 9/17/10
The conference brochure is available in pdf.
9TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE, FRIDAY, SEPT 17, 2010
8:30 am - 1 pm
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
Charles F. Dolan School of Business
1073 North Benson Road,
Fairfield, Connecticut 06824
TRIAD's mission is to promote senior safety and work to reduce fear of criminalization, including abuse, neglect & exploitation. The CT Triad Advisory provides technical assistance to communities in forming and operating local and regional Triad SALT (Seniors and Law Enforcement Together) Councils. Triads include law enforcement and public safety officers, senior volunteers, and social, business & aging network professionals.
The conference will feature:
* Attorney Elizabeth Loew is a veteran Manhattan assistant district attorney in charge of the elder abuse unit. She recently successfully prosecuted Anthony Marshall, the son of socialite Brooke Astor, for “pillaging” her $200 million estate. Ms. Loewy is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, got her law degree from the
* Albany Law School and is a nationally recognized expert on prosecuting elder abuse.
* Jon-Paul Correira, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Office of the Inspector General, Dept. of Health and Human Services
* Case studies involving financial and physical abuse, addressed by a distinguished panel of professionals including community social workers, DSS Protective Services for the Elderly staff, Police Detective, Office of the Chief State’s Attorney, Judge of Probate, Banker, and others.
8:30– 9:00 Registration, Light breakfast, and Networking
9:00—9:15 Welcomes & Opening Ceremony
9:15—9:30 Attorney General Richard Blumenthal
9:30—10:30 Attorney Elizabeth Loewy
10:30—10:45 Break – Refreshments
10:45—11:30 OIG - Healthcare Fraud Cases
11:30—12:10 Case 1 & Panel
12:10—12:50 Case 2 & Panel
12:50—1:00 Closing Remarks
NOTE: Elder Abuse, Healthcare and Financial Fraud and Yellow Dot Materials will be available.
Funding for this conference is provided by the Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) Programs of the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, Administration on Aging (AoA), CT’s DSS Aging Services Division & Area Agencies
on Aging.
Contact: Mimi Peck-Llewellyn at (860) 424-5244
Sunday, August 22, 2010
U.S. Soccer Foundation 2011 Grants
The 2011 grants cycle will focus on projects and programs that develop players, coaches, and referees in economically disadvantaged urban areas encompassing populations of 50,000 or more. The foundation is especially interested in organizations that incorporate a youth development element such as anti-violence, anti-drugs, healthy lifestyles, etc. into their soccer programs.
The foundation's annual grants cycle includes the following grant types.
Program Grants will be awarded for player and team equipment from Kwik Goal and Eurosport (shoes, shin guards, uniforms, traveling goals, balls, cones, etc.); travel costs for games and practice (excludes expenses for professional games); facility rental costs; registration costs; training fees for coaches; and training fees for referees.
Field Grants will be awarded for irrigation products from Hunter Irrigation, sports lighting from Musco Sports Lighting, field maintenance equipment from the Toro Company, and modular surfaces from Sport Court.
Footprint Fields (Synthetic Field) Grants will be awarded for the installation of a synthetic field surface from FieldTurf.
In addition to some other eligibility requirements, aApplicants must be a not-for-profit organization, school, municipality, college or university, public school, or sovereign tribal nation.
Deadline: The application opens October 1, 2010 and closes at October 29, 2010 @ 5PM
The foundation is holding Q & A calls in August to answer questions and prepare applications for the upcoming grant cycle.
Link to The complete RFP lives at the program site.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
IMLS Seeks Proposals to Implement National Broadband Plan Recommendations
The ultimate purpose of this project is to provide resource allocators, policy makers, and community leaders with the tools they need to build the capacity of public libraries and community-based organizations to meet the public's information needs. IMLS encourages coordination among these stakeholders so they leverage existing infrastructure and make strategic investments to achieve digitally-inclusive communities.
More information is located on the IMLS site, as is the complete Request for Proposals.
The award will be for a maximum of six months from date of award. The estimated award date is October 15, 2010 with a start date of November 1, 2010, contingent upon fiscal year 2011 funding.
Friday, August 20, 2010
National Center for Family Literacy Library Grants
There will be three $10,000 grant awards, one in each of these categories:
• local friends of the library programs
• public/academic libraries
• urban libraries
Deadline: November 12, 2010
Recipients also receive funds for attending the 2011 National Conference on Family Literacy April 3-5 in scenic (and home of the famed IronMan race) Louisville, KY.
Visit the National Center for Family Literacy site for guidelines & information.
BWB also awards Reader's Choice Literacy Grants annually.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Carnegie/NYT I Love My Librarian Award
The award invites library users nationwide to recognize the accomplishments of librarians in public, school, college, community college and university libraries for their efforts to improve the lives of people in their community.
Nominations, which are online, run through September 20th.
Bina Williams of the Bridgeport Public Library is a winner of a past incarnation of this award (2005) when it was known as the 'Librarian Award.' Williams, a children’s librarian at the Bridgeport Public Library and Southern Connecticut State University adjunct, was nominated for the award by a 15-year-old library girl from a family of home-schooled children who are frequent visitors to the library. There were more than 1,200 nominations for the award, representing librarians from 48 states.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Youth Service America / UnitedHealth HEROES Grants to Fight Obesity
Awards are available up to $1,000.
Educators, students, and nonprofit leaders are eligible to apply.
Deadline: October 22, 2010.
Grants should “engage participating youth in service-learning, an effective teaching and learning strategy that supports student learning, academic achievement, and workplace readiness.” The grants encourage semester-long projects that launch on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service (January 17, 2011) and culminate on Global Youth Service Day (April 15-17, 2011).
YSA will host two application training webinars, September 16th at 3:00 PM EST and October 5th at 5:00 PM EST, for applicants to learn more about developing a successful project. Please visit the registration link.
To get started, take the eligibility quiz.
For additional support planning your service-learning program addressing childhood obesity, please download the pdf First Responders: Youth Addressing Childhood Obesity Through Service-Learning.
See a list of past grantees.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Environmental Excellence Awards Available for Student Groups
The contest selects eight projects; each winning group will receive $10,000 to benefit the award-winning project and an all-expenses-paid trip for 3 students and 1 adult leader to a SeaWorld or Busch Gardens park for a special awards event.
Deadline: 5 PM on Wednesday, December 1, 2010.
TD Charitable Foundation Grants Support Capital Improvements for Affordable Housing
A total of 34 grants representing $1.7 million will be awarded to nonprofits or state/local government entities working to enhance the lives of housing residents through improved property conditions, overall cost savings, and/or increased energy efficiency. The Connecticut service area counties are: Fairfield, Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London (Town of Colchester only), and Tolland.
Deadline: 4:00PM, Friday, September 3, 2010.
More information: Safe and affordable housing remains a critical concern for low- and moderate-income families in the current economy. While the spotlight has been largely on the mortgage crisis and rising foreclosure rates over the last several years, preserving America's aging housing stock is critically important. This competition will fund the most innovative plans that preserve and improve affordable housing units. As capital improvements are made to available housing, the integrity of the neighborhood is stabilized and protected from further deterioration.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation Offers Instruments for School Music Programs
The foundation funds instrument repair and the acquisition of new instruments (not cash grants). Priority is given to music programs serving low-income communities, programs with little or no budget for musical instruments, and music programs that serve the most students out of the school population.
The foundation offers three programs of support:
The Melody Program helps K-12 school instrumental music programs that take place during the regular school day. Public, private, and charter schools may apply; however, schools must be Title 1 or be able to demonstrate financial need. Schools must have an established instrumental music program (i.e. concert band, marching band, jazz band, and/or orchestra) that has been in existence for at least three years. Schools must have an existing inventory of instruments. Requests should not exceed $10,000 worth (retail value) of musical instruments.
The Special Projects Program helps before- and after-school music programs. Programs must be at least three years old and serve primarily school-age youth from low-income families, or students that attend Title 1 schools. Programs must have an existing inventory of instruments. Requests should not exceed $10,000 worth (retail value) of musical instruments.
The Michael Kamen Solo Award helps outstanding student musicians enrolled in grades eight to 12 who cannot afford to obtain an appropriate instrument. Students must have completed at least five years of study on their instrument to be eligible. Instruments with a retail value of up to $20,000 are awarded. Only students who are still in secondary school may apply.
Applications are made available by invitation only. Potential applicants must first submit an online pre-qualification form to be considered for an invitation. Pre-qualification forms will be available at the foundation's Web site until October 1, 2010. For those invited to apply, the application deadline is November 1, 2010. Awarded programs will receive instrument donations in time for the 2011/12 school year.
Visit the foundation web site for guidelines and forms.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Cheshire Public Library's English Language Center
In happy news, the Cheshire Public Library recently received a grant from the Rotary Club of Cheshire and Rotary District 7980 to provide an updated and expanded resource center of ESL (English as a second language).
Congratulations!
Open Meadows Foundation projects for women and girls
Amounts of up to $2,000 are available for projects that:
- Are designed and implemented by women and girls;
- Reflect the diversity of the community served by the project in both its leadership and organization;
- Promote building community power;
- Promote gender, racial, social, economic and/or environmental justice; and
- Have limited financial access or have encountered obstacles in their search for funding.
Kresge Foundation Arts and Culture Program - Facility Investments and Building Reserves Grant
Deadline for preliminary applications due on September 15, 2010
The Kresge Foundation's Arts and Culture Program is inviting preliminary applications for its Facility Investments and Building Reserves grants. The opportunity is part of the program's Institutional Capitalization focus area, which is designed to strengthen the long-term financial health of arts and cultural organizations.
Facility investments grants support both project costs and the creation of a building reserve. This new grant opportunity will prioritize renovation and repair projects. On occasion, the program will entertain applications for new construction associated with exemplary sustainability practices or those that embody key principles of urban and community planning to enhance local quality of life. Building reserves grants are designed to seed or enhance a fund to support the ongoing maintenance and replacement needs of an organization over time.
Applicants must be organizations based in the United States and, if government-owned, must be operated by a separate 501(c)(3) organization. Start-up organizations and those organizations that are government-owned and operated are not eligible to apply.
Grant amounts will be dependent on the type of project and the size, scope, and business model of the organization. Some grants may be designed as matching or challenge grants. Additionally, full applications will be reviewed to see if other funding methods may be appropriate. In general, multi-year institutional capitalization grants will not exceed $1 million and/or a period of three years from the time of the grant award.
Organizations with competitive pre-applications will be invited to submit full applications. For those organizations that submit promising pre-applications but require additional support to complete their analysis, planning grants may be made available.
The foundation calls for preliminary applications for facility investments and building reserves grants twice a year, in the spring and the fall. The fall application period closes on September 15, 2010.
Visit the Kresge Foundation web site for program information.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Westport October 24
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of New Haven October 24
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Litchfield October 17
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Hartford October 17
Team captains, volunteers, community leaders and individuals interested in making a difference in the fight against breast cancer are needed! Funds raised support the American Cancer Society’s breast cancer research, education, advocacy and patient support programs. Visit the program web site to learn more.
For more information, contact:
Megan Clerkin
Community Executive, Development
American Cancer Society
825 Brook Street
I-91 Tech Center
Rocky Hill, CT 06067
phone: 203-379-4879
fax: 203-379-5060
RGK Foundation: Education, Community, and Medicine/Health Grants
Specific areas of focus include:
- children and family services
- early childhood development
- parenting education
- after-school educational enrichment programs
- promotion of the health and well-being of children
- programs that promote access to health services.
Deadline: Rolling (Letters of Inquiry)
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Lumina Foundation's publications about communicating
The Lumina Foundation's overarching goal is to increase the higher education attainment rate.
While that may or may not be your cup of tea, they have a host of free publications that will help YOU communicate the important work that you do day in and day out. Some are specific to develop a communications plan, and others to strategic planning.
While some information is specific to the Lumina grants, they are general enough so that any and all libraries can use them to excellent effect.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Communication 101: A toolkit for our Grantees. Use Communication 101 to help you do a faster, better job of communicating your important work.
Words that Work: Communications Messaging for Community Benefits Agreements. A Joint Publication of the Partnership for Working Families and the SPIN Project.
Are We There Yet?: A Communications Evaluation Guide. Philanthropic organizations and nonprofits need high impact communications. Plan your communication evaluation with this guide. Contains a nine-step process for creating plans for monitoring and measuring communication effectiveness.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Free GrantStation webinar 8/11
Wednesday, August 11, 2PM Eastern Time
Join professional fundraiser Cynthia M. Adams for a free webinar that offers a short tour of GrantStation and its tools, which can help you identify the right grantmaker for any program or project. Check it out, see if it's something you're interested in.
A discounted GrantStation membership is available to eligible nonprofits through TechSoup. There's some sort of special offer on August 17 and 18, but I don't know what it is. If past offers are anything to go by, it's at about 1/6th the list price (~$599 down to ~$99).
TechSoup has lots of free webinars and high quality information for libraries.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Avon Breast Health Outreach Program
Successful programs are comprised of: culturally-competent educational strategies; dedicated staff with specialized language and communications skills; and participation from members of the targeted community who can reach women where they live, work and worship.
Avon supports programs that:
* recruit women for both first time screening and annual screening;
* develop partnerships between community-based outreach providers and local medical providers;
* work with health care providers to ensure proper clinical follow-up of abnormal screening results; and
* educate older women (> 65 years old) about Medicare coverage of annual
screening mammograms and assist them in obtaining the service from providers
who accept Medicare.
Private, non-government, non-profits are eligible. Though the amount of funding is not specified, 2009 saw $6 million in grants to 143 community-based, NPOs.
Deadline: August 27, 2010.
More information.
Apply for funding.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Tech Soup
It's not just massive discounts, though (incidentally, Microsoft Office 2010 for $31. Not a typo). They offer good webinars, community forums, and informative content that doesn't waste your time nor insult your intelligence.
Try it. You won't be disappointed.
From the horse's mouth: "TechSoup provides nongovernmental organizations, nonprofits, libraries, and community-based organizations with the latest professional hardware, software, and services they need. These information and communication technology (ICT) donations are available alongside educational content, such as articles, webinars, and nptech community forums."
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Jenny’s Heroes Community Grant Program
Talk show host and philanthropist Jenny Jones’ community grant program, Jenny's Heroes, awards grants to everyday citizens with a desire to improve their community.The program's focus is primarily on smaller communities where fundraising can be difficult. Those who submit the best ideas for tangible, lasting community projects can receive grants of up to $25,000 each.
Deadline: Applications accepted on an ongoing basis.
IMLS Conservation Project Support Application and Guidelines Available
Deadline: October 1, 2010.
Through the Conservation Project Support program, IMLS awards matching grants of up to $150,000 to help museums identify their conservation needs and priorities, and to aide them in the safekeeping of their collections through the implementation of sound conservation practices.
Webinars with Conservation Project Support Grants Staff
IMLS will also discuss applications and general issues about the Conservation Project Support Grants program through 2 webinars, scheduled for: Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 3 pm Eastern Time and Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 3 pm Eastern Time.
Monday, August 2, 2010
2011 Healthy Vision Community Awards Program
Proposed projects must focus on eye health education, be innovative, have the potential for sustainability once funding ends, and address one or more of the following topics:
• Age-Related Macular Degeneration
• Diabetic Eye Disease
• Glaucoma
• Occupational Eye Safety
• Vision Rehabilitation
Awards are worth up to $10,000 per year; deadline = August 30, 2011.
An online application process and a tutorial to walk applicants through the submission process ; more information is available at the program site.
Past Connecticut grantees include: Connecticut Primary Care Associations, Inc. (CPCA) in Hartford, the Hill Health Corporation and Hill Health Center in New Haven, Prevent Blindness Tri-State in Middlebury, and Unite for Sight, Inc. from Newtown.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Coca Cola Scholars program
The Coca-Cola Scholars program awards 250 four-year, achievement-based scholarships to high school seniors.
There are multiple application elimination rounds; semifinalists complete a secondary application and finalists to advance to a final interview which determines award levels.
50 students (National Scholars) receive awards of $20,000 for college; 200 students (are Regional Scholars) receive awards of $10,000 for college.
See the web site additional information and guidelines. The application opens today, August 1; the last day to apply is October 31.