Nancy Kalikow Maxwell - Grant Money Through Collaborative Partnerships

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Contents

It was three years ago that acquisitions editor Stephanie Zvirin ran across my book Sacred Stacks: The Higher Purpose of Libraries and Librarianship at ALA Editions. Has anyone contacted you about doing another project? she asked. If not, they certainly should have.

And for the next three years, she stayed with me, enduring all the twists and turns of my writingor not writingthis book. First I said yes, then I said I couldnt, then I said I would, then I said I didnt know. Throughout, she persevered, staying with it through my various career obligations, retirement plans, and grant deadlines. And Im glad she did. She is the best editor any writer could ever ask for. Thank you, Stephanie, for your persistence. It paid off.

I also thank Russell David Harper, my talented copy editor; he makes every sentence perfecteven this one.

I would also like to thank everyone at Barry Universitys Monsignor William Barry Memorial Library and Miami Dade College, especially at the North Campus and its library. Much of the knowledge I gained about grant development, administration, and evaluation came through opportunities provided at those institutions. For that, I am most appreciative.

A sincere thank-you to my colleagues in the grant-writing world, including those at the national level and in the Broward County chapter of the Grant Professionals Association.

To my many friendsthankfully too many to namewho made sure I was taken care of and well fed while I wrote this book, I am extremely appreciative.

To my family: daughter Amanda Maxwell and son Scott Maxwell (who give me naches and joy), mother Betty Kalikow, sister Barbara Kalikow Schwartz, brother Harvey Kalikow, cousin Judy Mesch, sister-in-law Elaine Millerand all their spouses and children. You nurtured me throughout. I love you all.

Groan. Not another book on library grants. Here you are struggling to run your library with 40 percent less than you received last year (and you are thankful you got that). The three-year hiring freeze has chilled your relationship with the staff to the point that even the ones who like you are grumbling. You want to retire, but the financial meltdown frizzled your funds to nothing. And now you are supposed to write grants. Fat chance, you say.

Save your disgruntlement for something more importantlike getting a vanilla latte when you ordered chai tea. This book is not going to guilt-trip you over not bringing in grant money. And you wont be toiling over a tedious grant proposal, either. Instead, you will learn how to watch others do the toiling. Not that youll be sitting back and doing nothing, but at least youll benefit from the work of others who are writing grants. In this book, librarians will learn how to infiltrate the grant development process of other organizations and garner grant funds through them.

The idea for this booklike so much of lifecame through happenstance. Though I am a highly successful grant writerhaving helped bring in more than ten million dollars in grant funding for my library and collegemy initial efforts at grant writing were failures. Lots of failures, if you must know.

But I persevered. After many grant-writing workshops and more disastrous grant attempts, I finally crafted my first successful proposal. The USDAof all placesapproved a grant for more than $150,000 to improve the science resources and services at my community college library.

My successful proposal not only garnered much-needed library materials but also elicited praise from the campus administrative dean. Personally, I was more interested in pleasing the dean than improving library resources, but it was nice to have accomplished both.

You did an outstanding job with the USDA grant proposal, she wrote in an e-mail. I was very impressed when I finished reading the entire proposal. Her compliment made my day, but what followed turned out to be of more lasting import.

We are now working on a Title V grant, she explained. A grant writing company has been hired to assist us. They have a lot of experience, but they will be requiring information from us periodically.

They will be requiring information from us periodically.

That sentence changed the course of the library and my career. From those few words, I was able to participate in grant proposals netting more than ten million dollars to the college, with one million going directly to the library. Even better, I was able to write the book which you now hold in your hand (or view on your screen).

They will be requiring information from us periodically has become my maxim.

The need for information brought me to the grant table, where I was able to insert library funding into the grants under development. Being at the table made all the difference.

I am far from the first person to realize the importance of being where the action is, where money is discussed and divvied. The late visionary and library science professor Kathleen de la Pea McCook came to the same conclusion more than ten years ago. A Place at the Table she titled her plea, urging librarians to be present when decisions are made to build lasting communities.

Years before McCooks book was published, two other librarian-authorsPatricia Senn Breivik and E. Burr Gibsonexhorted librarians to insinuate themselves into the process of garnering new funds from others.

The library is uniquely suited to fare well in cooperative projects, they explained. Library services and resources can be clearly shown in support of almost any aspect or program. However, the trick is to get the library includedeither formally or informallyin the process. How reassuring, if not a little depressing, to find this suggestion in a 1979 ALA book entitled Funding Alternatives for Libraries. Yes, we have been talking about finding other sources of revenue for decades.

Along with Coffmans suggestions, this book proposes another potential stream of funding for libraries to tap. By exploiting one of its greatest strengthsresearch abilitylibraries can maneuver to the grant development table. For many librarians, conducting research is preferable to soliciting major gifts or forming a nonprofit to raise funds. Once at the table to present their results, they can divert some of the forthcoming funds to the library. The rest of this book provides instructions on how to go about accomplishing this.