Stephentown Library To Offer Grant Seeking Services

The Stephentown Memorial Library is pleased to announce its designation as a cooperating collection of the Foundation Center, the national clearinghouse for grant funding information. SML joins only about 400 other libraries across the United States selected to offer grant research capabilities through the Foundation’s online database.
As a cooperating collection, SML can now offer grant seekers access to an online database of over 98,000 funding agencies and corporations. Community organizations and individual grant seekers no longer need to travel to Pittsfield or Albany to research funding opportunities. This greatly improved access offers the potential to bring more grants to our local communities. The Foundation Center will also provide thousands of dollars worth of grant-seeking print resources to SML at no cost.
Library Board President Sue Brissette Cass said, “Our area organizations need and deserve more grant funding but often do not know about opportunities and may not have the necessary grant writing skills. Now we can help by providing the information they need. Plus, individual artists, writers and others who need funding for projects can find opportunities in the database.”
SML will offer classes in grant research and grant writing to assist community members to make maximum use of this important new service. “Our education sessions will be open to anyone who is interested,” said Laurenne Teachout, Library Director. “We will show people how to find grants and teach them how to write grants as well. It’s a great opportunity to learn a new skill to put on your resume.”
Beacon Contributes
As part of its ongoing commitment to the Stephentown community, Beacon Power Corporation, a Massachusetts-based flywheel technology company, has generously underwritten the cost of providing the online grant database and the planned educational sessions. Beacon is commercially deploying its advanced flywheel energy storage systems and providing an essential power grid-stabilizing service called frequency regulation. The company has begun construction of its first-in-the-nation, 20-megawatt flywheel based regulation plant on Grange Hall Road in Stephentown.
The Foundation Center is a national nonprofit service organization recognized as the nation’s leading authority on organized philanthropy, connecting non-profits and the grant makers supporting them to tools they can use and information they can trust. The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. grant makers and their grants, issues a wide variety of print, electronic and online information resources, conducts and publishes research on trends in foundation growth, giving and practice and offers an array of free and affordable educational programs.
The Stephentown Memorial Library serves as a comprehensive local information resource, offering books, CDs, DVDs, high speed wireless internet access and adult and children’s programming.