Grant Writing for Libraries 101 Podcast

I chose to listen to the podcast Grant Writing for Libraries 101.  This was a podcast given to students studying to be librarians in the School of Library and Information Science program at San Jose University.  In the past, as an educator I have written several grants and been able to get funding for several projects in my classroom, and I would like to become an effective grant writer for my future library.  I am very interested in learning about ways to better improve my chances for attaining funds to provide the materials and resources needed to help me be an effective librarian.  The podcast started out by talking about the many different grants that are available to librarians.  This podcast not only discussed about the nickel and dime grants, but grants funded through individuals,  local organizations, big corporations  and government funded research projects.  Another main theme that kept coming up was how important it is to know everything you can about the grant you are attempting to attain.  Do some homework.  Go onto the internet and find out what the organization is looking for.  If appropriate, e-mail or call the program officer and ask for specifics.  Find out what is important to them and see if your grant would be a good fit for them.  Also, go to some public records or even their website to find out who they funded in the past.  Another interesting fact I had not considered was how larger corporations often prefer donating funds to something they can put their name on and receive recognition, and how larger local businesses are more interested in providing grants to those local projects that benefit their employees.  It was stressed how important it was to find out all the information you can about those who are giving the grant and write a well thought out and organized proposal specifically written for them.  ‘Cookie cutter’ grants were highly discouraged.  One last thing I thought was very insightful was that not every grant a person writes is going to be accepted.  When this happens, do not be afraid to get feedback.  This will help the grant writer write a better proposal in the future.  Sometimes those individuals or organizations who give out the grants will allow the grant writers to resubmit their proposals if they are not successful the first time.  These are some interesting things I learned about grant writing from listening to this podcast that I hope to incorporate when I become a librarian.