Applications Are Now Being Accepted!The Foundation Center builds the fundraising capacity of nonprofits, helping them deliver vital programs and services to their communities. Our network of Cooperating Collections is key to achieving this goal – making our databases, directories, publications, and research reports available to the grantseeking public.
The Foundation Center is looking for host organizations that are ready to join with us to meet the information and training needs of grantseeking organizations and individuals.
What is the Cooperating Collection Network?
The Foundation Center supports a network of more than 450 Cooperating Collections across the country and in several locations around the world. These funding information centers—available to grantseekers at no cost and located at public, academic, or special libraries, community foundations, and other nonprofit resource centers—provide access to Foundation Directory Online, the leading grantseeking database on the web, Foundation Grants to Individuals Online, Philanthropy In/Sight, an interactive mapping tool that reveals patterns of giving and funding relationships, and a core collection of Foundation Center directories and publications. Cooperating Collections (CCs) also provide a selection of supplementary materials and services in areas useful to grantseekers. The CCs offer educational sessions for the public, including classes on the basics of grantseeking and dialogues with local donors. And they serve as hosts for free Center webinars and the Center's fee-based, full-day grantseeker training courses.
A key initiative of the Foundation Center is to expand the CC network to ensure that grantseekers across the nation, and selectively in other locations around the globe, have access to high-quality resources and expertise, enabling them to attract and sustain support for their organizations. The Foundation Center supports under-resourced agencies that, in turn, deliver services to underserved populations in need of information and training. One of the ways the Foundation Center accomplishes this goal is to designate new Cooperating Collections where they can do the most good and where staff has the ability to serve nonprofit communities in need of Foundation Center resources.
Eligibility
Qualified institutions include (but are not limited to):
- Public, academic, or special libraries
- Nonprofit resource centers
- Community or other foundations
- State associations
- United Way agencies
- Non-governmental organizations in locations outside the U.S.
Host institutions must:
- Be open to the public, without restriction, at least 25 hours per week
- Be located in an area serving at least 100 nonprofit organizations
- Provide access to a computer(s) connected to the Internet for public use
- Have staff available to develop expertise in foundation funding resources and to assist the public in their use
- Be prepared to offer public training on the basics of grantseeking
- Send a representative to regional and/or national meetings of Cooperating Collection supervisors held at various locations and/or participate in virtual conferences held by the Center
- Pay an annual membership fee of $995 (billed on a calendar year basis)
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