Funding Streams

As a cousin of mine once said about money, money is always there but the pockets change; it is not in the same pockets after a change, and that is all there is to say about money.                                    --Gertrude Stein

Funding your organization can be done any number of ways: waiting on money from above, and / or creating alternative streams.  Your goal should be to tap into the various “pockets” holding the money and to move it into the places you choose most appropriate.

Key to this concept is diversifying funding streams.  At this point it would be worth your while to actually chart out, Inspiration software or some free open source tool from the web could be used, all of the streams carrying money that come into your library.  New York State’s money stream may not be quite as reliable in the future as it has in the past.  Thus your school district may also not be able to provide what you need and have grown to expect.  Chart out your streams then set forth to create a plan for adding to and diversifying your inputs.

Kudos and well done to Sue at Otselic Valley for receiving notice of funding, $5,000.00 from the Lowe’s Toolbox grant to help fund the renovation of her library.  Congratulations and keep up the good work.  She has been quietly working at gaining some acumen in grant writing and hence project management once that funding has been received. 

If you can find ways to keep shifting money from a full pocket to your empty one, your funding streams will have grown and you will have taken significant steps toward becoming the necessary and invaluable “Indispensable Librarian” who is able to keep their job while rising in status in the school district.