At CMLE we are always working to support our member libraries. And now we have a new program for you:
Mini Grants!
Do you have a cool project you want to try out?
We want to help you with a Mini Grant!
CMLE will offer you up to $300 to try out a cool thing!
What does “cool” mean here?
- It means an interesting program you want to bring to your library.
- It means some new material you want to add to your collection.
- It means supplies for a makerspace, or for a program, or for something else you want to try in the library.
- Or, it may mean something else that will benefit your community, if you just had access to up to $300 more to get it done!
We want to help encourage our CMLE members to try some new things for your community members. The requirements of the Mini Grant are pretty flexible – we just want to see you try something you might not otherwise have a chance to do.
For the first half of the CMLE fiscal year (July – December), we encourage Mini Grant applications that focus on technology topics (programs, materials, supplies). We take a broad view of the definition of “technology” so feel free to be broad in your understanding of it as it relates to your library.
In the second half of the CMLE year (January – June), we encourage grants that focus on non-technology projects, materials, and programs. This is a guideline, not a hard-and-fast rule; so again, be broad in your conception of what is possible in your library!
Preference will go to new CMLE grant applicants, and to applicants submitting only one application in a fiscal year. If you submit more than one, we may try to fund a second one at the end of the fiscal year, if any money is still available. (Please do not count on that happening though!)
To reimburse you, we need you send us your original receipts, and a discussion of the program/material/supplies that we can put up on our blog. For our purposes, we do not care whether the grant worked or was a flaming disaster – either will provide valuable for our other members as they work on their own grants!
Ready to try this out? Fill out the application below. We will fund on a rolling, competitive basis, in the above described six month chunks, until our money runs out.