Grant Opportunities

Funding Opportunities | Grant Announcements

Funding Opportunities

Please note that this list is not comprehensive and new opportunities are announced frequently. We encourage you to keep updated via grant announcement sites and the FLLS Monthly Bulletin. Resources and information about FLLS Outreach Grants can be found in the FLLS Outreach Grants LibGuide.

Grants Specifically for Member Libraries:

FLLS Family Literacy Grants

FLLS offers Family Literacy mini-grants to member libraries through NYS-funded outreach services.  The mini-grants can be used for collection development, purchasing supplies and materials and to fund performers/presenters that support your library’s literacy work for at-risk youth ages birth-21 years.  Congratulations to the 2024 recipients.

FLLS Outreach Mini-Grants

FLLS member libraries may receive between $300-$3,000 each year to help under-served groups and people with special needs to use their library. This grant typically opens in November and applications are due in March. Congratulations to the 2025 recipients.

Community Foundation Library Grant Cycle

This grant cycle was inspired by the Bernard Carl and Shirley Rosen Library Fund which seeks to promote genuine intellectual curiosity and a lifelong love of reading and learning, by promoting greater and easier access by youth to local libraries. Eligible applicants are the 33 public libraries in Cayuga, Cortland, Seneca, Tioga and Tompkins counties, the 5 counties of the Finger Lakes Library System. Congratulations to the 2025 recipients.

New York State Construction Grants

Public libraries in our service area may apply through FLLS for a construction grant to fund up to 90 percent of a three-year project.

Local Grant Opportunities:

Central New York Community Foundation

Offers a number of grant programs that seek to bring about positive change and impact while honoring diversity and building inclusion within and across Central New York communities. Grant programs support projects that enhance the lives of residents within Cayuga & Cortland Counties.

Community Foundation for South Central New York

For Tioga County agencies. The foundation has awarded $7.25 million in grants since 1997. Applications are now fully digital.

Cortland Community Foundation

Grants awarded to local agencies within the Cortland community. Deadlines are quarterly.

Fred L. Emerson Foundation

The Fred L. Emerson Foundation’s grantmaking is focused on the founder’s community of Auburn and the surrounding central New York area.

Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library

Click on “Library” for more information. The Friends provide funding through small grants to help other public libraries and reading rooms in the Finger Lakes region that serve Tompkins County residents. Funding is limited. If grant requests exceed available funds, preference will be given to public libraries in the Finger Lakes Library System within 30 miles of Ithaca.

Legacy Foundation of Tompkins County

The Legacy Foundation supports programs, projects, and capital expenditures in the areas of: Health, Education, Recreation, Human and Social Services, Aging, and the Arts. Grant applications deadlines are April 15th for the Spring cycle, and September 15th for the Fall cycle.

Mildred Faulkner Truman Foundation

Upon her death in 1983, Mildred Faulkner Truman’s will provided that the residuary of her estate be used to establish a Foundation to fund grants to qualified tax-exempt organizations whose worthwhile projects benefit the residents of Owego, the Owego area and Tioga County.

Tioga County Senior Citizens Foundation

A charitable foundation which provides grants to agencies that support quality of life of senior citizens within Tioga County. Deadline is June 1st each year.

Annual State/National Grant Opportunities:

ALA Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities

Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities will offer more than $7 million in grants to small and rural libraries to increase the accessibility of facilities, services, and programs to better serve people with disabilities. To be eligible, a library must have a legal area population of 25,000 or less and be located at least five miles from an urbanized area, in keeping with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) definitions of small and rural libraries. ALA will award four rounds of grants to be distributed over the next four years ranging from $10,000 to $20,000. Round 4 will open Fall 2025.

Better World Books Literacy Grants

Better World Books grants fund literacy and educational nonprofits and libraries for specific projects — the front lines of the fight to reduce global poverty through education.

Dollar General Literacy Foundation Grants

Dollar General provides Summer Reading Grants, Adult Literacy Grants, Family Literacy Grants, and Youth Literacy Grants.

Foundation for Rural Service Community Grant Program

Applications for these grants are accepted each spring ranging from $250 to $5,000. The grants awarded each November support a variety of projects concentrated in four major categories: Business and Economic Development, Community Development, Education, and Telecommunications Applications.

National Endowment for the Arts Big Read

Winners receive a grant ranging from $5,000 to $20,000, educational and promotional materials, and access to online training resources and opportunities to develop and produce community-wide reading programs which encourage reading and participation by diverse audiences.

National Endowment for the Humanities: Public Humanities Projects

The program supports projects that bring the ideas of the humanities to life for general audiences through public programming. Projects must engage humanities scholarship to analyze significant themes in disciplines such as history, literature, ethics, and art history. Awards support projects that are intended to reach broad and diverse public audiences in non-classroom settings.

New York State Council on the Arts

The mission of the New York State Council on the Arts is to foster and advance the full breadth of New York State’s arts, culture, and creativity for all.

NY State Council of the Arts Regrants & Services

At the core of our mission to create vibrant arts communities is our work with our Statewide Community Regrant Partners (SCR). NYSCA initiates funding partnerships with regional arts councils and cultural organizations, enabling us to reach all 10 regions across the state. The local grant making organizations providing support in a wide range of arts disciplines are referred to as Statewide Community Regrant Partners.

NYLA Section and NYLA Round Table Funding Opportunities

Many of the NYLA sections and round tables offer scholarships to attend NYLA and awards for conference programming. Visit each section or round table to view specific opportunities. Applications are usually due in August and September.

Ongoing State/National Grant Opportunities:

A.rt R.esources T.ransfer Library Program

The A.R.T. Library Program distributes books on art and culture to public institutions nationwide, free of charge. Public libraries, schools, prisons, and reading centers are welcome to place annual orders.

Humanities New York Grants

All grant opportunities are currently paused.

The Pilcrow Foundation Rural Library Grants

The Pilcrow Foundation, a national non-profit public charity, provides a 2-to-1 match to rural public libraries that receive a grant through its Children’s Book Project and contribute $200-$400 through a local sponsors for the purchase of up to $1,200 worth (at retail value) of new, quality, hardcover children’s books. The foundation also provides grants to libraries affected by natural disasters. Deadlines are April 1st and October 1st.

Poets & Writers Readings/Workshops Program

Poets & Writers provides up to $1,500 to cover fees for author readings and writing workshops.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is honored to support an array of organizations creating a world where children, families and communities can thrive.

Wish You Well Foundation

The foundation supports adult and family literacy in the United States by fostering new and promoting existing adult literacy and educational programs.

Grant Announcements & Foundation Information

Candid –  Formerly The Foundation Center. The largest and most comprehensive resource for researching foundations. FLLS has free access to the Candid Foundation Directory, please contact jshonk@flls.org to learn more.

Finger Lakes Grants Information Center – Their mission is to create a resource for our local communities to provide the information and tools necessary to attract funding to Auburn and the Finger Lakes region from foundations, federal, state and local governments and other grant makers. Also offers access to the Foundation Directory Online Professional on location in Auburn, NY.

Grants.gov – The access point for over 900 grant programs offered by the 26 Federal grant-making agencies.

Library Grants Blog – Grant announcements provided by the author of Winning Grants: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians.

NYS Library Grants Resource Collection – Grant seeking resources for New York State Libraries.

Institute of Museum and Library Services – Not currently available.

New York State Grant Opportunities – Search for grant opportunities from NYS.