The Lois Lenski Covey Foundation

BOOKMOBILE GRANTS

THE 2024 BOOKMOBILE GRANT APPLICATION IS NOW AVAILABLE. PLEASE VISIT THE BOOKMOBILE GRANTS WEBPAGE.

 

Bookmobile Grant Program

 

Lois Lenski, children’s book author and 1946 Newbery medalist for Strawberry Girl, had a life-long concern that all children have access to good books. Toward that end, the Foundation provides grants to bookmobile programs that serve

children from disadvantaged populations.

 

The Lois Lenski Covey Foundation awards grants to organizations that operate a lending bookmobile that travels into neighborhoods populated by underserved youth. The grants are for purchasing books published for young people preschool through grade 8. Bookmobiles operated by charitable [501(c)(3)] and other non-taxable agencies, including public libraries or schools, are eligible. The Foundation provides grants to organizations that serve economically or socially at-risk children, have limited book budgets, and demonstrate real need.

 

Grants range from $500 to $3000 and are specifically for book purchases, and cannot be used for administrative or operational uses.

 

SPECIAL NOTE TO THOSE INTERESTED IN GRANTS:

The LLCF no longer provides grants to schools, public libraries, or other libraries for the purchase of children's books, with the exception of bookmobiles. If you have been linked to our website by a grant listing service, please note that many of those services are not up-to-date with their information regarding the LLCF. Read the contents of our website carefully before completing a bookmobile grant application.

 

 

Purpose of the Grants

 

The bookmobile grant program provides grants for purchasing children’s fiction or non-fiction books. The books are to be available for checkout by young people for pleasure reading or, perhaps, as a source of information for a school assignment. The library grant program DOES NOT provide grants for book distribution programs (book gift programs), atlases, dictionaries, basal readers or similar texts, workbooks or similar instructional tools, magazine subscriptions, or for textbooks or encyclopedias.

 

 

Funding Eligibility

 

The LLCF bookmobile grant program provides grants for the purchase of books for children preschool through grade 8 [Early Reader books through Young Adult and Hi-Lo books].

 

Only organizations operating and serving areas within the United States, its territories, or commonwealths are eligible.

 

Grant awardees will be asked to return a brief questionnaire and to provide documentation of grant spending.

 

 

Deadlines

 

Our bookmobile grant cycle begins in February and ends in September.

  • Applications for library grants typically become available on this website on or around February 15th.
  • We will make every effort to evaluate applications within three months of receiving them.
  • The last grant within a given year will be awarded by October 30th. To be considered by that date, applications must be postmarked by September 1.
  • Applications postmarked after September 1 will be evaluated early the following year.

 

The Application

 

A link to a downloadable application is available at the Bookmobile Grant Application webpage. That webpage also provides detailed instructions for completing and sending the application.

 

 

Questions

 

Questions regarding the Foundation's bookmobile grant program may be emailed to bookmobile@loislenskicovey.org.

 

 


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