Foundation Center Cooperating Collection at the Evanston Public Library

The Foundation Center Cooperating Collection, supported by the Foundation Center in New York, offers grantseekers a variety of reference materials containing information on philanthropy. The collection includes directories of foundations, funding guides by topic, annual reports of foundations, periodicals, newsletters, and pamphlets.

Foundation Directory Online and Foundation Grants to Individuals Online are databases of grant information produced by the Foundation Center. They are available for public use within the library at every Internet and Reference workstation and over the WiFi network.

Some of the most useful websites for grantseekers are:

The Foundation Center

An extensive site with an index to philanthropic literature, basic information for over 50,000 foundations, and links to the home pages of over 900 foundations.

The Donors Forum of Chicago

Donors Forum is the premier resource for leadership, education, research, and action on behalf of philanthropy and nonprofits in Illinois. Donors Forum enables the philanthropic and nonprofit sector to address community concerns with comprehensive information, skilled leadership and the resources necessary to build institutions and affect change.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Bi-weekly newspaper of the nonprofit and philanthropic community, including links to sources of interest to nonprofits.

Guidestar: The National Database of Nonprofit Organizations

Includes information about U.S. nonprofits (including foundations) taken primarily from organization tax returns. Some foundations include links to their most recent tax return, where they are required by law to list grant recipients and the amount of funding given.

Charity Navigator

Helps charitable givers make intelligent giving decisions by providing information on over thirty-four hundred charities and by evaluating the financial health of each . Includes article and blog on wise and effective charitable giving.

This collection is in the Reference Department on the third floor of the Main Library and is available during all hours the library is open. Internet access is also available on the third floor. The telephone number for the Reference Department is 847-448-8630.