We Entered the Knight Challenge for Libraries

Like nearly every single other group or agent provocateur in library land, we’ve submitted our ideas to the Knight News Challenge for feedback and possible funding.

EveryLibrary workshopped three proposals and invite you to comment on them during the ‘review’ process.  We believe each has merit in moving the ball forward for libraries.  But we’re a bit of a square peg / round hole here, though.  As a private foundation, Knight is not “in scope” to fund direct advocacy.  Neither are the Gates Foundation or IMLS for that matter.  These primary sources of library capacity building and ‘venture’ funding are not readily available to us as a 501c4.  We’re built specifically as a political action committee, so our ideas would – if funded – need to be either restricted gifts or follow a different structural path.  We’re open to asking.  It’s appropriate when we have a proven track record of success to seek more capacity.

The Knight Foundation has again demonstrated real leadership by making this Challenge.  We look forward to taking them up on their invitation to review other submissions for possible new alignments and to meet new potential allies.  You can join in the conversation over on the KNC page.  Please start by making your comments about our ideas via the links, below:

New EveryLibrary Project –  Think Tank and Research Center

Capacity Building Grant – Rapid Response Fund

New EveryLibrary Business Unit – Marketing Agency

Winners will be announced on Friday, January 30th, 2015. That is the Friday of ALA Midwinter. We are thinking about putting together a cocktail party that evening to celebrate innovation and libraries – win or lose, there are some amazing ideas in this pool. It would be fun to see everyone and talk about next steps for good ideas and opportunities to support the winning teams. Stay tuned.