Welcome to the Foundation Center. The Center's mission is to strengthen the nonprofit sector by advancing knowledge about U.S. philanthropy.

To achieve our mission, we:

• Collect, organize, and communicate information on U.S. philanthropy
  
• Conduct and facilitate research on trends in the field
  
• Provide education and training on the grantseeking process
  
• Ensure public access to information and services through our Web site, print and electronic publications, five library/learning centers (see below), and a national network of Cooperating Collections.

As a vital component of the Foundation Center's mission, we offer free information to the public at five Foundation Center libraries across the country: at our headquarters in New York, and at our field offices in Washington, DC, Atlanta, Cleveland, and San Francisco. And through a program of orientations and educational seminars, each year we introduce thousands of grantseekers to the funding research process.

One of the most difficult aspects of the grantseeking process is selecting prospective funders who might be interested in your project from the nearly 80,000 grantmakers in the U.S. At Foundation Center libraries we make the best and most comprehensive information available to grantseekers so that they can identify appropriate funders and develop targeted proposals.

Foundation Center librarians assist you with your research strategy but cannot do your research for you. They can help you in locating appropriate print and electronic resources, but they are not permitted to serve as consultants on funding for your project or to make referrals or arrange for introductions to specific grantmakers. Our librarians cannot write or review proposals for you. They will direct you to resources that help with this endeavor, especially the Center's own Guide to Proposal Writing and our full-day proposal writing seminar.

History

The Washington, DC, library of the Foundation Center was founded in the early 1960s after the Internal Revenue Service established new regulations that required all foundations to file a copy of their information returns with the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, DC. The Center's board of trustees at the time agreed that opening a Washington, DC, library would vastly improve the Center's ability to collect and publish current information about foundations. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation provided the initial funding for the Center's Washington, DC, library, which opened its doors in 1964.

Cooperating Collections

The Foundation Center-Washington, DC, library works closely with the Center's Coordinator of Cooperating Collections at the Center's headquarters in New York to ensure that the information needs of Cooperating Collections in the mid-Atlantic region are met. Cooperating Collections maintain core collections of Foundation Center publications (most have FC Search or The Foundation Directory Onlineavailable for public use) along with a variety of supplementary materials useful to grantseekers. They are housed in libraries, community foundations, and other nonprofit organizations. Cooperating Collections that the staff of the Washington, DC, library work closely with include:

Delaware Maryland North Carolina Pennsylvania Virginia West Virginia