The Newport Public Library is among 15 organizations statewide to receive $28,000 from the Rhode Island Foundation through its Archive, Document, Display and Disseminate (ADDD) Fund.
“By offering the resources to strengthen libraries and other civic, cultural and literacy-focused organizations, we can expand their role as community centers that stimulate dialogue around critical issues,” said philanthropist Herman Rose, who created the ADDD fund in 1986. Over the years, it has awarded more than $372,000 in grants.
The primary goals are to increase public access to information through archiving, documenting, displaying or disseminating print, digital or other material and to provide challenge grants for fundraising campaigns for the acquisition of equipment, special collections and publications among other material.
The Newport Public Library was awarded a challenge grant related to its annual fundraising gala on June 26. The library will receive $75 for every prepaid ticket reservation over 145, up to $2,500.
The funds will be used for general operating expenses and to continue upgrading the children’s, teen and youth areas. Last year, the library offered 430 programs for children, teens and families with an attendance of 8,672 patrons.
“I am very proud of the work we are doing in this community. If we can get children interested in books and reading while they are young, it may give them the tools they need to be successful in school,” said Anne Shepherd, library director.
“We are renovating our library spaces to attract and serve the children, hoping to give them some of the skills they need going forward. 3D printing and computer skills are an important part of their future and we are committed to teaching them all that we can,” she said.
Among the other organizations receiving grants are the Bristol Historical and Preservation Society, which received $1,500 to continue cataloguing its early collections, including original documentation of the Africa-to-America slave trade; and the Providence Preservation Society, which won $1,500 to create an exhibit documenting how its “College Hill Study” helped save the historically and architecturally significant neighborhood from demolition in the 1960s.
The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. In 2015, the Foundation awarded $41.5 million in grants to organizations addressing the state’s most pressing issues and needs of diverse communities. Through leadership, fundraising and grantmaking activities, often in partnership with individuals and organizations, the Foundation is helping Rhode Island reach its true potential. For more information, visit www.rifoundation.org.