2009 Grants
In 2009, the Friends of The Seattle Public Library donated $173,000 to The Seattle Public Library Foundation to support the following programs:
| Opportunity Fund | $35,000 |
| 2010 Summer Reading Program | $25,000 |
| Muliti-lingual Story Times for Young Children | $18,000 |
| Teen Programs | $35,000 |
| Wallace Endowment Challenge | $25,000 |
| Usability Testing for the SPL Website | $23,000 |
| Total | $161,000 |
The Friends support the grant amounts and allocation because they fund a mix of programs and projects for current activities and longer term, continuing programs.
The Wallace Endowment Challenge for Cultural Programming was added to the list of recommendations because of its matching requirement. A short description of the Endowment follows:
This endowment is part of a long-term funding strategy for the Library's cultural programming for immigrants and refugees. It is one of the Foundation's highest priorities for funding since monies must be raised by the end of 2009.
The Wallace Endowment Challenge was awarded in 2006. It is a $1.5 million Excellence Grant to The Seattle Public Library Foundation, a matching challenge grant for the purpose of building a $3 million endowed fund that will sustain cultural programming for immigrants and refugees beyond the initial years that were funded through the Allen grant.
With the contributions from last year and this year, the Library should reach its goal of raising 1.5 million by the end of 2009.