The Foundation Center databases may only be searched from the computer workstations located in the Van Wagenen Library building. The Van Wagenen Library's Foundation Center Cooperating Collection is one of over 200 collections in the United States affiliated with the Foundation Center. The Foundation Center's mission is to gather, analyze and disseminate information about foundations to organizations and individuals looking for grants. The Cooperating Collection is available for use whenever the Library is open. The Reference Foundation Center Cooperating Collection is located on the first floor of the library. The current list of titles in the collection is available here. Please ask at the Reference Desk for its location. The Foundation Directory Online For nonprofit organizations, access to the Foundation Center’s comprehensive database of more than 80,000 grantmakers and half a million grants, updated weekly. Connect to The Foundation Directory Online Foundation Grants to Individuals Online For students, artists, and researchers, access to the Foundation Center's special database of more than 6,100 funders, updated quarterly. Connect to Foundation Grants to Individuals Online Getting a Grant To find out what is involved in getting a grant, go to the Proposal Writing Short Course and the Proposal Budgeting Basics course on the Foundation Center's web site. Foundations rarely give grants directly to individuals. Private foundations usually give to nonprofit organizations that help individuals with services and programs. Guide to the Resources on the Foundation Center's Web Site http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/training/free/guide.html This 90-minute, hands-on session will introduce you to the resources available on the Foundation Center's web site and show you how to get the most out of them. Learn about the capabilities of their search tools, explore the rich content available on fundraising and proposal writing, and learn how to access and understand a foundation's 990-PF. Also explored is the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature, the Foundation Center's online public access catalogue and searchable bibliographic database, which can help you locate information quickly and plumb the depths of our library collection of books and articles on such topics as fundraising ethics, nonprofit management, proposal writing, and international philanthropy. Please contact Librarian Peter Barvoets for more information about this service.