NCIBA Forms Grant Program for Literacy Causes

To further its member booksellers' community involvement, the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) has created a nonprofit entity for its annual signature event, "Books By the Bay" (BBTB). As a charitable organization, BBTB can promote literacy programs in partnership with bookstores through grants administered by the nonprofit group.

Books By the Bay is NCIBA's 10-year-old celebration of independent bookselling, which is held each summer in San Francisco. According to NCIBA Executive Director Hut Landon, who is also the executive director of BBTB, "Literacy has always been a part of Books By the Bay; now, with its nonprofit standing, BBTB can offer many more opportunities for all of our members to support literacy causes."

Grant applications will be available from all NCIBA bookstores for anyone seeking a donation or funding for a literacy or book accessibility project. Grants will not exceed $2,500 and will be awarded twice yearly based on the recommendations of the BBTB Grant Committee.

Programs that "seek to improve a community's cultural literacy ... large or small" will be considered, although awards "will not be awarded to schools to add books to libraries or to support existing curricula, although a group that brings a reading or writing program into schools would qualify." Landon told BTW that the program will be funded by the proceeds from the Books By the Bay event, corporate and foundation contributions, and community fundraising appeals. "BBTB grants will enable every bookseller in NCIBA to respond to the many appeals from community groups for donations. Although a lot of the money [for the grants] will be raised by BBTB, bookstores that don't participate will benefit as well from the grant program. It ties into the fifth attribute of Book Sense -- commitment to community -- which is sometimes harder to market than the others. [These grants] are a visible way to seek out and support local literacy efforts."

At this year's Books By the Bay event, to be held on Saturday, July 23, each of the 40 exhibiting bookstores will showcase a different literacy cause. Stores will display materials from a variety of programs -- among them, writing programs, reading projects, book collections, and free speech advocacy groups. --Nomi Schwartz