Application for NEIBA Grants
To Established or Developing Local Business Alliances

The New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA) is offering its members grants (up to $2500) for established or developing Independent Business Alliances (IBAs). Please use the outline below as a guide when sending in your proposal. We want to be as flexible as possible, but the ultimate determination of grant eligibility remains the purview of the NEIBA Board of Directors. Please give us as much information as you can to help us make an informed decision.

The next call for grant applications will be announced in July 2008 with an October 10th deadline.

Organizational Information

A. Briefly describe the history of your organization, including the date it was formed.

B. Provide a brief summary of the mission of your IBA, your goals for the short term as well as the more distant future, and the geographical area your IBA is designed to cover.

C. List the current membership of your IBA (listing business names, addresses and contact information). NEIBA prefers that any IBA have a minimum of two NEIBA bookstore members in order to qualify for a grant. Grant applications may be considered from an IBA with only one bookstore member if geography dictates that having two bookstore members would be unfeasible. The greater your range of other members the better chance your grant will be approved. Please include the long-range membership goals for your IBA.

D. NEIBA requires that an IBA be a non-profit 501(C) 3 organization or a 501 (C) 6 trade association (or be affiliated with one) in order to receive a grant. Please list the status of your organization, as well as the make-up of the board of directors or other executive committee. You must include a treasurer capable of issuing a financial statement.

E. Describe the criteria for membership in your IBA.

F. List any current funding sources, including membership dues, other grants, etc.

2. Operating Information

A. Describe the size of the grant for which you are applying and elaborate on specific activities for which you hope to use the grant. As the NEIBA Board will establish a yearly budget for grants, some requests may not be fully funded, but an IBA may apply again in the future, as NEIBA intends this to be an ongoing program.

B. List the time frame for these activities and provide a basic budget.

C. Describe how these activities will be carried out.

D. Describe your organization's long-term strategies for sustaining these efforts.

3. Evaluation Information

NEIBA's Strategic Plan clearly emphasizes that grants will be provided to local Independent Business Alliances, strengthening their efforts in ways that can be replicated by other member stores. With this in mind, accepting a NEIBA grant requires you to submit a 2-3 page summary of how the grant was used and its results, including tips on what worked well and what didn't that could benefit other IBAs. This report should also include a final budget detailing how you actually spent the money and copies of any materials created that could be helpful to other booksellers and IBAs. Please be willing to share your experience at the NEIBA Trade Show or other educational opportunities within the New England bookselling community.

Applications should be mailed to:

NEIBA
297 Broadway Suite 212
Arlington MA 02474

or emailed to: steve@NEBA.org

Steve Fischer
NEIBA Executive Director