Assignment 8.1: Visit the Foundation Center Essay
The Foundation Center is considered to be the leading source of philanthropy information. It was established in 1956 and nowadays is supported by almost 550 foundations. With the help of information, training and analysis this center connects people who try to change the world with the resources that can help them. Also it operates research, training and education programs aimed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at all levels. The main mission of the Center is to strengthen the social sector by using knowledge about philanthropy in the United States and worldwide.
There are a lot of activities performed by the Foundation Center. They include operation of libraries and learning centers in big five cities, offering free access to educational programs and data resources. It also provides a content-rich wed site full of different free tutorials, search tools and other data that is updated regularly. The Center maintains unique big database of information about 100,000 foundations, grantmaking public charities and corporate donors in the USA and about more than 2 million of center’s current grants. One of the activities is conduction of research and publishing reports on the growth of the foundation field and trends. Every year thousands of people are educated by the Center through a full curriculum of training courses. It publishes books about fundraising and management and coordinates a nationwide network of funding information centers.
The Foundation Center provides a variety of services that can be useful for thousands of people; everyone can benefit from it. I also may benefit from its services by attending training courses. It is comfortable for participants that courses can be arranges in classroom or online in the form of self-paced courses and tutorials, as well as webinars. In case of I need information about foundations I can use Foundation Directory Online subscription. The Foundation Center is a unique primary source of philanthropy information that can be easily used by any person.
