If you work for one of the couple hundred nonprofits in the community that depend on funding for their programs, you’re probably aware of the Springfield-Greene County Library’s Funding Information Center.

Located near the reference desk at the Library Center, the Funding Information Center is the place to go when you have a question similar to this one: “Where can I find information about foundations that fund programs to help children with health problems in Missouri?”

The Funding Information Center, says coordinator Aleah Weltha, is a microcosm of the overall library collection: books to check out, reference volumes, newspapers, magazines, directories, videos, DVDs, audio books, CD-ROMs—“a little bit of everything.”

But all the materials are there, all in one place, to help 501(c)3 organizations get the information they need to make their foundations, fundraisers and charitable-giving causes successful.

The new, improved product created by the Foundation Center of New York, Weltha says, is by far the one resource that could be most helpful to grant-seekers. Re-named Foundation Directory Online Professional, the new database contains more than 88,000 profiles of private foundations, grant-making public charities and corporate-giving programs.

“In the past, this product was a CD-ROM and only updated once each year,” explained Weltha. “Now it’s web-based and updated once each week. This means the information is the very latest you can get so that it will be easier to match up your giving needs to what’s available—and that’s really the key to a successful grant.”

Here’s some more good news: you don’t have to navigate the funding process on your own. Weltha will be glad to share her expertise at the Library Center, or you can make at appointment by calling 882-0714 or online at Ask a Librarian, thelibrary.org/asklib.cfm.

Or, if you want to go it alone, access the Nonprofit Prophet, the library’s web page, for fundraising tips, trends and tools at thelibrary.org under Infolink, and then “Funding & Nonprofits.”

Jeanne C. Duffey, community relations director for the Springfield-Greene County Library District, can be reached at jeanned@thelibrary.org.