The Funding Center has been a distinct part of the Michigan State University Libraries reference services since the summer of 1978, when it was designated a regional cooperating collection of the Foundation Center, the fourth such collection in the state of Michigan. From the beginning, it has collected materials received through membership in the Foundation Center's network (books, pamphlets, aperture cards, etc.) as well as supplementary materials acquired from other sources concerning funders, fundraising, proposal writing, nonprofit administration, philanthropy, and related topics.
In August 1999, a proposal was made and accepted to merge the financial aid and internship materials from a separate College Guide Collection with the existing Foundation Collection and to assign the new collection the name Funding Center as a part of the general reorganization of reference. As a result of this merger, the Funding Center will acquire resources on financial aid and internships related to undergraduates, graduates, and postdocs, in addition to resources on grants for academia and the nonprofit sector that have always been included in the collection. These will increasingly be in electronic format.
The Funding Center Coordinator holds periodic training sessions for University clientele in the Library as requested, provides training sessions for non-MSU users and organizations as part of the University's overall land grant and outreach mission, and participates in annual training opportunities sponsored by the Foundation Center and the Council of Michigan Foundations.
