The mission of the California State Library is to support and enhance public libraries across California, ensuring they can meet the informational, educational, and recreational needs of the state's diverse communities.
This grant program is designed for libraries and other eligible organizations, focusing on supporting local and collaborative projects that meet community needs and aspirations, emphasizing equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging. It encourages applications especially from library jurisdictions and branches that have not received funding in the last five years, aiming for a diverse representation of regions, library sizes, and populations. The program welcomes all California library jurisdictions, library consortia, and library-focused nonprofit organizations to apply for projects on any topic serving any group. There are two types of projects eligible for funding: Local Community Impact Projects, focusing on a single library jurisdiction or branch, and Collaborative Community Impact Projects, implemented by three or more library jurisdictions. The grant outlines specific criteria for the number of local grants a library can apply for based on the number of outlets, with a minimum funding request of $10,000 and a maximum of $100,000 for local projects, and a minimum of $50,000 and a maximum of $250,000 for collaborative projects. Applicants applying for grants of $75,000 or above, or for a collaborative competitive grant, must have at least one project partner in place before submitting an application.