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Donations and Special Funds

General Donations to USBBY
General donations to USBBY go into the working budget. These funds assist the organization in paying for operational expenses such as committee work, promotion and publicity, and general supplies and mailings. When donating to USBBY, you can also specify a particular fund if you wish (see below for details).

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Special Funds

The Lawrence R. Sipe Collection at the International Youth Library, Munich (2011):
Larry was a 2009 fellowship recipient at the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany. He loved it there; he felt enriched by the experience, and connected with scholars from around the world. The Library has graciously agreed to receive Larry´s collection of children´s literature and professional books, and to create a permanent collection in his name. David Weisner has generously offered to design a bookplate that will be placed in each book. Nearly 100 boxes of books are packed and ready to be shipped to the library. The cost is estimated to be approximately $6000, and we are soliciting donations to support this effort. Some may donate because of a personal connection with Larry, while others may not have known him personally but wish to honor his professional legacy. Others might choose to support this collection because it will enhance IBBY´s "sister organization", also founded by Jella Lepman, and because it will support international research in children´s literature, as well as the lending library for children.

Hands Across the Sea Donations
Hands Across the Sea donations are used to help underfunded national sections in IBBY pay their annual dues. Donations to this fund help USBBY´s twinning partners—Haiti, Lebanon, Palestine, South Africa, and Zambia—with their dues payment. For more information about our twinning partners, see the IBBY Partners and Friends section.

IBBY Children in Crisis Fund
The Children in Crisis Fund provides support for children whose lives have been disrupted through war, civil disorder or natural disaster. The two main activities are the therapeutic use of books and storytelling, and the creation or replacement of collections of selected books in the local language. The program is not only meant to provide immediate support and help, but also to make a long term impact in the communities, thus supporting IBBY´s goal of giving every child the Right to Become a Reader. For more information, go to the IBBY website.

Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon Need Our Help!
Dear USBBY Friends:

We recently received an email from our twinning partner, Julinda Abu Nasr, IBBY Lebanon, regarding the dire plight of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, as follows:

Warm greetings from Lebanon. Poor Lebanon! We go from one crisis into another. We have about one million Syrians in this small Lebanon in adddition to one million Palestinians. The majority of Syrian refugees in the country are families with children and women who live under very hard conditions. We have had a relatively cold winter and many of them had no decent shelter to live in. UN agencies, Red Cross, the church, NGOs are all helping as much as possible to provide the minimum basic needs. Wealthy Arab countries promise to send help but very little has come in so far according to reports we get.

IBBY Lebanon is cooperating with other organizations, including IBBY, to provide books along with bibliotherapy for these unfortunate children through a project called Behavior Management of Traumatized Syrian Children that will include introducing socially accepted behavior through the use of exercises, story books, drama, conversation and art that will help them cope with their anxiety and fears.

USBBY is launching a Children in Crisis fund drive through members´ and friends´ donations to support this project that will make a real difference in the lives of these children. Our goal is to try to raise $15,000 during the coming months. This money will provide ten books per group for 100 groups of children.

In past Children in Crisis campaigns, USBBY has been in the forefront of raising money for children in Palestine, Pakistan, Haiti, Chile, and Japan. We hope that we can once again respond to this most current crisis. You can donate by going to the USBBY website, www.usbby.org, Make a Donation Today, on the homepage. Donations can be made by check or by credit card through PayPal.

Thank you very much in advance for your support of this effort!

Kathy East, USBBY President
Ellis Vance, USBBY Executive Director

Pakistan Relief Efforts
USBBY is accepting donations for a Pakistan Relief Fund, to provide children with books after the devastating floods of 2010. Thanks to donations from USBBY supporters last year, 85 new libraries were assembled for the children of Pakistan.

 

Haiti Relief Effort
USBBY is accepting donations for a special Children in Crisis Fund for Haiti Relief in response to the January 12, 2010 earthquake disaster. These donations will be sent to IBBY Haiti to help surviving children and their families through books and storytelling and the reconstruction of libraries. Funds are desperately needed to support IBBY Haiti´s work with teachers, librarians and care-givers in using the healing power of story after natural environmental disasters.

USBBY Special Projects Fund
In February 2007, the USBBY Board of Directors approved creating a Special Projects Fund to be used specifically to fund worthy projects, both domestic (U.S.) and foreign (IBBY related projects) that merit USBBY support. Since then, several projects have been funded, including the Lubuto Library Project (2009), the Zimbabwe Website Project (2010), and the Lebanese Library Project (2010). For more information, go to USBBY Special Projects Fund.

Applying for Special Projects Funds
The USBBY Special Projects Committee is currently accepting applications for funding future activities and projects.

Applications are judged on urgency of the need, the quality of the proposed project, short term and long term benefits, and compatibility with IBBY and USBBY´s mission and goals. No more than $4,000 will be awarded annually to any one project.

If you know of worthy domestic or foreign projects that would fit the designated criteria, please submit an application to V. Ellis Vance, Special Projects Fund chairperson. An application and guidelines are available for downloading or can be obtained by contacting Ellis Vance at Executive.Director@usbby.org.

The deadline for application submission is August 1 each year. Project funds will not be available in 2012 and 2013.