AVPS Releases New Grant Tracking Calendar (YADA!Cal)

We all know the drill: an e-mail comes through the listserv reminding us that the deadline for the Such & Such Grant for Thus & Thus is two weeks away. This sends us barreling headlong in a mad dash to ferret out some project, any project to cobble together some sort of application for…Or we sit and, before deleting the e-mail from our inbox, think, “Aw, man, I gotta apply for that next year…”

With this in mind AudioVisual Preservation Solutions, as part of our Your Archive Deserves Advocacy! (YADA!) initiative, has developed a free internet calendar that lists deadlines, reminders, links, and short descriptions of grants available for media archiving and preservation related projects. Using the .ics file format through the assistance of iCal Exchange, you can subscribe to the calendar and its updates through iCal, Outlook, Google Calendar, or a number of other calendar programs. Subscribing to the calendar feed will insert the “events” into your calendar program of choice so that you can more easily track and plan for future granting cycles. Events will be defined as their own set within your calendar which you can display or hide as you see fit through your program’s settings. As new deadlines are announced or new granting opportunities discovered we will update the main calendar. Those changes will be reflected in your own subscription.

Check out our Tools page or the Subscription Instructions for more information about the YADA! Archiving & Preservation Grants Calendar (YADA!Cal).

******************************************

Sometimes it seems funding opportunities do arise suddenly and require a quick reaction to capitalize on. However, any Development Department will tell you that those opportunities are a result of planning, cultivation, and engagement, and that the overall approach to establishing sustainability must be proactive, not reactive. Becoming a better advocate for your collections means becoming more aware and communicating more about the issues that can affect your collection both negatively and positively. One way to start filling in some of the gaps in awareness is to be prepared, and help prepare others in your organization, for funding opportunities before they flutter by again.

— Joshua Ranger