From the KCPL:
The Kansas City Public Library announced this week it has been awarded a $1.5 million grant over three years from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which will support the Library’s general operations.
“The very generous ongoing operating support of the Kauffman Foundation has made possible the Library’s programming, which we believe to be the best in the United States,” Kansas City Public Library Director Crosby Kemper III said. “More importantly, Kauffman has acted as an enlightened partner and collaborator on many of our top series.”
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Going forward, Kemper said, the support of the Kauffman Foundation will allow the Library to sustain and expand several initiatives that are central to the Library’s mission.
“Kauffman’s continued, thoughtful philanthropy will benefit the Library’s efforts to make Kansas City a Community of Readers – the most literate city in the Midwest and even the country,” he said. “It will help us maintain our central role in bridging the digital divide by making use of the energy around the Google Fiber project. And it will allow us to remain a strategic component of the city’s focus on early and lifelong learning.”
“In addition to our local work to improve student outcomes and accelerate entrepreneurship, we support civic organizations and causes that contribute to our community’s economic and cultural well-being,” said Wendy Guillies, Kauffman’s acting president and CEO. “The Kansas City Public Library is a treasured institution that makes this community a better place to live and work, and we are pleased to help support its outstanding programming.”
Funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has been instrumental in helping the Library earn several major awards in recent years, including the National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2008, designation as a Five-Star Library by the Library Journal in 2013, and the American Library Association’s Excellence in Library Programming Award in 2014.
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