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Scenario 7 — Equipment funding for an Idaho school library.

Question: I'm a librarian at a small private school in Boise, Idaho, and we're in need of a variety of new equipment, such as microfiche machines, VCRs, etc. Because many foundations limit funding to their home cities and states, and there aren't many foundations based in Idaho, I'm worried it will be very difficult for us to secure the funding we need. Can you suggest an effective search strategy that might help us locate foundations willing to offer us support?

Answer: Because many states are not home to a large number of foundations, The Foundation Directory Online includes a Geographic Focus index, which helps you identify funders that offer funding within your state even though they may not be physically located there. So to begin constructing your search, we'll include Idaho in the Geographic Focus search field. Also, over 1,600 foundations included in The Foundation Directory Online fund nationally, and the Geographic Focus index contains the term "national" to assist you in locating these foundations as well. And finally, to sharpen the focus of your search, we'll include a Type of Support term, such as Equipment. This will add even more relevance to your search and should help to return a very useful list of results.

Follow these steps:
    1. Click on the Geographic Focus index.
    2. Scroll down the list of index entries until you locate Idaho. (The number in parentheses to the right of the entry indicates the number of foundations in the database with an interest in giving in Idaho.)
    3. Click on Idaho to place the term in the Geographic Focus search field.
    4. With the Geographic Focus index still open, select National from the index listing to place it in the Geographic Focus search field. (Note the Boolean operator OR is automatically inserted between Idaho and National.)
    5. Next, click on the Types of Support index.
    6. Locate Equipment, and click on it to place it in the Types of Support search field.
    7. Click Search. The search results list appears displaying a list of all foundations containing your search terms.