Dear DLF Colleagues,

Educopia Institute (educopia.org) is excited to announce an award in the amount of $245,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (mellon.org) in support of the Cita Press: Getting Fit project. A selection from the press release is included below.

Through this project, Educopia will partner with Cita Press Founder and Art Director, Juliana Castro, to build organizational capacity and a sustainability roadmap for Cita Press (citapress.org). In direct alignment with the objectives of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Public Knowledge Program, Cita Press celebrates the spread of culture and knowledge by publishing the writings of women authors whose works are open-licensed or in the public domain. Through its library of collaboratively designed free books, Cita honors the principles of decentralization, collective knowledge production, and equitable access to knowledge.

Acting as community cultivation advisor, Educopia will guide and oversee a range of community cultivation activities that draw on more than a decade of work with collaborative communities tackling key challenges in the creation, sharing, and preservation of knowledge. Planned activities include: documenting and refining the long-term vision for the press; assessing current infrastructure; supporting further engagement and growth of Cita’s community of readers and contributors; supporting the development and convening of Cita’s Advisory Board; and determining a fundraising strategy and organizational model for Cita.

Educopia and Cita Press deeply appreciate The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s generous support of this work. For more information about the project, contact Jessica Meyerson, Director of Research & Strategy, Educopia Institute, at [log in to unmask].