Aloha, and welcome to the Applicant webinar for the Native
Hawaiian Library Services Grant Program.
My name is Jennifer Himmelreich and I'm the program officer for
this grant program.
In this webinar, I'll be providing information about the
Native Hawaiian Library Services Grant program.
We will review eligibility, go over the application process,
the different application components, and also offer you a
few tips and suggestions.
Our goal is to help make the application process as easy as
possible while helping to ensure that all application
requirements are met.
The Native American Library Services Grants are competitive
awards for up to two years and up to $150,000. Cost share is
not required.
The anticipated period of performance for these awards is
September 1st, 2024 and to end by August 31st, 2026.
To be eligible for this program, you must be a nonprofit
organization that primarily serves and represents Native
Hawaiians.
The term Native Hawaiian refers to an individual who is a
citizen of the United States and a descendant of the Aboriginal
people who, before 1778, occupied and exercised
sovereignty in the area that is now the State of Hawaii.
If you are an ineligible institution, we can encourage
you to partner with an eligible institution on a project.
While you cannot be the lead applicant, you may apply through
a partnership with an eligible institution and receive funding
to support activities in that manner.
Please note that a grantee with an active Native Hawaiian
Library Services grant may not apply for another Native
Hawaiian Library Services Grant that would have an overlapping
period of performance with the active grant.
The Native Hawaiian Library Services Grant have three main
goals with objectives that correspond to each goal.
The first corresponds to the Digital Services Project
category on the Program Information Form, and they are
to improve digital services to support needs for education,
workforce development, economic and business development, health
information, critical thinking, and digital literacy skills.
Objective 1.1 supports the establishment and refinement of
digital infrastructure, platforms and technology.
Objective 1.2 supports preservation and access to
information and resources through digitization.
The second goal and objective correspond to the educational
programming project category and they are to improve educational
programs related to specific topics and contact areas of
interest to library patrons and community based users.
Objective 2.1 supports the identification of the needs and
interests of learners.
Objective 2.2 supports the development and implementation
of classes, events, teaching tools, resources, and other
educational services and Objective 2.3 supports the
evaluative assessment of library based approaches to teaching and
facilitation.
The third goal and objectives corresponds to the Preservation
and Revitalization Project category on the Program
Information Form. and they are to enhance the preservation and
revitalization of Native Hawaiian culture and language.
Objective 3.1 supports the development of efficient
strategic partnerships within across an outside Native
Hawaiian communities.
Objective 3.2 supports the preservation of content of
unique and specific value to Native Hawaiian communities.
Objective 3.3 supports the sharing of content within and or
beyond Native Hawaiian communities.
You can find the Notice of Funding Opportunity on our
website.
We ask applicants to read the NOFO carefully and follow all
links for for the application.
Pages six and seven in the NOFO include a table that lists all
of the application components, what kind of format they need to
be, they need to be submitted as, and which file name to use.
When you're submitting your application package, use this
list as a checklist of all documents you'll need to submit
by April.
First you want to make sure your application is complete so it is
not rejected simply because you missed or forgot one document.
Let's go over a timeline and how this process works.
Mark April 1st, 2024 at 11:59 PM as the deadline.
Make note that the time zone listed is for the Eastern Time
zone.
Once applications are received, grant proposals go through
application checks to make sure all application components are
there before they go out for peer review.
In May and June, reviewers will read your proposals and evaluate
them to make sure you have responded to the NOFO and that
your proposed project has potential for success.
After the peer reviews in June and July, we complete budget
checks and present the reviewers comments and scores to the IMLS.
The Director will then make final funding decisions based on
reviewers, evaluations and the overall goals of the program,
and agency announcements will be made in August, for September
1st start date.
Please note that during the application review time in April
in the budget reviews in June, noted with the purple stars in
the timeline are the periods our staff may reach out to grant
contacts with questions about application components or
questions about the budget, form justification, or indirect
costs.
If you need to get a better idea of how to align your project
with the three IMLS goal categories, you can search
previous awards awardees using our Awarded Grants search
database.
Starting on the IMLS homepage, click on Grants at the top of
the page, then click on Search Awarded Grants.
From here you can select a fiscal year.
We've chosen FY22, and you'll want to pull the Native American
Library Services Grant program under Programs, then hit Submit,
which will pull up all FY22 Native Hawaiian awardees.
Under the description, there's a PDF document you can download
which will include the proposal, narrative, and schedule of
completion for each funded project.
I will now review the questions that you should address in your
proposal.
As part of the IMLS Supplementary Information Form,
you'll include an abstract.
Here are some key questions to addressed in the in the
abstract.
First, you'll identify the lead applicant and, if applicable,
any collaborators you'll describe the need, problem, or
challenge your project will address.
You'll want to list the high level activities you'll carry
out and identify the associated time frames.
You'll specify and identify who or what will benefit from your
project, and you'll specify your project's intended results.
You'll describe how you'll measure performance in achieving
your intended results.
Please note that if your proposed project is selected for
funding, your abstract may be published online.
As such, it mean it must not include any sensitive or
confidential information.
Your application narrative should have three main sections,
a budget justification, a project work plan, and project
results.
In your project justification, please tell reviewers which
program goal and associated objectives of the Native Native
Hawaiian Library Services Grant Program will your project
address to describe in detail what need, problem, or challenge
your project will address and how it was identified.
You can use demographic information, economic
circumstances, condition assessments, and or other
relevant data from reliable sources to help define the need,
problem, or challenge and develop the scope for the
project.
You'll want to identify who the target group for your project
and how they've been involved in the planning.
Target group refers to those who will be most immediately and
positively positively affected by your project.
Be specific by identifying particular age groups, community
members with particular needs, and or other types of target
audiences.
Identify the number of individuals in the target group
in each target group.
If you identify more than one, you'll want to share who the
ultimate beneficiaries for this project are.
Beneficiaries refer to those who are likely to be aided in the
long term by your project.
They may or may not be the same group as your target group.
You'll want to identify the number of individuals who will
benefit from your project in the long, long term, if reliable and
justifiable reasons are possible.
Otherwise, describe the characteristics of the
beneficiaries you expect to be served eventually by your
project.
The second part of your application, your project work
plan, should address the following questions.
What specific activities will you carry out and in what
sequence?
What are the risks of the project and how will you
mitigate them?
Who will plan, implement, and manage your projects?
What time, financial personnel, and other resources will you
need to carry out the activities and identify any partner or
collaborator organizations that will contribute to your project
and describe their roles.
How and with whom will you share your work's general findings and
lessons learned?
What data will you collect, how often and from what sources, in
order to measure your performance in terms of
effectiveness, quality, and timeliness?
I will discuss more about this in a minute.
Does your project include any digital content resources,
assets, software, data sets?
If so, be sure to create a Data Digital Products plan.
Examples of digital products include any data data
visualizations that are informing the project's work,
online materials such as web pages and digital content
products or images.
For the third narrative component project results, it
needs to include what your project's intended results are
and how they will address the need, problem, or challenge you
have identified in the project justification above.
How will the knowledge, skills, behaviours and or attitudes of
the intended audience change as a result of your project?
What tangible products will result from your project?
How will you sustain the benefits of your project?
How we continue to support the project, its results and or new
models that are created beyond the grant.
For example, will there be ongoing institutional and or
community supportive project activities or products?
Do you have demonstrated buy in from potential stakeholders?
What are your plans for sustaining any digitized
collections, software and supporting documentation,
information system, and other technology tools?
The Native Hawaiian Library Services Grant Program will use
the following three performance measures as a basis for
understanding the level of performance by the grant program
as a whole and by each award supported through it for
effectiveness.
Are the activities being supported by the program
contribute to a.
Improving digital services B.
Improving educational programs and or seeing enhancing the
preservation and revitalization of Native Hawaiian cultures and
languages.
For quality is the program meeting user requirements and
expectations, and for timeliness is each activity being completed
on time and as proposed.
Each applicant must identify what data they will collect, how
often, and from what source.
In order to produce these measurements, consider using the
sample Performance Measurement Plan referenced in the NOFO to
get started.
I will now address key components of your application
package.
You'll want to include the application components listed on
the NOFO included here on this slide.
Conditionally required documents include your proof of private
non-profit status, your federally negotiated indirect
cost rate if you plan to include that in your budget, and the
Digital Products Plan if you're proposing to generate any
digital content, resources, assets, or software.
You'll need to include the IMLS budget form and budget
justification following the standard budget categories
listed on this slide.
Please note that the IMLS budget form is used for all IMLS grant
programs and includes areas you may not fill in as part of this
grant program.
The budget justification which accompanies the completed IMLS
budget form should explain in detail the purpose and cost
breakdown for each expense listed in these categories.
Note that under the Travel category, they should include
$3000 per year for IMLS Directed Travel.
Also, Please note that cost share is not required.
As part of this program, you may submit a reasonable number of
supporting documents that supplement your narrative and
support the project description.
Supporting documents should help IMLS staff and reviewers
envision your project in greater detail, but they should not be
used to introduce new topics nor to continue answers to the
narrative questions.
Give each document a clear, descriptive title at the top of
the first page.
You can choose to include any of the supporting documents listed
on this slide.
Final tips: Make sure to complete to submit a complete
application with all required documents.
Don't forget, any key personnel listed must have resumes.
You want to include any conditionally required documents
as needed.
If you're using a federally negotiated indirect cost rate
agreement, remember that the cost rate agreement must extend
through September 2024.
Please note that the indirect cost rate at the time of the
award stands until the end of the grant award, so if a new
rate is negotiated, we cannot amend to the new rate.
Finally, supporting documents might include needs,
assessments, letter supports, plans, or reports.
Next, we'll provide some tips on how to help with the application
process.
First, register early.
The UEI, SAM.gov and Grants.gov registrations are sequential.
The UEI has replaced DUNS and is generated when you register with
SAM.gov. You must have an active SAM.gov registration to register
with Grants.gov, and you will need a functional Grants.gov
registration to submit a Native Hawaiian grant application to
IMLS.
Remember that your SAM.gov registration expires each year
and you must renew it.
You can log on to SAM.gov at any time to find out your status,
and I would recommend doing that today.
Here are a few application tips based on experience.
Get get some feedback and revise.
Ask two or three people who are not involved in the grant to
read the proposal and provide feedback on ideas, structure and
grammar spelling.
Consider their feedback and revise accordingly.
Proofread final versions carefully.
Use spell check feature and coordinate with your team to
submit all application components through grants.gov
before the deadline.
Start today organizing what you need to apply and understanding
who in your organization can help confirm UEI, SAM, and
Grants.gov registrations.
Remember to save all your documents as PDF files.
Grants.gov cannot convert them for you, so that's an important
note.
Upload application files to grants.gov prior to the
deadline.
I would encourage setting a date in case something unforeseen
comes up requiring more time.
Utilize the Grants.gov workspace.
It's a great way to organize the work of the application process
in one work environment and with any work partners who have a
role to play an application prep and submission process.
Be sure to double check the uploaded files against the table
of application components in the Notice of Funding Opportunity.
Finally, by starting early, it allows you time to resubmit the
application before the deadline if you need to do so, so keep
that in mind.
This might be helpful if you discover you forgot something or
would like to add additional information.
For questions about eligibility, your library services plan and
project activities, the digital products plan, your budget,
including allowability of costs.
Please reach out to myself, Jennifer Himmelreich for
questions about application requirements and deadline.
Please reach out to my colleague Sheena Afoakwa.
Our contact information is on this slide. Mahalo for listening
in, and we look forward to receiving your application.
As always, best wishes from IMLS.