Welcome to the Institute of Museum and Library Services
Office of Museum Service Informational Video Inspire
Grants for Small Museums Grant Program Applicant Information
Session. The goal of this video is to provide an overview of our
Inspire Grants for Small Museums grant program, which we call
"Inspire" for short, and the process of preparing an
application for funding.
This video is organized into 7 chapters. "What is Inspire?":
This section explains the purpose and design of the
Inspire grant program. "What Can Inspire Grants Fund?": This
section explains the types of projects that can be funded in
inspire and the amount of funds that can be requested.
"Application Components Introduction": This section
describes the types of documents that are needed to create an
Inspire grant application.
"Application Components Organizational Profile": This
section is where you will talk about your institution and make
the case for being a small museum. "Application Components
Narrative": This section provides guidance on composing
the narrative part of the application. "Application
Components Budget": This section provides details on the
information to include in your project budget. "Application
Tips, and Next Steps": The concluding section provides a
few tips and next steps.
The complete set of instructions for how to prepare and submit an
Inspire grant application are found in the Notice of Funding
Opportunity published on Grants.gov and also available on
the IMLS website. Please refer to the Notice of Funding
Opportunity for the most detailed information to prepare
your application. To get the most out of this video, we
recommend that you watch it in its entirety. This will give you
an understanding of the Inspire grant program, the types of
projects that can be funded,
and the necessary application components. You may also want to
review the Inspire notice of Funding Opportunity before,
during, and after you watch the video. Notices of Funding
Opportunities, also known as NOFOs, are documents that detail
the requirements of each of our grant programs for fiscal year
2024. All of our NOFOs can be found at IMLS.gov\ Grants. As
you navigate the application process, you can use this video
as the reference tool.
If you'd like to skip to a specific section, please use the
time bar below or the links in the description box to navigate
the chapters. In this section we will answer the question, 'What
is Inspire?", providing information on the purpose and
intent of this grant program and who it is designed to serve.
Inspire Grants for Small Museums is a special initiative of the
Museums for America program.
The overall goal of the program is to support activities that
strengthen the abilities of individual small museums to
serve their publics. This might be through activities that
reflect museums as active resources for lifelong learning,
as institutions important in improving the wellbeing of their
communities, or as good stewards of the nation's collections.
Inspire is all about what your museum needs in order to better
serve your public. It may well be exactly the same as what the
museum across town or in a neighboring state needs, and
that's okay.
The important thing here is that our support should help you make
a local impact. Inspire projects are expected to focus on a key
component of your museum's strategic plan. IMLS wants to
support your museum in priority areas that benefit your
community. Priorities in your strategic plan may connect to a
range of activities from exhibitions, educational /
interpretive programs, digital learning resources, professional
development, institutional planning,
audience focused studies, and / or collections management,
curation, care and conservation. These are the kinds of
activities that can be funded in the Inspire grant program. A
characteristic of a successful Inspire grant application is
making the connection between the proposed project and a key
need or challenge that faces your museum and whose resolution
is identified in your strategic plan. To help illustrate that
connection in your grant application, we ask for a
summary of your strategic plan --
usually no more than two pages -- so that reviewers will be
able to understand how your proposed projects activities
will further your institutional goals and objectives. The
strategic plan summary is your opportunity to make a thoughtful
and well-constructed connection between the proposed project and
your museum's priorities. Inspire is a grant program for
museums. As a museum, you should keep in mind that all applicants
must meet certain requirements to be eligible for federal
funding.
Your organization must be located in one of the United
States 50 states, its territories, or the District of
Columbia. Your organization must be a unit of state, local, or
tribal government, or private nonprofit organization with
tax-exempt status. If you meet those two requirements, then the
next step is to consider what it means to be eligible for IMLS
funding as a museum. Museums must: have at least one full
time or equivalent professional staff person, either paid or
unpaid;
have a physical location that it owns or operates; have been open
to the public for at least 120 days in the year prior to
November 15th, 2023; and own or use tangible objects. Museums
may be standalone organizations, or they may be part of a larger
institution such as a college, university, tribe, or state or
local government. Inspire is a grant program for all types of
museums. Here's a brief list of some of the types of museums
that routinely apply to this grant program.
There are a wide variety of museum disciplines and
geographic locations where museums are located across the
country, and determining an institution's size may rest on a
number of factors. As a result, IMLS invites applicants to
consider whether their organization is a good fit for
this special initiative and to make a case clearly within the
application's Organizational Profile document for why they
think they are a small museum.
Reviewers will use the information provided in the
organizational profile to determine if the applicant made
a clear case for being a small museum. Applicants should think
about a range of attributes that describe their organizations,
such as: number of staff members and volunteers: estimate of
total person hours worked per week; operating budget and
sources of revenue; number and types of objects in the
collection; size of facility and property;
types and numbers of audiences served; and size relative to
other organizations of the same discipline or within the same
geographic region. In this section, we will answer the
question, "What can Inspire Fund?", providing details on the
types of projects and associated goal objectives within the
Inspire grant program, as well as offer some summary data on
the number and type of Inspire projects that were funded last
year.
Inspire grants are designed to support project-based
activities, so let's take a minute to consider just exactly
what that means. The Project Management Institute has a good
definition, which is, "A temporary endeavor undertaken to
create a unique product, service or result." They go on further
to explain that a project is temporary because it has a
defined beginning and end in time and therefore it defines
scope and resources. And the project is unique in that it is
not a routine operation,
but rather, a specific set of operations designed to
accomplish a singular goal. We recommend that you keep this
definition in mind as you conceptualize your IMLS project.
Think of it as a temporary, non-routine set of activities
which collectively have a beginning and an end in time, a
defined scope requiring specific resources, and which are
designed to accomplish a specific singular goal.
Keeping our focus on project-based activities, let's
look a little further at what characteristics are most often
seen in successful Inspire applications. Institutional
Impact: The project addresses a key goal identified in the
institution's strategic plan. In-depth knowledge: The project
design reflects a thorough understanding of current
practice and knowledge about the subject matter. Project-Based
Design:
The work plan consists of a set of logical interrelated
activities tied directly to addressing the key need or
challenge. Demonstrable Results: The project generates measurable
results that tie directly to the need or challenge it was
designed to address. Successful projects most often exemplify
all these four characteristics and fit well within the Inspire
grant program. It has been our experience that unfunded
applications fail to deliver convincingly on one or more of
these areas.
With that concept of project in mind, let's turn to the program
goal and its associated objectives. You should align
your proposed project with one or more of the associated
objectives. The choice of objective should be identified
clearly in the narrative, and the choice of objective also
informs the choice of project category, which we will discuss
on the next slide. After selecting a program objective.
This is likely to be the most important decision you make
about your funding application.
As you can see here, there are three options Lifelong learning,
Institutional Capacity and Collections Stewardship and
Access. You will find these three areas align with your
selection of a program objective. You will select your
program goal, objective, and project category on the Museum
Program Information Form. Why is your decision about which
project category to choose so important? For one thing, your
application will be reviewed by museum professionals who have
experience and expertise in these general categories.
And for another, your application will be competing
against others who have chosen the same category. In short, the
entire review process incorporates an assumption that
your project aligns with the category you've identified. It's
an important choice. So, let's look at what kinds of activities
a project in each of these categories might include. In
this and the two slides that follow, we include a list of the
types of projects that fit within the category and
associated objectives.
A project in Lifelong Learning might include, but is not
limited to, all or part of an exhibit, program development for
all types of audiences, creating interpretive plans, media
training for teachers, partnerships with schools or out
of school audiences, or program evaluation As you plan your
project in this category, we strongly recommend starting with
the concept of learner at the center and build around it.
Spend time really thinking through who your learners in
this project are and what their needs are.
It's not likely going to be everybody. So, who is it really?
What do they want to learn? What do you want them to learn, and
what's the best way to go at that? We'll get to the whole
idea of problems and needs in a few minutes, but a major take
away here is to be focused on identifying your audience and
then thinking about how you were going to serve them. An
Institutional Capacity project is likely to include activities
that contribute directly to your work to build the capacity of
your museum.
An institutional capacity project might include, but is
not limited to, institutional planning and policy development
and the recruitment, training and development of museum staff
and volunteers. Our third project category is that of
Collection Stewardship and access, and this includes just
about anything you need to do for and with collections except
acquire them. We are very open to projects that have multiple
components configured in ways that make sense for you.
One project might consist of cataloging, taking digital
photographs, and updating database records. While another
might combine digitization activities with rehousing. We
support conservation projects of all kinds, general detailed and
environmental surveys, as well as treatments and environmental
improvements. And you are welcome to incorporate aspects
of training and or collections management into these projects
if doing so makes sense for your situation.
It's important to note that in this project category, we
encourage a step-by-step progressive approach to
collections work, including conservation. This means
assessing needs, creating a prioritized list of activities,
and following through by doing the most important things first.
Before we close our discussion of project categories, we want
to mention our guidance for projects that could belong
logically in more than one.
Sometimes it's tough to choose, and you might be tempted to
think that the best strategy would be to align with more than
one, two and maybe even three. We advise against that for
several reason reasons. The project categories have
different goals, and we expect the projects aligned with each
will address different problems, use different approaches, and
will measure success in achieving the intended results
in different ways. So, how can you choose the best category for
your project? Here are three things we suggest you try.
Think carefully about what is in the center of your project. Is
it the learner? Will people who engage with you as a result of
your project to create a new exhibition and programming to go
with it acquire new knowledge, develop a skill, experience a
change in attitude about the subject of your exhibit? Or is
it your institution that's in the center of your thinking? Is
your project one that will address an important need within
the museum, and will it result in an enhanced technology or a
new policy or staff that has received professional
development opportunities?
Or is your project about the collections? Will your project
result in a better managed, better care for, and more
accessible set of objects? A second way to go at this might
be to think about who you want to review your application. If
you apply under Lifelong Learning, you will put your
application in front of educators, learning theorists
and professionals with deep experience and understanding of
how people learn in museum environments. Would you rather
be put it in front of a combination of experts in museum
planning, website design or policy creation?
If that sounds right, then it may push you toward
Institutional Capacity. If you apply under Collections
Stewardship and Access, you can be confident that your
application will be reviewed by some combination of registrars,
collection managers, curators, conservators, or collections
information specialist. If that seems appropriate, then this is
most likely your best choice. A third strategy to try might be
to make a list of all the activities you plan to carry
out.
And then assign each to a project category and then count
to see where most of these activities occur and where most
of the time and money will be spent. And that might well
provide your answer. Inspire supports projects of all sizes,
but there is a specific range of funding available in this grant
program. For a small project, your project budget can request
a minimum of $5000 to a maximum of $25,000 in federal funds with
no cost-share required.
For large project, your project budget can request a minimum of
$25,001 to a maximum of $75,000 with the one-to-one cost share
required. If you ask for less than $5000 or more than $75,000
in federal grant funds, your application may be rejected and
not reviewed. Remember to keep your budget aligned to the scope
and scale of your project, including all costs necessary to
complete the proposed activities.
Cost share can take a number of forms. Among them are cash,
staff time, volunteer time, third party contributions,
grants from foundations, and support from state or local
government. Cost share cannot come from other federal sources.
In the Inspire program, small project budgets are not required
to have cost share. In the graph on the screen there are 4
examples. The first example is of a total project budget of
$25,000 with no cost share.
In the three other examples, the IMLS request amount never
exceeds $25,000, but the applicant is choosing to include
partial cost share. Large project budgets in the Inspire
program are required to have at least a one-to-one nonfederal
cost share. In the graph on the screen there are 4 examples. In
all examples the IMLS request amount and the cost share are
one-to-one. Applicants can choose to have more than the
required one-to-one cost share for large projects.
The amount of applications received and the amount of
awards made can vary from year to year. Here is a snapshot of
our most recent application and award cycle. In FY23 IMLS made
77 Inspire awards with a total of $3.4 million in federal
funds. We received 234 Inspire applications last year,
resulting in 33% of those applications being funded.
About 44% of the Inspire awards were for project supporting the
Lifelong Learning goal, 39% of the project supported the
Collections Stewardship and Access goal and 17% of the
project supported the Institutional Capacity goal. In
this section, we will introduce the components of an Inspire
grant application and provide an overview about the required,
conditionally required and supporting documents.
The Inspire Notice of Funding Opportunity includes a complete
list of all the application components. Most of these
components are created by applicants and saved as a PDF
for uploading as part of your application package. In
Grants.gov, the table of application components starting
on page 8, Section D2A of the NOFO lists which application
components are required, as well as those that are conditionally
required. For example, some components are included in the
application depending on the type of applicant or the type of
project.
Aside from the SF424S and the IMLS Program Information form
which are completed in the Grants.gov workspace, all
application components must be submitted as PDF documents.
These are the required documents. All applications must
include the documents listed here. Omission of even just one
might result in your applications rejection. Also,
important to note, there is a 5-page limit for the narrative.
If you exceed the page limit specified in the Notice of
Funding Opportunity, you must remove the extras before your
application goes out for review. That means your reviewer may
well see a paragraph or sentence end in midair and will wonder
about your organizational skills and your attentiveness to
detail. So, make sure your content fits into the page limit
specified and make sure the number of pages holds when you
convert your document to a PDF.
The second category of application components is that
of conditionally required documents. Some applications
must include one, two or even all four of these, and it's your
job to figure out which are required for yours. If you are
applying as a nonprofit, then you must include your proof of
nonprofit status issued by the Internal Revenue Service. We
will not accept a letter of state sales tax exemption as
proof of nonprofit status. If you are using a federally
negotiated indirect cost rate in your budget, then
you must include a copy of your final rate agreement. If you
will create digital products during the course of your
project, then you must complete and submit a Digital products
plan. If you are requesting support for conservation
treatment, then you must include detailed condition reports and
or formal conservation treatment proposals. Just like the
required documents omission of even one might result in your
applications rejections. Please note that the term digital
product includes: digitized and born digital content,
resources or assets; and software. If you are creating
any of these types of materials, you must include the form with
your application. The third group of application components
is Supporting Documents, and here is a partial list of
examples. Supporting documents are optional. You may submit
some or none. Include only those items that will supplement your
proposal. This is not the place to introduce brand new
information, rather as the name suggests,
they should lend support to your project justification, work
plan, and intended results that you've already spelled out in
your application narrative. For example, have you identified a
partner whose involvement is key to the project's success? If so,
a letter of support or commitment would go a long way
to reassuring reviewers that they are on board and the
project will succeed. Pictures can help reviewers who may not
be familiar with your institution, programs,
collections, or community a better idea of what you're
describing within your narrative.
Vendor quotes or equipment specifications show you've done
some of the legwork in getting appropriate estimates for
project cost. We recommend that you be respectful of your
reviewer's time and avoid any temptation to include hundreds
of pages of extraneous material. Being judicious really does work
to your benefit, as supporting documents can make or break an
application. Include what is important, helpful, and directly
relevant to your project and stop there.
In the following sections of this presentation, we will focus
on these application components: Organizational Profile,
Narrative, Budget. Go to the Notice of Funding Opportunity
for complete instructions on how to prepare and complete all of
the application components. In this section, we will go over
the Organizational Profile and what you need to include on each
page of this required document. We ask that you create a
two-page document describing your organization.
On the first page, we ask that you address: your organization's
mission or statement of purpose; your organization's governance
structure, including if your museum is an organizational unit
under a larger "parent" organization (for instance, if
the applicant is an art museum under a university) and the
level of support provided by the "parent" organization; your
service area; and a brief history of your organization. On
page two of this document,
we ask that you describe your organization's size using a
range of attributes that we shared earlier in this
presentation. This is where you make the case for being a small
museum. In this section, we will go over the questions you will
need to answer in your project narrative and offer details on
the review criteria associated with each section: Project
Justification, Project Work Plan, and the Project Result.
Now, let's talk about the Narrative of your proposal.
You have 5 pages to cover 3 very important issues and the Notice
of Funding Opportunity provides lengthy guidance on what the
narrative should cover. First is the Project Justification. What
need, problem, or challenge will you your project address and how
is it identified? Describe how you have used demographic
information, economic circumstances, condition
assessments, and other relevant data from reliable sources to
define the need, problem, or challenge and develop the scope
for the project.
Who is the target group for your project and how have they been
involved in the planning? Target group refers to those who will
be most immediately and positively affected by your
project. Identify the number of individuals in the target group
or in each target group, if you identify more than one, who are
the ultimate beneficiaries for this project. Beneficiaries
refers to those who are likely to be aided in the long-term by
your project. They may or may not be the same as your target
group.
Identify the number of individuals who will benefit
from your project in the long-term, if reliable and
defensible accounts are possible. Otherwise, describe
the characteristics of the beneficiaries you expect to be
served eventually by your project. In Section E of the
Notice of Funding Opportunity, under Review Criteria, you will
find a list of questions that reviewers are asked to consider
when they review your proposal.
It is a good idea to refer to these as you craft your
narrative to be certain you are providing reviewers clear, solid
information. You will see that they correspond directly with
the prompts you were given to write your narrative. Because
the need, problem, or challenge is foundational in your
application, keep these points in mind. The federal government
wants its investment to result in something getting better. As
you define your need, problem, or challenge, articulate what
will get better as a result of your project as precisely as
possible.
Will someone learn something? Develop a skill? Change an
attitude? Will members of your community be better able to work
together to solve problems? Will collections be better cared for?
Will their lifespan be extended? Will access to your collections
and the information surrounding them be expanded? Identify why
it is important that that this particular change happens. Hone
your problem definition carefully in clear, succinct
terms. Gather and present data that support your problem
definition.
Project Work Plan: If the Project Justification section
was the "Why?", the Project Work Plan section is where you
identify the "Who, what, when and how". Who will do what
activities? When, and using what resources? You should explain
how you will track your progress toward achieving your intended
results and what you'll do if you need to correct course. We
also ask that you think about risks
that are inherent in your particular project, and to tell
us how you've taken that into account in your planning, I'll
say more about that in a few minutes. Reviewers will evaluate
your proposal and how well your activities are informed by
appropriate theory and practice; whether the goals, assumptions,
and risk are clearly stated. Reviewers want to see that the
team you've put together has the experience and skills necessary
to complete the work successfully, and whether your
schedule is realistic and achievable.
They'll also be looking at whether the time, personnel and
financial resources identified are appropriate for the scope
and scale of the project. They will consider if you've
described, clear methodology for tracking your progress and
adjusting course when necessary. Your work plan will be built on
activities, so it's important to be clear about just what an
activity is. An activity is something that someone does. It
has a beginning and an end, just like projects.
And you know when you finished it because it doesn't need to be
done anymore. It is no longer on your "To Do List". An activity
is not a goal or result or an outcome. Rather, it is something
you do as part of striving to achieve those. Aim for a
reasonable level of granularity and identifying your activities.
That might be hard, but strive for not too much, not too
little, but rather just right. We also ask you to think about
risks that are inherent in your particular project and to tell
us how you've taken that into account in your planning.
Think of it as answering the question "What if?" There is no
checklist of risk, but every project has them. The best
proposals will show that you were aware of them and have
thought through a plan for dealing with them. Look at your
activities and think about what could go wrong. Focus on the
ones where your experience (your own or that of a group) tells
you, "Yes that could happen" and identify steps you would take in
response. IMLS knows things go differently than expected, we
just want you to prepare by identifying implementable
options.
Here are some examples of risk that might be part of a project.
A project might be structured around interns, who will be
selected and trained according to well thought out processes.
What will happen if one or more interns drops out? What's the
plan for replacing them mid-project? A project involving
rehousing collections into new museum quality collection
storage furniture might run into delays in preparing the space or
in the delivery of the cabinets. What happens to the collection
items then?
How will the institution ensure that they will remain safe and
secure? Project Results: The third section of your narrative
should be devoted to articulating your project's
intended results. This section is your chance to convince the
reviewers that your project will result in something getting
better. The need or problem you identified in your project
budget will be addressed directly and it will be
diminished or eliminated altogether.
We ask you to tell us what data you will collect and report in
order to measure your project's success. If your project will
generate tangible products, and most do, here's the opportunity
to describe them and make the case that they will be useful.
And last but not least, we ask that you tell us how you will
sustain the benefit of the project. How will this
improvement that you propose to make continue once your grant is
over?
Reviewers will give us their opinions on how well you've
designed a feasible plan for collecting and reporting data;
how likely the improvements that you propose will be realized;
will the tangible products you plan to create be accessible to
the targeted audience you identified, and whether your
plan for sustaining the benefits of the project are reasonable
and practical. We often hear that defining intended results
and success measures is challenging for applicants, so
it's worth spending a bit of time on this here.
Let's think back to the questions we referenced a couple
of slides ago when we talked about defining the need,
problem, or challenge that your project is addressing. If you
said someone will learn something, how will you know? If
your problem related to segments of your community being better
able to work together? How will you know when that has been
achieved? If collections will be better cared for -- how will you
be sure and how will you measure better? If you're digitizing to
expand accessibility, how will you know when you've done it?
All of your results should tie back to your need, problem, or
challenge. You may well experience tangential benefits
and or positive outcomes, but make sure you identify them as
"in addition to" and not "instead of" your original
intended results. Reviewers are likely to see that as a
disconnect. So, to recap, your Narrative has three sections:
Project Justification, Project Work Plan, and Project Results,
and you have 5 pages for it.
The sections are all equally important. Write clearly,
address what we ask you to address, and keep an eye on
those review criteria. We're telling you here exactly what
the reviewers will look for, so make it easy for them to find it
and understand it. In this section we will provide
information on what to include in your Project Budget and
Budget Justification and provide some examples of allowable and
unallowable costs. An important component of your application is
the budget.
This is the part of the application where you specify
all the costs associated with your proposed project. The
budget consists of two required components, the IMLS Budget Form
and the Budget Justification. The IMLS Budget Form is a
fillable PDF that accommodates up to three years of project
activities and expenses. The budget should include the
project costs that will be charged to grant funds as well
as those that will be supported by cost share. If applicable,
in-kind contributions to cost share may include the value of
services,
(e.g., donated volunteer or consultant time) or equipment
donated to the project between the authorized start and end
dates of your project. All the items listed here, whether
supported by grant funds or cost share, must be necessary to
accomplish project objectives, allowable according to the
applicable federal cost principles, auditable, and
incurred during the award period of performance. The IMLS Budget
Form can be downloaded directly from the IMLS website.
As you develop your budget, keep in mind that there are certain
costs that are either allowable or unallowable according to
federal regulations. The allowability of a cost item for
all federal grants are specified in the Code of Federal
Regulation or CFR, sometimes referred to as "2 CFR 200" for
short, but the full title is "Title 2, Subtitle A, Chapter 2,
Part 200 -
Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles,
and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards". Using the 2 CFR
200 as a basis, we've developed a short-list of allowable costs
that are most common to Inspire projects. See page 18 of the
Inspire Notice of Funding Opportunity, which includes a
partial list of the most common examples of allowable cost. This
short list of allowable costs is also shown on the slide. These
costs may be part of what you asked IMLS to pay for with
federal funds,
or what you will pay for as part of your cost share. The rules
about allowability apply equally to grant funds as well as to
cost share. When completing your project budget, be sure to check
out all the costs you include, whether grant funds or cost
share are allowable. There are also some costs which are
unallowable according to the federal regulations and 2 CFR
200. On pages 18 to 19 of the Inspire Notice of Funding
Opportunity, we also provide an abbreviated list of unallowable
costs. These are also listed on the slide.
Unallowable costs may not be part of what you ask IMLS to pay
for, nor can they be part of what you will pay for as part of
your cost share. In fact, unallowable expenses cannot show
up anywhere in your proposal as you prepare your application.
It's a good idea to compare your list of proposed expenses
against these lists of allowable and unallowable costs and
against the appropriate set of cost principles. If after that
you have specific questions, please contact us and we'll be
happy to help.
In addition to the IMLS Budget Form, you will also prepare a
Budget Justification. This is an opportunity to provide a more
detailed narrative format and explanation or justification for
the project cost. The budget justification should be written
to follow the cost categories in the IMLS Budget Form. In the
justification, you will identify each expense and show the method
of cost computation used to determine each dollar amount,
including any that you may have consolidated and summarized on
the IMLS Budget Form. In other words, please show your math.
For example, in the section Salaries and Wages, you should
identify each person whose salary or wages will be paid
with IMLS funds or by cost share. Provide their names and
describe their role in the project. Document the method of
cost computation by including the base salary or wages for
each person and the percentage of time each person is allocated
to the project activities,
which may be shown as a percentage of time, number of
days, or number of hours. If cost share is being provided by
unpaid volunteers, explain how you arrived at the dollar amount
used to represent the value of their services. In the section
for supplies, materials, and equipment, you should list each
type of supply, material, and equipment you proposed to
purchase or provide as cost share for the project. Detail
the number and unit cost for each item and explain how you
arrive at the dollar amounts.
You may also provide vendor quotes or price lists as
supporting documents with your application. In this final
section of our presentation, we offer some Application Tips and
Next Steps. We can only make grants to eligible applicants
that submit complete applications, including
attachments on or before the deadline. So, here are some tips
to help you do just that. Start early. You've already done that
by participating in this webinar.
Become familiar with Grants.gov's workspace. It has
many good features, including upfront validation, which allows
you to correct errors prior to submission, and the opportunity
to collaborate with others in creating your application.
Consider starting with the Workspace Overview and check out
the tutorials. Do your background research. Make it
easy for the reviewers to see that you are up to date and know
what you're talking about. Be sure your application is
complete. Check it against the table of application components
and the Notice of Funding opportunity.
Make sure all application components are in the proper
format and follow the correct naming conventions. Submit to
Grants.gov early so you can correct any errors and avoid any
trauma created by technology challenges. It's important to
get your application submitted online through Grants.gov before
the deadline. IMLS does not accept applications by mail or
e-mail.
In order to register with Grants.gov, you must have an
active SAM.gov registration and Unique Entity Identifier Number.
So, make sure your registrations for both of these sites are
complete, your accounts are active, and that any necessary
passwords are current. These registrations expire
periodically, so do not wait until it's time to hit the
submit button to check on them. You should coordinate with any
other staff members, such as your authorized organization
representative, who may hold the accounts and passwords you'll
need to submit.
Both the SAM.gov and Grants.gov websites have robust help
features and FAQ's. If you run into technical issues with
either of these sites, you should reach out to their help
desk and request a tracking case or ticket number in order to
document your issue and attempts at resolving it. Failure to have
active SAM.gov or Grants.gov registrations by the application
deadline is not an excuse for submitting a late application.
So again, start early.
There are many components to the application, and the Narrative
is an essential and critical part of the package. Peer
reviewers, museum professionals from all types of museums, will
be selected by IMLS to read each application and provide
constructive and critical comments on the strengths and
weaknesses of the proposed projects. They also base their
reviews only on the information contained in the application.
So, don't assume that a reviewer or IMLS will know something
about your museum or your proposed project.
To help make sure your narrative is as clear and complete as
possible, revisit the Inspire notice of Funding Opportunity
and follow the narrative outline it provides. Be sure to consider
the review criteria associated with each section of the
narrative. Use headings, subheadings, or numbered
sections in your narrative to make it easy for reviewers to
read. Avoid generalities, acronyms, and jargon, the people
who will review your application are museum professionals, but
they may not be totally familiar with your particular field
shorthand.
Make it easy for them to understand what you mean. An
advantage to starting your application early is that you
can ask a colleague to review everything with fresh eyes
before you submit. Ask them to act like a reviewer who's seeing
this for the first time. Here are a few important dates
relating to Inspire applications. Applications must
be received through Grants.gov by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on
November 15th to 2023. The date is non-negotiable.
The time stamp is auto generated by the Grants.gov system and we
have no ability to override it. We will say this repeatedly, to
start early and submit your application early. That way if
you encounter difficulty of any kind when submitting your
proposal, you'll have some time to resolve the problem. After
the application deadline, IMLS staff will review your
application for completeness and eligibility, and you will hear
from us via e-mail if there are any problems.
Next, we will select experienced and knowledgeable peer reviewers
to read your applications and provide scores and comments
based on the criteria outlined in the Inspire Notice of Funding
Opportunity. IMLS staff will examine your budget, your
financials, and your track record with past and current
grants. We then prepare materials for the IMLS Deputy
Director for Museums and the IMLS Director. By law, the IMLS
Director is charged with the authority and responsibility to
make final award decisions, and this typically happens in July.
In early August 2024, we will notify you by e-mail of the
award decisions and provide the scores and comments created by
the reviewers. Inspire projects must be scheduled to start on
the first day of September 2024. As you read through the NOFO and
prepare your application, additional questions may arise
before the application deadline. We can help you with learning
more about the Inspire grant program or any other grant
programs at IMLS,
address any specific concerns with the various applications
and components, or help you understand the review process.
You may contact IMLS Program staff by e-mail or phone.
Contact information is listed on the grant program landing page
on the IMLS website. You may also schedule a counseling call
to meet directly with program staff. Use the links found on
the grant program landing page to find an available time slot
on our calendars. You will then receive an e-mail with the
calendar invite and Microsoft Teams meeting link.
Thank you very much for your interest in IMLS and in the
Inspire Grants for Small Museums funding opportunity. I hope you
have found the information in this applicant webinar helpful.
Good luck and we look forward to seeing your application in
November.