Welcome to the Institute of Museum and Library Services,
Office of Museum Services Information Video Museum Grants
for African American History and Culture Grant Program Applicant
Information Session. The goal of this video is to provide an
overview of our Museum Grants for African American History and
Culture Grant Program, which we call AAHC for short and the
process of
preparing an application for funding. This video is organized
into six chapters. What is Museum Grants for African
American History and Culture? This section explains the
purpose and design of the AAHC grant program. What can AAHC
Grants Fund? This section explains the types of projects
that can be funded in AAHC and the amount of funds that can be
requested.
Application Components. This section describes the types of
documents that are needed to create an AAHC grant
application. Application Components - The 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 for
preparing your application. The complete set of instructions for
how to prepare and submit an AAHC grant application are found
in the Notice of Funding Opportunity published on Grants
dot 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 AAHC grant program, the types of projects that can be
funded, and the necessary application components. You may
also want to review the AAHC 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 a 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 AAHC?
Providing information on the purpose and intent of this grant
program and who it is designed to serve. The same legislation
that created the Smithsonian's National Museum of African
American History and Culture directed IMLS to create a grant
program. This program is designed to build the capacity
of African American museums,
Nurture the growth and development of museum
professionals at African American museums and increase
access to museum and archival collections at African American
museums and Historically Black colleges and universities, also
known as HBCU's. AAHC is a grant program for museums whose
primary purpose, as reflected in its mission, is African American
life, art history, and or culture.
To apply for federal funding at IMLS, all applicants must meet
certain requirements. Your organization must be located in
one of the United States 50 states, its territories, or the
District of Columbia. Your organization could also be a
unit of state, local or tribal government, or a 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. To be eligible for funding as a museum, your
organization 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 the deadline of November 15th, 2023,
and own or use tangible objects. Your museum may also be
standalone organizations, or they may be part of a larger
institution such as a college, university, tribe, or a state of
local government.
You could also qualify as a not-for-profit museum service
organization or association whose primary purpose as
reflected in its mission is to support African American
museums. HBCU's are also eligible to apply whether they
have a museum or museum studies program or not. In this section
we will answer the question what can a AAHC fund?
Providing details on the types of projects and associated goals
within the AAHC grant program, as well as offer some summary
data on the number and types of AAHC projects that were funded
last year.
AAHC grants are designed to support project based
activities, so let's take time to consider just exactly what
that means. The Project Management Institute defines a
project as 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 defined 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 end in time, a defined scope
requiring specific resources, and which are designed to
accomplish a specific singular goal. With that concept of
project in mind, let's turn to project goals. The type of
project activity you are seeking to fund should align with one of
these goals listed on the slide. As you can see here, there are
two options:
Building capacity and professional development. Why is
your decision about which project goal 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 goal you've
identified, so it's an important choice. So let's take a look at
what kinds of project activities might fit within these goal
areas. The listed objectives provides some of the types of
projects that fit within the goal.
Projects designed to build the capacity of African American
museums may involve increasing the number of museum
professionals working at African American museums to enable the
museum to expand educational programs, engage the community,
enhance professional management, or provide for improved care of
collections. Some examples of the kinds of projects project
activities that you may apply for are:
Exhibition development, design and fabrication, interpretive
and educational programs, product development and
delivery, developing collection plans, interpretive plans or
strategic plans using consultants, researchers, and
other sources of professional expertise, implementing
recommendations or action plans from planning activities,
cataloging, inventorying, documenting, and registering
collections, and finally, digitization of collections
designed to enhance outreach, expand, access, or improve
collections management. Projects designed to address Goal 2:
Supporting the growth and development of museum
professionals at African American museums may involve
developing and implementing internship, fellowship, and
mentoring programs
to support emerging professionals entering the
museum field. They can involve developing equitable and
inclusive staff recruitment and retention programs, as well as
creating growth opportunities for staff to build skills,
enhance their knowledge, and share expertise. Some examples
of the kinds of project activities that you may apply
for are:
Working with consultants and training providers to develop
and offer workshops and training for museum staff, leadership and
volunteers. Creating and supporting paid internships and
fellowships, including recruitment, supervision,
mentoring and training for those interns and fellows. Providing
professional development and career growth opportunities for
museum staff, leadership, and volunteers.
Before we close our discussion of project goals, we want to
again 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 both. We advise against that for several
reasons. We expect that projects aligned with a specific goal
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 visitor? Will
people who engage with you as a result of your project, let's
say to create a new exhibition and related programming, acquire
new knowledge, develop a skill or experience a change in
attitude about the subject of your exhibit? Or is it the
museum staff that's in the center of your thinking?
Or is your project about preparing the next generation of
the museum workforce? A second way to go at this might be to
think about who you want to review your application. If you
apply under building capacity, we will put your application in
front of museum educators, exhibits, professionals,
interpretive specialists, and professionals with deep
experience and understanding what is needed for a museum to
reach its full performance level and be successful.
Would you rather we put it in front of a combination of
experts who specialize in developing and executing a wide
range of museum training? If that sounds right, then it may
push you toward professional development. A third option is
to list the activities you plan to carry out and think about the
project budget. To which category are the majority of
project time and resources allocated? Again, our most
important advice is to choose one project goal,
and write your proposal accordingly. As always, if you
have questions, contact the IMLS staff to discuss them. Our next
topic has to do with how much funding your project requires,
the size of your project, and how much you are requesting in
IMLS funds which will determine the cost share requirement.
There are two options to consider.
For small projects requesting an amount of federal funds less
than $100,000, you do not need to provide a cost share. This
option is designed for smaller scale projects. For larger
projects that are requesting an amount of federal funds greater
than 100,000 and one dollars up to a maximum of $500,000, you
must provide a one to one cost share.
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.
The amount of applications received and the amount of
awards made can vary from year to year.
Here's a snapshot of our most recent application and award
cycle. In FY23 IMLS made 34 AAHC awards with a total of $6
million in federal funds. We received 66 AAHC applications
last year, resulting in 52% of those applications being funded.
About 38% of the AAHC awards were for large projects, with
the remaining 62%
being small projects. The average amount of federal funds
for each project was about $171,000. Here you will see
different ways that cost share could be applied to a funding
request of $100,000 or less. While cost share is not required
at this funding level, you may elect to identify cost share
anyway and it does not have to be 1 to 1.
Please note that it is not advised to commit to a cost
share larger than your IMLS funding request and it will not
be seen as a competitive edge over the other applications.
Here you will see the one to one cost share applied for projects
requesting 100,000 and one dollars up to the maximum of
$500,000. For these projects the one to one cost share is
required and again it is not advised that you over commit to
a cost share larger than your grant request.
In this section, we will introduce the components of an
AAHC grant application and provide an overview about the
Required, Conditionally Required and Supporting documents. The
AAHC Notice of Funding Opportunity, or the NOFO,
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 eight 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 Museum 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 application's
rejection. Also important to note, there is a 7 page limit
for the narrative. If you exceed the page limit specified in the
Notice of Funding Opportunity, we must remove the extras before
your application goes out for review. That means your reviewer
may 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 limits 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 1, 2 or even all
four of these, and it's your job to figure out which are required
for your application.
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 the 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 projects 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
application's rejection. 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 specified 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 give 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 costs. We recommend that you be respectful of your
reviewers 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, the narrative, and the budget.
Please 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 questions you will need to
answer in your project narrative and offer details on the review
criteria associated with each of the three sections: Project
Justification, Project Work Plan, and Project Results. Now
let's talk about the narrative. You have 7 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 your project address and how was 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
counts 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 fairly directly
with the prompts you are given to write your narrative.
One of the prompts in the project justification section of
the narrative is the identification of the need,
problem or challenge your project addresses. It is
foundational in your application, so 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 your museum be able to expand their
services as a result of additional staff? Will new
graduates be better prepared for the museum field with the
requisite experience? 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 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 tell us how you've taken that into
account in your planning. I'll say more about risk in a few
minutes. Please note that in your budget, you are required to
add $3000 per year for travel to an IMLS Designated Meeting. You
will add this line item in the Travel section of your IMLS
budget form
on the federal Grants funds side of the budget. This expense is
used to cover your participation in convening of grantees at a
place and location to be determined by IMLS. Again, this
is the list of questions in Section E of the Notice of
Funding Opportunity that reviewers are asked to consider
when they review your proposal, so make sure your narrative is
answering them effectively.
Your work plan will be built on activities, so it is 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 you've finished it because it
doesn't need to be done anymore. An activity is not a goal, a
result or an outcome.
Rather, it is something you do as part of striving to achieve
those. Aim for a reasonable level of detail in identifying
your activities. 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 risks,
but every project has them.
The best proposals will show that you are 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 your 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 be prepared by identifying
implementable options. Here are some examples of risk that might
be part of a project for which you might seek AAHC funding. A
project may be dependent upon fundraising to generate the cost
share, but it is not complete by the time the application is
submitted. What will the institution do if that money is
not available by the time the project gets underway?
A project may be structured around university interns, who
will be selected and trained according to well thought out
processes. What will happen if one or more interns drop 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 cabinet.
What happens to the collection items then? How will the
institution ensure that they remain safe and secure? A
project depends on your community partners to achieve
success, but one partner drops out mid project. What do you do
now? 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 justification 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 proposed to make continue once
your grant is over? Again, here's the list of review
questions that reviewers are asked to consider
when they read and score the Project Results section of your
narrative. These are found in Section E of the Notice of
Funding Opportunity. 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. We often hear
that defining intended results and success measures are
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 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 is 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?
This focus on results and measuring success in meaningful
ways is not new. There has been a tremendous amount of work done
on ways to measure success. For you as an applicant, though we
encourage you to consider using a logic model or an outcomes
based evaluation tool to explain your intended results and your
plan for achieving them.
So to recap, your narrative has three sections, Project
Justification, Project Work Plan, and Project Results, and
you have 7 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 shown here is a fillable PDF that accommodates up to
three years of project activities and expenses. The
budget should include the project cost that will be
charged to grant funds as well as those that will be supported
by cost share.
In kind, contributions to cost share may include the value of
services, such as 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, 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 Regulations, also known
as the CFR, sometimes referred to as two CFR 200 for short, but
the full title is Title 2, Subtitle A, Chapter 2, Part 200
of the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles,
and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards. Using the two
CFR 200 as a basis
we've developed a short list of allowable costs that are most
common to a AAHC projects. See page 19 of the AAHC Notice of
Funding Opportunity, which includes a partial list of the
most common examples of allowable costs. This short list
of allowable costs are also shown here on this slide. These
costs may be part of what you ask 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 cost
share. When completing your project budget, be sure to check
that 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 in 2
CFR200. On page 19 of the AAHC Notice of Funding Opportunity we
also provide an abbreviated list of unallowable costs. These are
also listed on here on this slide. Unallowable costs may not
be part of what you ask IMLS to pay for, nor can they be a part
of what you will pay for as part of your cost share.
In fact, unallowable expenses can't 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 in a more
detailed narrative format, an 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 allocating 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
propose to purchase or provide as cost share for the project.
Detail the number and unit cost for each item and explain how
you arrived at the dollar amounts. You may also provide
vendor quotes or price lists as supporting documents with your
application.
In summary, considering all the components of your application,
there are four general characteristics of successful
AAHC applications that reviewers will look for. As you prepare
your application keep these characteristics in mind. First,
institutional impact. Your project should build the
capacity of your museum and or support the growth and
development of museum professionals
at your museums or HBCU. Second, in-depth knowledge. Your
proposal should reflect a thorough understanding of
current practice and knowledge about the subject matter. Third,
project based design. Your work plan should consist of a set of
logical interrelated activities tied directly to addressing the
key need or challenge, and 4th, demonstrable results.
Your project should generate measurable results that tie
directly to the need or challenge it was designed to
address. An application that has all of these four
characteristics will stand out in the review process, and will
have the best chance of success for funding. In this final
section of our presentation, we offer some application tips and
next steps
we want to share with you the places to look for more
information, such as the IMLS website where you can find the
awarded grant search to learn more about the projects we have
funded through the AAHC Grant program.
The awarded grant search gives you an opportunity to explore
our archive of grants that we have awarded in past years using
a variety of criteria such as institution name, location, and
keywords. Your search will provide basic information about
the award and a brief description of the project. This
can be extremely helpful as you put ideas together for your own
project.
We have also posted the narrative and schedule of
completion for a cross section of successful applications from
2023. To find these examples, go to the sample applications on
the IMLS website and scroll down the page to the AAHC examples.
Looking at these proposals might help clarify your thinking about
your own project.
Each PDF contains a copy of the seven page narrative and also
the schedule for completion. 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 dot 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
their 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 in the Notice of Funding
Opportunity. Make sure all application components are in
the proper format and follow the correct naming conventions.
Submit to grants dot 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 of November 15th, 2023.
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. Those registrations expire periodically, so do not
wait until it is 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 desks 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,
who are 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 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's
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 very first time. Here are a few important dates
relating to your application. Applications must be received
through grants.gov by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on November 15th,
2023.
The date is non negotiable. The timestamp 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 a difficulty of
any kind when submitting your proposal, you'll have some time
to resolve the problem and resubmit.
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 AAHC 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 May. In
early June 2024, we will notify you by e-mail of the award
decisions and provide the scores and comments created by the
reviewers.
AAHC projects must be scheduled to start on the first day of
July 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 AAHC grant program or other grant programs at IMLS,
address any specific concerns with the various application
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, which is also linked here on the slide. 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 calendar.
You will then receive an e-mail with a calendar invite and
Microsoft Teams meeting link. Thank you for attending this
webinar. Please reach out to IMLS if you have any questions
about submitting your application. Thank you.