Welcome to the Institute of Museum and Library Services,
Office of Museum Services Informational Video National
Leadership Grants for Museums Applicant Information Session.
The goal of this video is to provide an overview of our
National Leadership Grants for Museums program, which we call
NLG-M for short, and the process of preparing an application for
funding. This video is organized into six chapters. What is
National Leadership Grant Program? This section explains
the purpose and design of the National Leadership Grant
Program.
What can NLG-M grants fund? This section explains the types of
projects that can be funded in NLG-M and the amount of funds
that can be requested. Application Components: An
Overview. This section describes the types of documents that are
needed to create an NLG-M grant application. Application
Components: Narrative.
This section specifically provides guidance on composing
the narrative part of the application. Application
Components: Budget. This section specifically provides details on
the information to include in your project budget and your
project justification. Application Tips and Next Steps.
The concluding section provides a few tips and next steps for
you to take.
The complete set of instructions for how to prepare and submit an
NLG-M grant application are found in a 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 NLG-M grant program, the types of projects that can be
funded, and the necessary application components. You may
also want to review the NLG-M Notice of Funding Opportunity
before, during, or after you watch the video, Notices of
Funding Opportunity, also known as NOFOs,
are documents that detail the requirements of each of our
grant programs. All of our Fiscal Year 24 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'll answer the question, what is NLG-M,
providing information on the purpose and intent of this grant
program and who it is designed to serve. National Leadership
Grants for museums supports projects that address critical
needs of the museum field
and that have the potential to advance practice in the
profession so that museums can improve services for the
American public. NLG-M is all about addressing the challenges
of the museum field, our institutions and our
professionals. We invest in institutions and partnerships
that understand the challenges and opportunities facing the
field
and devise plans to move the field forward through the
development of resources and tools for use by multiple
institutions and/or groups of museum professionals. You can be
one of three types of organizations to be eligible to
apply to NLG-M. All applicants must be located in one of the
United States' 50 states, its territories, or the District of
Columbia.
And your organization must be a unit of state, local, or tribal
government, or it must be a nonprofit organization with tax
exempt status. 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 November 15, 2023 deadline; and own or use
tangible objects. Museums may be standalone organizations, or
they may be part of a larger institution such as a college or
university, a tribe, or a state or local government.
You can also be eligible for NLG-M if you're an organization
or association that engages in activities designed to advance
the wellbeing of museums and the museum profession, or if you're
a college or university. When we talk about museums, we include a
broad range of institution types. Here's a list of some of
the types of museums that routinely apply to this grant
program.
In this section, we'll answer the question what NLG-M can
fund, providing details on the types of projects and associated
goals within the NLG-M grant program, as well as offer some
summary data on the number and types of NLG-M projects that we
funded last year.
Making sure your concept shares the characteristics of
successful NLG projects is an important first step to
preparing an application. We're looking for projects that are
designed intentionally to produce results that can be used
by the field to advance and improve practice.
We're looking for tangible results such as models, tools,
curriculum, resources, research findings, or new services that
can be widely used, adapted, scaled or replicated to extend
the benefit of the federal investment across the field or
segment of the field. Projects should reflect a thorough
understanding of current practice, knowledge about the
subject matter, deep familiarity with previous work in the
project topic,
and an awareness of and support for current strategic priorities
in the field. We encourage collaboration that demonstrates
broad need, field wide buy-in and input and access to
appropriate expertise. Your project should align with one of
these three project goals. As you can see, you should be
seeking to advance the museum fields work in either lifelong
learning, community engagement,
or collection stewardship, and access. So, let's take a look at
what kind of project activities might fit within these three
goal areas. In this and the next two slides, the numbered
objectives provide some of the types of projects that fit
within the goal. A project in lifelong learning might include,
but is not limited to, developing models with tools for
scaling and adapting by other museums;
training and professional development for museum staff,
volunteers, and those seeking a museum career; social science
research on museum-based learning; and forums that bring
together experts to explore current and emerging issues in
the field.
A Community Engagement project will need to focus on producing
resources that help museums better meet community needs and
be welcoming places for everyone. Projects may help
museums be more inclusive of diverse or underserved parts of
their communities, improve access and remove barriers to
participation, better engage with community organization and
leaders for planning and civic engagement,
or support forums that bring together experts to explore
current and emerging issues in the field. Under the Collection
Stewardship and Access Goal, projects can develop tools that
help museums facilitate access management, preservation,
sharing and use of museum collections. They can focus on
professional development for museum staff and volunteers to
improve collection stewardship.
Projects can undertake research on management, conservation and
preservation issues. And like for the other two goals,
projects can bring together experts to explore issues and
inform the field. NLG-M projects can request anywhere from
$50,000 to $750,000. Full projects that result in robust
results for the field require a one-to-one cost share.
Cost share may be in the form of cash, staff or volunteer time,
other grantee contributed costs, or third party or partner
contributions. It may not be funds from any other federal
source. Scale your budget request to meet the needs of
your project. Your budget should include the cost of the
activities needed to accomplish the results.
It's important that the amount of funds requested match the
scope and scale of your project. Research projects from $50,000
to $750,000 do not require a cost share. We'll talk more
about research projects a little later. The number 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 19 NLG-M awards with a total of just over
$8.44 million in federal funds. We received 48 NLG-M
applications last year, resulting in just over 40% of
those applications being funded. About 37% of the NLG-M awards
were for projects supporting the lifelong learning goal.
42% of the project supported the collection, stewardship and
access goal, and the remaining 21% of the projects supported
the community engagement goal. The average amount of federal
funds for each project was about $444,232. On the IMLS website,
You can use the Search Awarded Grants function to explore an
archive of grants that we have awarded in past years. All of
the 19 FY23 NLG-M awards announced in August are listed
here, along with those from prior years. You can search this
database using a variety of criteria such as institution
name, location, and keyword.
Your search will retrieve basic information about each award,
including the amount of federal funds awarded and a brief
description of the proposed activities and expected results
for each project.
In this section, we'll introduce the components of an NLG-M grant
application and provide an overview about the Required,
Conditionally Required, and Supporting documents. The NLG-M
Notice of Funding Opportunity or NOFO, includes a complete list
of all application components.
Most of these components are created by applicants and saved
as PDFs for uploading as part of your application package in
grants.gov. The table of application components starting
on page nine of the NOFO, which is Section D2a, 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 SF-424S and the IMLS Museum Program
Information form, which are both web-based forms 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 10-page limit for the narrative.
If you exceed the page limit specified in the Notice of
Funding Opportunity,
we must remove those extra pages before your application goes out
for review. That means that your reviewers may have to stop
reading in mid-sentence 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 1, 2, or even all four of these, and it's your job
to figure out which are required for your application. If you're
applying as a nonprofit,
you must include your nonprofit status letter from the IRS. We
will not accept a letter of state sales tax exemption as
proof of nonprofit status. If you're 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 this and submit the digital product plan.
If you are proposing a research project, then you must submit a
data management plan. Just like the required documents, omission
of one of these might result in your application's rejection.
Please note that the term "digital product "includes both
digitized and born digital content, resources and assets
and software.
If you're creating any of these types of material, 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 support your proposal.
This is not the place to introduce brand new information.
Rather, as the name suggests, you 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 give reviewers who may
not be familiar with your institution, program,
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 the 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'll focus
on the narrative and budget. Refer to the Notice of Funding
Opportunity for complete instructions on how to prepare
and complete all of the application components. In this
section, we'll go over the questions you will need to
answer in your project narrative and offer details on the review
criteria associated with each section of the narrative: the
Project Justification,
the Project Work Plan, and Project results. Now let's talk
about the narrative of your proposal. You have 10 pages to
cover 3 very important issues, and the Notice of Funding
Opportunity provides lengthy guidance on what the narrative
should cover. First, the Project Justification.
Which program goal and associated objectives of the
National Leadership Grant Program for Museums will your
project address? You can see those goals and objectives in
Section A2 of this of the Notice of Funding Opportunity. What
field wide need, problem, or challenge will your project
address and how is it identified? You'll need to
describe the sources you have used to define the need,
problem, or challenge.
Who's the target group for your project and how have they been
involved in the planning? Target group refers to those who will
be immediately and positively affected by your project. Who
are the ultimate beneficiaries for this project? 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 as your target
group. How will the museum field benefit from your project?
How does this proposed project differ from, complement, or
build upon existing theory, scholarship, and/or practice? In
Section E of the Notice of Funding Opportunity under Review
Criteria, you will find a list of questions for each section of
the narrative that reviewers are asked to consider when they
review your proposal. It's 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 were given to write your narrative. The
next section is Project Work Plan. If the Project
Justification section was the Why, the Project Work Plan
section is where you identify Who, What, When, and How. Who
will do the activities and when and using what resources?
You should explain how you will track your progress towards
achieving your intended results, and what you'll do if you need
to correct course. 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. Again, this is
a list of questions from 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 these effectively. For
research projects, reviewers are asked to weigh in on another set
of criteria. They'll look for appropriate research design and
answers to the questions outlined in Appendix 5, Guidance
for Research Applications.
If you find it difficult to answer these questions for your
project, you might not have a research project at all. 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
justification will be addressed directly. The results should
relate directly to the need you identified for the museum field.
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 of them 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 continue once your grant is
over? Again, here is a 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. So, to recap, your narrative has three sections,
Project Justification, Project Work Plan, and Project Results,
and you have 10 pages to write it. The sections are all equally
important. Write clearly, address what we ask you to
address, and keep an eye on those review criteria.
They tell you exactly what the reviewers will be looking for,
so make it easy for them to find it and understand it. Finally,
make sure all sections of the narrative are connected. The
work plan should describe the activities required to address
the field-wide need, and the results should provide a
solution to the need you identified. 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 a 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. In-kind contributions to cost share may
include the value of services, staff, volunteer or consultant
time, or equipment donated to the project.
All the items listed, whether supported by grant funds or cost
share, must be necessary to accomplish the project
activities, 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 at
www.imls.gov/sites/default/files/2021-05/imls-budget-form. 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 at CFR.
Sometimes referred to as "2 CFR 200" for short, but the full
title is Title 2, Subtitle A, Chapter II, Part 200 - Uniform
Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit
Requirements for Federal Awards. Using 2 CFR 200 as a basis,
we've developed a short list of allowable costs that are most
common to NLG-M projects.
See page 19 of the NLG-M 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 on the slide. These costs may be part of what you ask IMLS
to pay for with federal funds, or what will be paid for through
a contribution through 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 CFR 200 on page 19 of the NLG Notice of Funding
Opportunity,
we also provide an abbreviated list of unallowable costs. These
are also listed on this 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 can't show up anywhere in your proposal.
If, after you have reviewed 2 CFR 200, 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 explanation or justification for the project
costs.
Budget justification should be written to follow the cost
categories in the IMLS budget form. In the justification,
you'll 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 in
the IMLS budget form.
In other words, please show your math. Don't make us try to
figure out how you got to $10,000 for travel to
conferences. For example, in the section Salaries and Wages, you
should identify each person whose salary and wages will be
paid with IMLS funds or by cost share. Provide their names and
describe their roles 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 costs for each 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 listening to this webinar.
Become familiar with grants.gov 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 reviewers to see that you're 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.gov early so you can correct any errors and
avoid any drama created by technical 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
a unique entity identifier (UEI) number. So, make sure your
registration 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 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, 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 each proposed project. They 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 project. To help make sure your
narrative is as clear and complete as possible, revisit
the NLG-M 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 to follow.
Avoid generalities, acronyms, and jargon. The people who will
review your applications are museum professionals. Some may
be very familiar with your topic and your discipline, but they
may not all be totally familiar with your 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, friend, or family member to review
everything with fresh eyes before you submit. Ask them to
act like a reviewer who's seeing it for the first time. IMLS
offers a few ways to find examples of funded projects. We
already talked about the search awarded grants function on our
website.
You can see the filters I selected on the left: the last
three years on the top there, and National Leadership Grants
for Museums at the bottom. We have also posted the abstract,
narrative and schedule of completion for a cross section
of successful NLG for Museums applications.
The proposals posted present a variety of project types, meet
the overarching goal of the NLG-M Grant program, and were
considered to be clear and well written by the reviewers.
Looking at these exemplary proposals might help clarify
your thinking about your own application. The image on the
right shows the sample application page. You'll need to
Scroll down to find the National Leadership Grant Program.
Here are a few important dates relating to NLG-M applications.
Applications must be received through grants.gov by 11:59 PM
Eastern Time on November 15, 2023. This date is not
negotiable. The time stamp is auto generated by grants.gov and
we have no ability to override that.
So again, 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'll select experienced and knowledgeable peer reviewers
to review your application and provide scores and comments
based on the criteria outlined in the NLG-M 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 Director,
who by law is charged with the authority and responsibility to
make final award decisions.
This typically happens in July. In early August 2024, we'll
notify you by mail of the award decisions and provide the scores
and comments created by the reviewers. NLG-M 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 answer questions about the NLG-M grant program or any
other grant program at IMLS, address specific concerns with
the various application components, or help you
understand the review process. Contact information for program
staff is listed on the grant program landing page on the IMLS
website.
You may also schedule a counseling call to talk directly
with program staff. Use the link found on the grant program
landing page to find an available time slot on your
calendar. You'll then receive an e-mail with a calendar invite
and a Microsoft Teams meeting link. Thank you for listening to
this webinar and good luck.