welcome to the institute of museum and library services webinar i'm less museum
grants for african american history and culture
fiscal year 2023 information session
my name is mark isaacson one of the program officers in the office of museum
services and speaking on behalf of the rest of
the staff we're glad that you're interested in preparing an application
for the imls museum grants for african-american history and culture
program i'll be referring to the program
throughout the presentation as aahc which is the abbreviation of the program
title that we use most often
in this webinar i will cover the following topics where to find
information the aahc program overview
and imolas and ahc funding eligibility criteria
the goals of the program and the objectives of the goals
project funding levels allowable and unallowable costs
application components narrative review criteria
where to learn more and we'll end with some tips and next
steps
this is one of a series of webinars designed to help you find the
information you need to create a competitive application for imls funding
choosing a funding opportunity for fy 2023 is available as a video and pdf on
our website at the link shown here in that webinar we cover the imls vision
mission and strategic plan we address
institutional eligibility for applicants provide a quick overview of all of our
funding opportunities and show you how to find information
online with a focus on our website in addition to this webinar about the
aahc program we're making available on-demand webinars for all of our grant
programs available on our website
the imls website is an important information
place to find information when you go to the website you will see
a drop down menu for grants on our home page
click on the section titled apply for a grant
and this section of our website is designed for you
each grant program has a landing page on the website you'll find a brief overview
of the grant program along with contact information for the imls staff assigned
to the program our contact information includes a link
that you can use to directly schedule on our calendar a 30-minute counseling call
with the program staff person counseling calls are an important
opportunity for you to discuss your project ideas
raise any questions you have about the application process
we encourage you to use this link to schedule the time to talk with one of us
we know that applying for a federal grant can be a complex and
time-consuming process and we want you to feel confident in
moving forward with an application also on the grant
program landing page you'll find a link to the pdf of the notice of funding
opportunity the notice of funding opportunities
sometimes referred to as the nofo is the official instructions and guidance for
how to prepare complete and submit an application for funding
the text and information i'm using in this webinar derive from the
instructions and guidance found in the nofo
and there's a nofo available for each of the grant funding opportunities
now let's discuss the museum grants for african american history and culture
grant program in more detail
applications for the aahc program should be aligned with the program goal
and at least one of the associated objectives for that goal
so let's take a look at the goals for the grant program in more detail
the ahc grant program was created by an act of congress in 2003 the same act
that created the smithsonian national museum of african american history and
culture the legislation that created the museum
directed imls to create a grant program to improve operations care of
collections and development and professional management at
african-american museums and this program is now designed to
strengthen institutional capacity in the african-american museum community
the first awards for the ahc program were made in 2006.
this map shows the range of awards from 2006 to our most recent setup awards in
2022. in that period of 17 years we funded 272
projects consisting of just under 30 million dollars in funding
and we've had the opportunity to work with 226 peer reviewers
here are the figures for the three most recent application cycles
in 2022 for example we received 46 applications and made 33 awards
for a total of about 3.9 million
the amount of funding available in this program and all imls grant programs is
determined by the us congress through the annual federal
appropriations process and although congress has yet to pass a final budget
for the next fiscal year 2023 which begins on october 1st we anticipate that
the funding for this program will either remain the same or potentially increase
now let's take a quick look at eligibility
funding eligibility criteria are detailed in the notice of funding
opportunity but i'll briefly summarize here
all imls grant applicants must be either a unit of state local or tribal
government or be a private non-profit organization
in addition to be eligible for funding as a museum
an organization must
also use a professional staff that is it employs at least one staff
member or full-time equivalent paid or unpaid
who's engaged in the acquisition care or exhibition to the public of objects
owned or used by the institution you also have to be organized on a
permanent basis for essentially educational or static purposes
own or use tangible objects so you can either be a collecting
institution or non-collecting institution but you have to use those
collections care for those collections those objects
exhibit those objects to the general public on a regular basis for at least
120 days a year that's in the 12-month period prior to the application deadline
and conduct those activities in facilities that you own or operate
museums as defined here may stand alone as independent organizations
non-profit organizations responsible for the operation of the
museum or be administered by a governing body
such as a college university or state or local government
now in addition to the general imls eligibility criteria the ahc grant
program has specific criteria that's designed described in the notepod to be
eligible for an award under this nopo in fy 2022
you must be a museum whose primary purpose is reflected in its mission is
african-american life art history and culture
or you could be a non-profit museum service organization or
association whose primary purpose is reflected in
its mission is to support african-american museums
or you could be one of the federally designated
historically black colleges and universities
hbcus may be eligible to apply even if they do not have a museum
so back to the ahc program goals the first goal in this program
is for projects designed to build the capacity of african american museums
which may involve increasing the number of museum professionals working at
african american american museums to enable the museum to expand educational
programs to engage with the community
to enhance professional management provide for improved care of collections
and some examples of these kinds of projects that you might apply for would
be like exhibit development exhibit design exhibit fabrication
maybe a new interpretive and educational programs
about developing collections plans or interpretive plans or strategic plans
using consultants or other professional expertise
cataloging inventory documenting collections
or even digitization of collections designed to enhance outreach or expand
access or improve collections management
all of these things help to build the capacity of african-american museums and
help your museum better serve its community
the second goal of the grant program are for projects
designed to support the growth and development of museum professionals at
african american museums this might involve developing and
implementing internship programs or fellowship programs or mentoring
programs to support emerging professionals entering the
museum field could also involve developing more
equitable inclusive staff recruitment and retention programs
or may are creating new opportunities for staff to build skills
some examples of the kinds of projects that you might apply for maybe working
with consultants and training providers to develop
and offer workshops and training for museum staff
leadership and volunteers we're creating and supporting paid
internships paid internships and fellowships including
the support for recruitment
supervision mentoring and training for interns and fellows
and providing professional development and career growth opportunities for
museum staff leadership and volunteers these are some examples of the things
that you might find in this grant program
now once you've aligned your project with one of the goals in the program
you want to think about how much you might be needing
to fund your project and the activities that you're thinking
about seeking funding for so 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 will determine the cost share requirement
and there are two options to consider for small projects requesting an amount
of federal funds less than a hundred thousand you do not need to provide a
cost share this option is designed for smaller
scale projects that require less than a hundred thousand in funds from imless
for larger projects that are requesting an amount of federal funding greater
than a hundred and thousand hundred thousand and one
and up to a maximum of five hundred thousand
you must provide a one-to-one cost share
cost share is the portion of the project that
of the project costs that is not paid by mls funds
so common examples of cost share include the contributed
property services income contributions such as staff time or volunteer time
things that support project activities
posture must come from non-federal sources
it may not be funds from another federal agency
all expenses including cost share must be incurred during the project period
the most common cost share that we see in this grant program
are folks that are demonstrating the contributed hours and
time of current staff and volunteers towards the project activities
percentage of their time that's devoted to completing the project activities if
you've described in your narrative
now let's turn to allowable and unallowable costs for your project
so as you think about the budget and the kinds of costs you're going to include
it's very you want to be very careful in preparing your proposal and including
only allowable costs in both the amount you ask for i'm less to pay for as well
as the amount of your cost share we'll go through some common expenses
that are allowable and unallowable but you always want to check with the two
cfr 200 which is our shorthand for the cost principles and the federal
guidelines there's a link here to that list
these regulations are available online in a searchable format
but in the ahc notice of funding opportunity we do provide a partial list
of the most common examples of allowable costs and these are pictured here and
these costs may be part of what you ask imls to pay for
or what you will pay for as part of your cost share if one is required
the rules about allowability apply equally to the entire budget so in other
words whether a cost item is on the grant fund side of the budget or the
cost share side of the budget the same rules of allowability apply to
all items in the budget the biggest expense we often see in
these budgets are for personnel salaries wages and fridge benefits for staff
involved in the project right so that is something you definitely want to include
or travel costs or materials or supplies things that will help you
complete the project that you've outlined
we also provide a list of generally unallowable costs
again both for imls funds and for cost share
these costs may not be part of what you ask imless 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
for example construction costs are not allowed so do not include those in your
budget you are allowed to hire new staff to
work on the project but do not include costs for development
office staff as you'll see that
that is one of the specific kinds of staff positions that we cannot pay for
remember to focus your budget and the cost items you include there on
expenses that will occur during the period performance
during the period of the grant and focus on
expenses that are directly related to the activities in your proposed project
and as you prepare your application it's a good idea to compare your list of
proposed expenses against a list of allowed one unallowable costs
if after that you have specific questions please contact us and we'll be
happy to help
now let's review the multiple parts of the grant application that you'll need
to prepare the application components are a series
of documents that you will upload in grants.gov
and these together make up your application
application components fall into three categories the first is that of required
documents all applications must include these
omission of even just one may result in the exclusion of your application from
further consideration the second group is that of
conditionally required documents and some applications must include these it
might depend on the nature of your institution or some aspect of your
project the third group
of com are supporting documents and these are
completely optional you may submit some or none
now the ahc application will consist of a series of individual documents and
it's very important to make sure you prepare and submit everything necessary
to complete your application all applications must include the 11
required documents listed here the seven documents on the left side of
the slide are created by you using a word document
and then saving this as a as this document as a pdf
the instructions for required documents are found in the notice of funding
opportunity many of these have page limits and if
you exceed the page limit specified in the node as a funding opportunity we
must remove the extras before your application goes to review so make sure
your contents fit into the page limit specified
and that that page number remains the same when you convert to a
pdf
on the right hand side of the screen you'll see four documents listed the
application for federal assistance the imls supplementary information form
imls museum
program information form and the imls budget form
these are all forms that you will fill out either in
grants.gov not create individually
as i said all the other required documents are created by you
in a word document typically and then uploaded and saved as
pdfs and grants.gov
recently the government added a new requirement to all federal awards
agencies are now required to measure the performance of awardees the performance
measure requirement is different from project evaluation which is typically
included in your project proposals performance measurement tells us how
good a job you did as a federal awardee it helps imless understand manage and
improve our grant programs and the assistance we provide to applicants and
awardees
so let's look at performance measurement and how we ask you to plan for it and
report on it
in the notice of funding opportunity we provided a sample chart which applicants
may use and on the left side of the chart are four commonly used performance
measures effectiveness the extent to which the activities contribute to
achieving the results intended efficiency how well the resources are
used quality how well the activities meet the
requirements and expectations of the target group and timeliness the extent
to which each activity is completed within the proposed time frame
across the top are the information points we are asking you to use in your
statements with examples of each for instance with data we will collect
our list of counts such as costs or weights or percentage percentages or
hours and for each performance measure we
provide a couple examples of how to address issues that might turn
up in museum projects the blank space is where we suggest you
write your own performance measure we're looking for one statement for each
measure you may provide more than one if you
wish just keep in mind that the performance
measurement plan is limited to two pages
now let's move from required documents and let's consider application
components that are conditionally required
some applications must include these if you are applying as a non-profit then
you must include your proof of nonprofit status
if you're using a federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement you must
include a copy of the agreement if you will create digital products
during the course of your project you must complete a digital product plan
and if you're requesting support for conservation treatment you must include
detailed condition reports or conservation treatment proposal
and just like the required documents if you admit if you forget one of these it
might mean that your application is excluded
the third group of application components is supporting documents these
are completely optional
you should include only those things that supplement the narrative and
support the activities described in the application
we recommend that you be respectful of your reviewers time to include what's
important and helpful and stop there
here are some examples of the kinds of supporting documents you may want to
include in your application these are some of the things that peer
reviewers who will be reading your application will expect to see
these documents help support the case you're making in your application and if
it's funded you can be successful in completing your project
so for example if you're building capacity of your organization by adding
new staff you might consider
including a position description for the new staff
or maybe an organizational chart or
description of the leadership and supervisory structure of your
organization so we can see how the new position fits into existing staff
for projects that support the growth and development of museum staff or interns
you might also want to include position descriptions for the interns and what
are the expect because then we can see what are the expected duties for these
positions and the learning outcomes for the interns
right you could include a recruitment plan
right so if you're going to be reaching out to hbcus to recruit insurance maybe
a letter of support from an hvcu or another institution of higher education
that you've already reached out to and that is interested in working with you
to provide interns
or even a needs assessment sort of showing where the training needs for
your staff if you're going to be developing your training programs
again these are things that help reviewers see that you are ready to move
forward with this project and that you're more likely to be successful
implementing the project if it's fun
when we look at care and access improving care and increasing
access to museum collections there are some other kinds of documents you might
want to consider including so for example a summary or scope of the
scope and scale of museum collections including some baseline information on
the numbers of types and quality quantities of items held by the museum
specific benchmarks on the quantity of collection items to be processed and
catalog right so we know the numbers of of
collection items you're dealing with and you might not have room for example to
put all that in your narrative so putting it in a supporting document
is a great uh alternative
you can also include a copy of a collections management policy or some
other kind of supporting document that will help us understand how you
manage the collections again these are things that peer reviewers will be
reading your application will expect to see
and they do help support the case you're making your application
that if funded you can be successful in completing your project
now among the required components of your application
the narrative is the section that reviewers are likely to spend the most
time reading so let's look at the narrative in a little more detail it's
just seven pages maximum and it's divided into three sections the project
justification the work plan and the results
and the questions we ask you to answer and the review criteria by which your
application will be judged are in the nofo
right and look and this is the first section in the project justification
part of the narrative this is where you should lay out the
reasoning for your project why it's important
tell us in the clearest terms possible what need problem or challenge you
expect to address who or what will benefit and how your
project will address the goals of the ahc program
target group refers to those who will be most immediately and positively affected
by your project
and the last the fourth bullet there as beneficiaries that refers to who
those who are likely to be aided in the long term buyer project so they may or
may not be the same as your target group
now reviewers also have a list of criteria
and they'll use this to evaluate your proposal
and see how well you explained your project how well you identify the need
problem or challenge you're going to address
how well you've supported that with relevant evidence and whether you've
clearly identified who or what will benefit from the project and if this
involves an audience of some kind whether they've been involved
and because the knee palmer challenge is foundational in your application keep
these points in mind that when you're describing the problem remember that the
federal government wants its investment to result in something that will get
better and as you define your need problem or
challenge articulate what will get better as a result of your project
be present as precise as possible will someone learn something develop a
skill will members of your community be better
able to work together to solve a problem what will collections be better cared
for will access your collection and the
information surrounding them be expanded identify what is important
why excuse me identify why it is important that this particular change
happens and gather any data to support your problem definition
again this is a key part of the project justification
in your narrative the next part of the narrative
is the work plan and this is the where you're going to tell us
who will do what when and using what resources
we will ask you to tell us what specific activities you will undertake
who will plan and implement and manage your project
when and in what sequence your activities will occur
what financial personnel and other resources you'll need to carry out the
activities how you attract and how you will track
progress toward achieving your intended results
now in this program you you must include three thousand dollars per year for
travel to an mls designated meeting you don't necessarily need to describe
it in the work plan but it is something you're going to want to include in the
budget and it is one of the expenses and
activities that you'll want to build into your project
this expense is used to cover your participation in the convening of
grantees at a place and location to be determined
by imless
now when our viewers are looking at your work plan
they're going to evaluate your proposal on how well your activities are informed
by appropriate theory and practice and
whether the goals assumptions and risks are clearly stated
reviewers want to see that the team you put together has the experience and
skills necessary to complete the work successfully
and whether your schedule is realistic and achievable
i'll also be looking at whether the time personnel and financial resources
identified are appropriate for the scope and scale of the project
they'll consider if you've described a clear methodology for tracking your
progress and adjusting course when necessary
so the work plan is built around the concept of activities
so it's important to be clear about what an activity is an activity is something
that has that someone does
and it has a beginning and an end just like projects and these are this is
project-based funding so you want to make sure that your activities that
you're describing have a beginning and an end
and it should there should be a way that you know when you've finished it because
it doesn't need to be done anymore the activity is completed it's no longer on
your to-do list so remember activity is not a goal or
result or an outcome it's just something you do
as part of striving to achieve those goals or results
so again aim for a reasonable level of detail here not too much or too little
we want to have a sense that you know which activities and what sequence
you're going to undertake those activities in order to complete your
project the final section of the narrative
is the results and this is where you talk about the impact of your project
so what specific results do you intend to achieve and
again to address that need problem or challenge you identified in the
justification you wanted to get make something better
so tell us what that is going to look like tell us about the any products that
you're going to create and that will result from the project and also what's
going to happen after the end of the project what's what's next
what reviewers are going to do is give us opinions on how well you designed a
feasible plan for collecting and reporting data and how likely the
improvements that you propose will be realized
still want to know if the tangible products that you're going to create are
going to be accessible to the target audience that you identified
and whether your plan for sustaining the benefits of the project is reasonable
so let's think of just one one last slide here about results
so when we go when we talked about results we talked about a need problem
or challenge that your project is addressing
in this part of the narrative you're going to answer that question what will
be better as a result of this work now if you said someone's going to learn
something how you know that they've learned it so
if your problem was related to improving the care of collections
how you'll be sure how you measure that improvement
like if you're digitizing to expand the accessibility of the collection how you
know when you've done it right so all of your results should tie back to need
problem or challenge and have something measurable
some folks use a logic model it's a useful tool to help explain your
intended results and your plan for achieving them
if you are using a logic model you can include
that as a supporting document many reviewers will appreciate seeing
that it's not required but if you're using a logic model as a
tool to help you identify and articulate the results of your project
be sure to include it
so in summary considering all the components of your application there are
four general characteristics of successful applications that
reviewers will look for so first is institutional impact your
project should in some way build the capacity of your
museum and or support the growth and
development of museum professionals at your museum or hbcu
again this impact ties back to the goals or the purpose of
this grant program to build capacity of museums and support
the growth and development of museum professionals so we want to see that
impact second your proposal really should have a good
understanding of current practice and knowledge about the subject matter
what does that look like so if you're developing a
new program for schools and you're adapting one that you know is successful
that another museum has used in another community that's great it's knowing what
works and adapting it for your current location you're going to be creating
something brand new that's never been done before that works too but you want
to make sure that you're aware of current practice in the museum world
and using it to inform how you design the project
third is the project based design right so that you're again we talked about
sets of activities that have a beginning and an end
and so your work plan should be a logical set of interrelated activities
that are tied to addressing the need or challenge
and fourth are the results right so we want to see that there's some sort of
results at the end
an application that has all these characteristics these four
characteristics will most often stand out in the review
process and have the best chance of success for funding
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 about
projects that we have funded through the ahc program
this awarded grant search gives you an opportunity to explore our archive of
grants that we have awarded in past years
you can search by institution name location or keyword
and gabe will give you basic information about the award and a brief description
of the project and this can be helpful as you put together ideas and you want
to see what's been funded in the past we also encourage you to reach out to
those organizations that have received funding before
give them a call and say we saw you get an imls grant tell us how that worked
for you
that's the kind of information sharing that can help you be successful in your
application we've also posted the narrative and
schedule of completion for a cross section of successful applications from
2022 and to find these examples go to the sample applications page on the ios
website and scroll down to the section for the aahc examples
and you look at these proposals that might help you clarify your thinking
about your own each pdf contains a copy of the seven
page narrative and also the schedule of completion
again this is designed to give you a sense of what
a successful narrative looks like what is what is good schedule completion
looks like and these are ones that reviewers when they were reading them
said these are great reads they're well written gave us everything we needed to
make a good assessment of this project
so what happens after the application
deadline first imolas program staff review all
applications for completeness and eligibility
the applications are sent out for external peer review
reviewers then meet as a panel to discuss each application
reviewer scores and written comments are provided directly back to all applicants
to help you be more competitive in future cycles
well for those applications that were funded we know that the reviewer
comments can help you be more successful with implementation
now experienced and knowledgeable peer reviewers provide scores and comments
based on the criteria outlined in the nofo
imls staff looked at budgets and financials and past performance with
that you may have if you've had any current or previous grants with imls
we then prepare materials for the imls deputy director
and for the director and by law the director is charged with the authority
and responsibility to make final award decisions and this happens in may
in june we notify all applicants by email of the award decisions and provide
the scores and comments created by the reviewers
and on july 1st 2023 funded projects begin
now at this point we're going to just share a few tips collected from our
experience working with applicants each year
first on the list is register early you must have an active sam.gov registration
to register with grants.gov and you must have a functional grants.gov
registration to submit an application to imls
now remember there's no cost to register on these sites but it can take from
several days to several weeks to get your registration established and
validated so pay attention to this requirement
particularly if this is your first time applying for a federal grant or if your
sam registration has expired or if you've had a change in your point
of contact for sam start that registration process as early
as possible your sam.gov registration expires each
year and you must renew it you can log into sam.gov at any time and find out
your status i would recommend doing that today
both sam.gov and grants.gov have their own help desk to assist you with
resolving issues or tracking problems that might arise with your registration
now in our next to last slide i wanted to show just a few tips
from some of our accumulated knowledge over the years
first read the application guidelines the nofos we know it's a long document
but it contains essential information on how to prepare your application
schedule a counseling call with one of our staff
we are available to answer your questions and these often come at the
start of the process with some general questions
but you might also have questions later a very specific or detailed question
about a particular component and you can email or call us with those questions
too describe your museum well and vividly
and use recent and relevant data to make your point see reviewers are looking at
the application to try to understand your museum
so be sure to give them a good description
follow the narrative outline in the nofo and just you know even use the same
headings to make it easy for reviewers to read and find the information they
need avoid any acronyms or jargon people who
review your application are experts but they know but they might not be totally
familiar with your shorthand so make it easier for them to understand what you
mean
ask a colleague to read the seven page narrative with fresh eyes
so once you've drafted it make sure someone else reads it
ask them to act like a reviewer who's seeing it for the first time
do this well in advance of the submission deadline so you have adequate
time to edit the narrative if necessary or maybe add more information if you
need to do that
be sure your application is complete check it against the table of
application components and check it again to be sure you're not
missing any required documents
and then submit to grants.gov early so you have time to
deal with any glitches or last minute issues that might come up
so let's recap
make sure you go to imless.gov and read the nofo
check your organization's registration for both sam.gov and grants.gov
connect with us talk with a program staff person
prepare your application make sure it's complete
and finally submit before the deadline november 15 2022
11 59 pm eastern time that's eastern time
now in closing i just want to make sure that you have our email address and
direct phone number and don't hesitate to call or email
either of us with questions or concerns thank you
and have a great day