hello and welcome to the institute of museum and library services webinar the
imls museums empowered fiscal year 2023 information session
my name is mark isaacson i'm one of the program staff 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 this museum's empowered grant program
here are the topics we're going to cover in today's webinar
where to find information overview of the program
discussion of imls funding eligibility criteria
a review of the grant program goals project activities
allowable and unallowable costs application components
review criteria where to learn more and application tips
this is one of a series of webinars designed to help you find the
information you need to create a competitive application for imolas
museum funding choosing a funding opportunity for 2023
is available as a video and as a pdf on our website at the link identified here
in that webinar we cover the imls vision mission and strategic plan we also
address institutional eligibility for applicants we provide a quick overview
of all our funding opportunities and show you how to find information online
with the focus on our website in addition to this webinar about
museums empowered we're making available on-demand webinars for all our museum
grant programs on our website
the imls website is an important 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
that section titled apply for a grant this section of
our website is for you
each grant program has a landing page on the website and here 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 you can use
to directly schedule on our calendar as 30-minute counseling call with program
staff counseling calls are an important opportunity for you to discuss your
project ideas and raise any questions you have about the application process
we encourage you to use this link to schedule a 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 will find a link to the pdf of the nofo the notice of funding opportunity
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 enofo is available for each of the grant funding programs
now let's discuss museums empowered in a little more detail
museum's empowered is a special initiative of the museums for america
grant program it's designed to support projects that
use the transformative power of professional development and training to
generate systemic change within museums of all types and sciences
projects are expected to involve multiple levels of staff
leadership and volunteers in a set of logical interrelated
activities tied directly to addressing a key
need or challenge it should also reflect a thorough
understanding of current practice and a knowledge about professional development
and also generate measurable results
we're often asked about the numbers of applications in this grant program and
the funding success rates so
here are the figures for the just completed museum's empowered grant cycle
we made 20 awards for a total of about 4.2 million
and you can see those numbers and the app the distrib distribution of
applications by
the program goals
funding eligibility criteria for the museum's empowered program are detailed
in the nofo but i'll try to summarize here
all imls grant applicants must be either a unit of state or local
government or be a private non-profit organization
in addition to be eligible for funding in this program as a museum
the organization must use a professional staff which is defined as having at
least one staff member or full-time equivalent paid or unpaid
that's engaged in the acquisition care exhibition to the public of objects
owned or used by the institution museum should be organized on a
permanent basis for educational or aesthetic purposes own or
use tangible objects care for those objects exhibit the
objects and conduct those activities in
facilities that you own or operate museums as defined here may stand alone
as independent organizations may also be a non-profit responsible for
the operating museum or administered by a governing body such as a
college university or state of local government
if you have any questions about eligibility criteria definitely give us
a call
now your application to the museums of power grant program should align with
one of the four programs program goals and associated objectives
these four museums empowered program goals are
go one provide museum staff with the skills to
integrate digital technology into museum operations
goal 2 support museum staff in providing inclusive services to
people of diverse geographic cultural and economic backgrounds
goal three strengthened the ability of museum staff to use evaluation as a tool
to shape museum programs and goal four strengthen and support
museum staff as an essential part of a resilient organizational culture
let's take a look at each goal in a little more detail
goal one supports projects that provide museum staff with the skills to
integrate digital technology into museum operations this might involve activities
that support staff learning [Music]
and integration of digital communication platforms
and social media tools to enhance audience engagement and
community outreach could also be activities that support
staff learning and integration of digital tools and services to enhance
access to museum collections the emphasis here is on staff learning
and integration of these new tools not just the acquisition of tools
goal 2 focuses on diversity and inclusion and supports projects that
help museum staff in providing inclusive services to people of diverse geographic
cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds and to individuals with disabilities
now this might involve activities that create training and learning
opportunities that increase cultural competency of museum staff
and enhance relevancy of museum programs or activities that develop and implement
inclusive fellowship internship and mentoring programs to increase support
for emerging professionals from diverse communities entering the
museum field
goal three supports projects that strengthen the ability of museum staff
to use evaluation as a tool to shape museum programs and
improve outcomes this could involve activities that
increase staff knowledge and program evaluation
methods and the usefulness of evaluation reports tools data and metrics
or activities that provide museum staff with the tools and strategies to adapt
evaluation methods to address the specific audience or institutional need
and finally goal four is about organizational management
and is intended to support museum staff as the essential part of a resilient
organizational culture this might involve activities that help
you develop and implement a comprehensive
organizational learning opportunity a program of opportunities
that address one or more emerging priorities facing your museum
or it could be developing activities that help you
implement programs that address specific learning and growth opportunities
identified by a needs assessment so the needs might come from individuals
who have unique needs that you want to address or they
could be priorities facing the museum either now or in the near future that
collectively the museum's trying to address
sometimes it's tough to choose a goal so here are a few strategies to help you
select one that aligns best with your project
think carefully about what's in the center of your project
who or what will benefit from your work and what will be improved once you've
finished your project decide who you want to review your
application what kind of skill set and experience do
you want to have what i want them to have
and list all the activities you plan to carry out and assign to each to a goal
which goal gets the most these are just some ideas about how you
might decide which goal is best but you might wonder why your decision
about which goal to choose is so important well because it does impact
the review process your application will be reviewed by museum professionals who
have expertise and experience that's aligned with one
of these goals and in addition your application will be
competing against others who have chosen the same goal
our advice is to choose one program goal and write your proposal accordingly we
recognize that there's some overlap between the goals but you should pick
one and
like i said write your proposal accordingly
we'll turn now to allowable and unallowable costs for your project
be very careful in preparing your proposal and include only allowable
costs in both the imls grant funds and the cost share part of your budget
we'll go through some common expenses that are allowable and allowable but for
details please do look at the two cfr 200 which is the essential
federal guidelines or cost principles and these are
available online at the links shown here and is highly searchable
in the museum's empowered nofo we provide a partial list of the most
common examples of allowable costs these costs may be part of what you ask
imless to pay for or what you'll pay for as part of your cost share
the rules about allowability apply equally to the entire budget in other
words whether a cost item is on the grant fund side of the budget form or on
the cost share side of the budget form the same rules of allowability apply to
all line items in the budget so for example here you can
put under as an allowable expense
salaries and wages infringements benefits for staff
now it could be a percentage of their time devoted to
the project that you're paying for under grant funds it could be a percentage of
their time that you're paying on
and contributing to the project under cost share both are allowable
we also provide a list of generally unallowable costs again both for the
imls funds and for cost share these
costs may not be part of what you ask animals to pay for nor can they be part
of what you'll pay for as part of your cost share
you know what our unallowable expenses shouldn't be anywhere in your proposal
so remember to focus your budget and the cost items you include there on expenses
that will occur during the period of performance during the duration of the
grant award and on expenses that are directly related to the activities in
your proposed project as you prepare your application it's a
good idea to compare your list of proposed expenses against those
of the list here of allowable and unallowable costs
if after that you have some specific questions you can feel free to contact
us and we'll be happy to help now that you have a basic framework on
the amount of funding and the allowable costs for your project let's review the
multiple parts of the grant application that you will need to prepare
the application components are a series of documents you will upload in
grants.gov that together make up your application
these application components fall into three categories
the first is that of required documents all applications must include these
the second group is that of conditionally required
documents now some applications must include these it depends on the nature
of your institution or perhaps some aspect of your project
the third group of application components are supporting documents
these are completely optional
your application will consist of a series of individual documents and it's
very important to make sure you prepare and submit everything necessary
so let's look at the required documents all applications must include 12
required documents and they're listed on this slide
the eight documents listed on the left side of this slide are created by you
using a word document or processing software
and then saving that document as a pdf
instructions for all of these required documents are found in the nofo
many of these have page limits and if you exceed the page limit specified in
the nofo we must remove the extras before your application goes out for
review 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 four required documents on the right side of this
slide include the application for federal assistance the imls
supplementary information form and the imls museum program information form
these are online forms that you complete in the grants.gov environment
the imls budget form is a billable pdf
the second category of application components is that of conditionally
required documents some applications must include one or all of these and you
need to figure out which one is required for you
so for example if you're applying as a non-profit then you must include your
proof of nonprofit status issued by the irs
if you're using a federally negotiated indirect cost
in your budget then you must include a copy of your final rate agreement
if you will create digital products during the course of your project then
you must complete and submit a digital products plan
the term digital product includes digitized important digital content
software and research data so if you're creating any of these
you should include that plan in your application
the third group of application components is supporting documents and
some documents are completely supporting supporting documents are completely
optional this is not the place to introduce new information
some common items in this section might be letters of support from key
stakeholders or summaries from studies or reports that help shape the design of
your project and could bolster the project justification
you might just have a bibliography of references in related documents
so for example an essential supporting document might be a letter of commitment
from a consultant that you identified in the project work plan
and that letter might include information that further describes their
methodology or approach to the proposed project
or have a detailed cost estimate that further justifies their associated costs
in the budget another example might be a letter of
support from a key project partner perhaps a community organization or
other entity outside of the museum that will be an important part of the project
activities a letter describing their support of the
project and providing background on the relationship between the partner
organization and the museum would help reviewers understand the context in
which the project will be implemented we also recommend that you be respectful
of your reviewers time so include what's important and helpful
but stop there
now let's turn to two specific documents that are very important
the first is a strategic plan summary imless wants to help you achieve your
goals and one of the characteristics of a successful museum's empowered project
is addressing a key need or challenge that faces your museum and is identified
in your strategic plan so what we ask for you to provide here
is a summary of your plan no more than two pages so that reviewers can
understand how your proposed project and the activities will further your
institutional goals and objectives you should also indicate when and by
whom the plan was approved it might be your board of trustees or some other
group with authority to make those sign that document
use a narrative format for your summary our reviewers tell us they find a
well-constructed thoughtful and written summary is the best way to see the
connection between your museum strategic plan
and the proposed project
the other document i want to talk about here was is the performance measurement
plan so this is a new requirement from the federal government that agencies now
have to measure the performance of awardees
performance measurement tells us how good a job you did as a federal awardee
it helps imless understand manage and improve our grant programs
it's different than project evaluation project evaluation by contrast is all
about your project and your intended results or outcomes
project evaluation will be covered in the narrative part of the application
following the questions we ask in the nofo such as what need you're addressing
or uh what associated results do you want
your project to have
but for now let's turn our focus to performance measurement and how we'll
ask you to plan for it and report on it in the notice of funding opportunity we
provide a sample chart which applicants may use you don't require but you can
use it on the left side of the chart are four commonly used measures that imls
has adopted for this effort the first is
effectiveness extent to which activities contribute to
achieving the intended results next is efficiency how well the
resources are used quality
refers to 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 time frame
across the top are the information points we're asking you to use in your
statements with examples such as for data like percentages or hours or
things like that you might have qualitative measures such
as observations or opinions or feelings
there too for each performance measure we provide
a couple of examples addressing issues that might turn up in museum projects
the blank space is where we suggest you write your own performance measure
statement we're looking for one statement for each
required performance measure and you may provide more than one
if you wish but just keep in mind that this
document's limited to two pages so one statement
per measure is quite enough
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 examine that narrative section
in the application in this grant program the narrative is
limited to seven pages and divided into three sections the justification the
work plan and the results and the questions we're going to ask we
ask you to answer and the review criteria are all in the nofo
but for so for example in the project justification in this first section of
the narrative we ask you to lay out the reasoning for
your project tell us in the clearest terms possible
what you propose to do what need problem or challenge you're
going to address what who is going to benefit and how your project will
enhance the capacity of your institution and advance your strategic plan
we also want to know how you're addressing the goals of the museum's
empowered program using professional development to generate systemic change
within the museum
in this section of the narrative you'll notice a distinction is made between
target group and beneficiaries target group refers to those who will be
most immediately affected by your project
identify the number of individuals in the target group
or in each target group if you identify more than one
the ultimate beneficiaries refers to those who are likely to be aided in the
long term by your project the knight might be
may or may not be the same as your target group
so you want to then again identify the number of individuals who will benefit
in the long term and want some reliable count if possible
otherwise you can describe the characteristics of the beneficiaries you
expect to be served eventually by your project if you're not able to reliably
enumerate
them by number
reviewers will evaluate your proposal and the justification part of your
proposal on how well you explain your project and how well you've identified
that need problem or challenge you're going to address
and how well you've supported it with relevant evidence and whether you've
clearly identified who's going to benefit
and if it involves an audience right how you how and whether they've been
involved in the planning
because the knee problem or challenge is foundational in your application keep
these points in mind the federal government wants its investment to
result in something getting better so as you define your need problem or
challenge what's going to get better as a result
of your project want to define that as precisely as
possible will someone learn something develop a
skill or change an attitude identify why it's important that this
particular change happens and gather and present data that support
your problem the project work plan is the part
of the narrative in which you relay who will do what when and using what
resources we ask you to identify and tell us what
specific activities you undertake who's going to plan and implement and manage
your project and when and what sequence the activities
will occur and what resources financial or personnel
are going to be needed to carry out those activities and how are you going
to track progress
reviewers will evaluate your proposal on how well your activities are informed by
appropriate theory and practice and whether the goals assumptions
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 that your schedule is realistic and achievable
in this section you want to show how the project team is structured
and is it equitable and mutually beneficial to those involved
it's important to see how the project team is organized to support engagement
of all participants we'll also be looking at whether the
time and personnel and financial resources are appropriate for the scope
and scale of the project and i want to know if there's a clear
methodology for tracking your progress remember the review criteria
you're seeing on this slide are listed in their entirety in the
notice of funding opportunity as well
so this part of the narrative the work plan is really built around
the activities that you're going to undertake
so it's important to be clear about what an activity is it's really something
that you do and it has a beginning and an end
just like projects and you know when you've finished it because it doesn't
need to be done anymore it's no longer on your to-do list
so an activity in this part of the section should not be a goal or result
or an outcome but it's something you're going to do as part of trying to achieve
those goals so when you're listing your activities in your work plan
aim for a reasonable level of detail and identifying those activities not too
much not too little but
just right
the final section of the narrative is your results and this is where you
articulate the impact of your project what specific results do you intend to
achieve in order to address the need problem or challenge that you identified
in the justification something's going to get better so tell
us what that is tell us about the tangible products that going to result
from your project and talk about what's going to happen when
the project is over how are you going to sustain the benefits of your project
beyond the lifespan of this particular project
reviewers will give us their opinions on how well you've designed a feasible plan
for collecting the data how likely it is that those improvements you
propose will be realized and will those tangible products that you're going to
create are they going to be accessible to the
target audience and whether your plan for sustaining the benefits beyond the
project period are reasonable and practical
so just another thought here about results is
when you think back to the questions we referenced a couple slides ago about the
need problem or challenge well now you're going to say well what's going to
get better as a result of this work so if you said someone was going to learn
something how will you know
if your problem really related to segments of your
community getting to work together how do you know when that's going to be
achieved um or your staff working together
all your results should tie back to that need problem or challenge right and have
something here in the results that indicates
some change has happened
we also sometimes suggest using a logic model it's a useful tool to help explain
your intended results and your plan for achieving them
if you use a logic model feel free to include
that as a supporting document many reviewers appreciate seeing one
and if you don't use a logic model or you're using some other method to map
out your activities and tools you can certainly use that as well
so in summary considering all the components of your application there are
four general characteristics in successful museums of powered
applications that reviewers often see
so as you prepare your application keep these in mind
first is the institutional impact so again
revisiting the goal of the program it's about
using the transformative power of professional development to generate
systemic change within a museum want to see that there's some
institutional impact a change in the culture of your museum a
systemic change within your organization
second is the in-depth knowledge you want your proposal to reflect a thorough
understanding of current practice and knowledge about the subject matter
third is the project-based design as we've talked about project-based design
is logic logical interrelated activities that are going to address that key need
or challenge and with demonstrable results as the
fourth item it's really that we want to see something measurable that's going to
change at the end an application that has all of these
four characteristics will stand out in the review process and will have the
best the best chance of success for funding
so i also want to share with you the places to look for more information such
as the imos website where you can find the awarded grant search to learn more
about the projects we have funded through the museums empowered program
this search tool 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 or keyword your search will
reveal basic information about the award as well as a brief description of the
project
this can be extremely helpful as you put ideas together for your own project
we've also posted the narrative and scheduled completion from six
successful applications from 2022
to find these examples go to the sample applications on the imless website and
scroll down the page to find the museum's empowered examples
each pdf contains a copy of the seven-page narrative and also the
scheduled completion many of these samples were identified by
our peer reviewers as good examples of well-written applications that provided
all the essential information necessary for them to review the application
looking at these proposals might help clarify your thinking about your own
this is the general schedule of events to show what happens to your application
once we receive it imless staff will review it for
completeness and eligibility and you'll hear from us via email if there are any
problems from february through june
your experience and knowledgeable peers will provide scores and comments based
on the criteria outlined in the no phone an imls staff will examine your budget
your financials and track record with past and current grants federal grants
we then prepare materials for the imls deputy director
as well as the imless director that person the imos deaf imls director
is charged by law with the authority and responsibility to make final award
decision and this happens in early july
in early august we will notify you by email of the award decisions and provide
the scores and comments created by the reviewers and on september 1st 2023
your funded project begins
so
in conclusion i wanted to just share a few tips that we collected from our
experience in working with applicants each year
first is to 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 in order to submit an application to imls
now 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 or
renewal process as early as possible your sam.gov registration expires each
year and you must renew it and you can log into sam.gov at any time and find
out your status and 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 process
now here are some application tips to make sure you meet that deadline
read 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're available to answer your questions and these often come at the start of the
process general questions might be a group call with several folks on your
organization and later you might have a specific
question or detailed question about a particular component and feel free to
email or call to ask those questions describe your museum
well and vividly and use recent and relevant data to make your point so
reviewers are going to look at the applications trying to understand your
museum so be sure to give them a good description of how it operates
follow the narrative outline in the notice of funding opportunity and
consider using the same headings to make it easy for reviewers to read and find
the information they need avoid generalities and jargon
the people who will review your application are experts but they may not
be totally familiar with your particular shorthand so make it easy for them to
understand what you mean ask a colleague to read the seven page
narrative with fresh eyes ask them to act like a reviewer who's seeing this
for the first time and you know do it well in advance of the
submission deadline so you have adequate time to edit the narrative if necessary
be sure your application is complete check it against the table of
application components to be sure you're not missing any required documents
and submit to grants.gov early so you can correct any errors
before the deadline
so let's recap
if you haven't already been doing it while listening to this webinar be sure
to go to imls.gov and read the notice of funding opportunity carefully
check your organization's registrations with both sam.gov and grants.gov
reach out to a program staff member and schedule a counseling call
prepare your application and make sure it's complete
and then submit before the deadline november 15 2022 11 59 pm eastern
eastern time
so when closing our presentation today i want to make sure that you have
our phone number and email address for the program staff assigned
to work on museums empowered don't hesitate to contact either of us
with questions or concerns thank you and best of luck
i look forward to hearing from you