welcome to the institute of museum and library services webinar national
leadership grants for museums fiscal year 2023 information session
my name is helen wexler and i'll be hosting this webinar
our goal in this presentation is to provide specific information about the
national leadership grants for museums program and make some recommendations
that you may wish to consider when preparing your application
since this is a pre-recorded webinar and you won't have the opportunity to ask
questions feel free to contact me or other staff
at the office of museum services to seek answers to your questions or to discuss
a project idea the staff contact slide will be shown
later in this webinar
this is one in a series of webinars designed to help you find the
information you need to create a competitive application for imls museum
funding choosing a funding opportunity for 2023
is available as a recording and as a pdf of the slides along with their
transcript on our website at the link that's on this slide
that webinar covers the imls vision mission and strategic plan with an
emphasis on how they influence our grant making
we also address institutional eligibility provide a quick overview of
all of our funding opportunities discuss how to find information on our website
provide tips to help you complete an application and we cover the places with
which you must be registered in order to apply for imos funding
there is also individual webinars for each of the museum grant programs
in this presentation we'll be addressing the following topics
where to find information a program overview for national
leadership grants eligibility criteria characteristics of successful national
leadership grant projects important dates
how much and how many meaning how many applications you can apply with
nlg for museum program goals application components review criteria
some tips on applying a timeline and contact information
before we jump into the details of the nlg for museums program i want to
provide some numbers from the last two cycles
as you can see this is a fairly competitive grant program we were able
to fund about 20 of applications received in fy 21 and 35 in fy 22.
fy 22 is a bit of an anomaly because of the low application numbers my guess is
that the pandemic created challenges to applying for grants and the numbers will
probably bounce back this year with that in mind this webinar will help
you determine if your project is the right fit for the nlg program which is
an essential thing before putting in the effort to prepare an application and it
will give you tips for creating the most competitive proposal possible
i also want to make sure to point out where the application process begins
which is on our website if you use the grants drop down menu and
choose apply for a grant you'll click through a list of grant programs and
choose the national leadership grants for museums program
these guidelines or notice a funding opportunity which you can see on the
right are download loadable as a pdf these nofos as we call them will walk
you through the application process and they contain most of the information i
will provide today
you can be one of three types of organizations to be eligible to apply to
national leadership grants for museums if you are applying as a museum you need
to certify that you have a professional staff
you're organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational or aesthetic
purposes you own or use tangible objects
care for these objects and exhibit these objects to the general public on a
regular basis at least 120 days a year and conduct these activities in
facilities that you own or operate regarding the 120-day rule during our
current coven 19 reality you are free to count these 120 days in
either the year preceding the application due date
the year preceding your first shutdown due to covet 19 and this may be helpful
if your locale has had on and off closures throughout the pandemic
or you can use the calendar year preceding this current one so
2021. you can also be eligible for nlg
for museums if you are an organization or association that engages in
activities designed to advance the well-being of the museum and museum
profession or if you are a college
let's now discuss the purpose of this grant program
nlg supports projects that address critical needs of the museum field and
that have the potential practice in the profession so the
museums can improve services for the american public
analogy is all about meeting the needs 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 or tools for use by multiple institutions and are groups of museum
individuals museum professionals
making sure your project 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 to better
serve the american public we're looking for tangible results such
as models tools curriculum resources research findings or new services that
can be used by a segment of the museum field we seek proposals for projects
with the potential to influence practice across one or more disciplines within
the museum field not just benefiting a single museum but multiple museums and
museum professionals projects should reflect a thorough
understanding of current practice knowledge about the subject matter deep
familiarity with previous work on the project topic and an awareness of and
support for current strategic priorities in the field we encourage new
perspectives and approaches and expect collaboration because it demonstrates
broad need field-wide buy-in and input and access to appropriate expertise
finally we seek to fund projects that generate results that can be widely used
adapted scaled or replicated to extend the benefits of the federal investment
there are three funding options for your project
option one is for full projects that result in robust results for the field
these can request anywhere from fifty thousand to seven hundred and fifty
thousand there is a one-to-one cost share
requirement and when i talk about cost share
i mean um contributions that could be in the form
of cash staff or volunteer time other grantee
contributed costs or third-party contributions
it the one caveat is that it may not be funds from another federal source
option two is for research projects from fifty thousand to seven hundred and
fifty thousand which do not require a cost share and
we'll talk about research projects a little bit later
option three supports one-year rapid prototyping projects budgeted between
five thousand and fifty thousand dollars with no cost share required
if you have an idea for an innovative solution to a fieldwide challenge that
requires some funding to rapidly develop test iterate and retest this funding
level is for you remember whether you succeed fail or
come out somewhere in between we want you to report your results to the field
tell others what worked what is promising what needs more tweaking and
what they shouldn't try at home the second option is how many
applications the second question is how many applications you may submit
there's no limit on the number of applications your museum may submit to
nlg for museums however as you consider the option to submit more than one
application we urge you to think about the capacity
of your organizations to prepare multiple applications and to
manage multiple federal awards at once
now i want to talk about the three program goals for nlg for museums
your project must align with one of the three program goals
and set of corresponding objectives goals and objective choices should be
identified clearly in the narrative and this is described in section d2c of the
notice of funding opportunity goal 1 is the lifelong learning goal its
objectives correspond to the types of projects nlg supports for example a
project that takes a successful stem education program with head start
centers and adapts tests and scales it for use by other museums across the
country with their local head starts fits within objective 1.1
a statewide series of evaluation workshops for museum educators would
meet objective 1.2 and say research on the impact of single
visit field trips to art museums would fit within objective 1.3
goal 2 is about museums work to collaborate with and meet the needs of
their communities the three objectives are parallel to
those we saw in goal one they support the adapting and scaling up of models of
community engagement so that others in the field do not have to reinvent the
wheel that's objective 2.1 professional development for museum
professionals on topics that increase their ability to work with their
communities is objective 2.2 and objective 2.3
is what you would use if you wanted to answer a research question about the
important work museums do in their communities
and finally goal three offers the opportunity to be ever better stewards
of the nation's collections the objectives again are parallel to the
other goals offering opportunities to scale up models for care access and
management of collections say a new database project
in objective 3.1 training
and pd on stewardship issues like perhaps training a
the staff of small historical societies on how to make their own hat mounts that
would fit under objective 3.2 and then research on
management and care of collections like testing methods to mitigate the
degradation of plastics would fit under objective 3.3
imls offers a few ways to find examples of funded projects on the left
our results using the search awarded grants feature of our website you can
see the filters i selected on the left panel
we have the
the dates fy 22 21 and 20 checked across the top
and then at the bottom we've selected the national leadership grant for
museums we've also posted the abstracts
narrative and schedule of completion for a cross-section of successful nlg for
museum applications the proposals posted present a variety of project types meet
the overarching goal of the nlg for museums program and were considered to
be clear and well written by reviewers looking at these exemplary proposals
might help you clarify your thinking about your own application
the image on the right shows the sample application page and you'll need to
scroll down the page to find the national leadership grant program for
museums examples
next up are the documents that make up your application and that you will
upload into grants.gov as part of your proposal
these application components fall into three categories the first is required
documents all applica all applications must include these required documents
the second group is conditionally required documents some applications
must include these it might depend on the nature of your
institution or some aspect of your project for example if you're a
non-profit organization you must include your proof of nonprofit letter from the
irs if your proposal is about producing a
digital product you must include a digital product plan
if you meet the condition any of these conditions omission of anyone can result
in the exclusion of your application from further consideration
the third group of application components are supporting documents
these are completely optional you may submit some or none
think about including only those that supplement your your narrative and
backup statements that you may make you may refer to these materials in your
narrative so that your reviewers know where to look for example if you're
basing your project on successful work you've done in your museum you may want
to indicate that an evaluation report is included as supporting material
this is not the place to introduce new information
and as you decide how much supplemental material to attach be
respectful of your reviewers time
in the nlg for museums notice a funding opportunity you will find a table of
application components we recommend that you use this as a checklist to keep
yourself organized is divided into required conditionally required and
supporting documents the middle column tells you about
document formats and the third column tells you how to name each document
note that deviating from the naming convention or uploading a document that
is not a pdf such as a word or excel document will result in an error and or
the system thinking that the document isn't there
the table also provides links to instructions and forms
now let's talk about the narrative of your proposal you have 10 pages to cover
these three sections first section is project justification
in this section of the narrative you should lay out the reasoning for your
project tell us in the clearest terms what need
problem or challenge you expect to address
how you identified it who or what will benefit from your work which should be
some segment of the museum field and how your project will address the goals of
the nlg for museums program remember that core to nlg for museums is
the desire to support projects that strengthen the field show the reviewers
how that all fits together note that reviewers have prompts that
correspond to these questions you'll find this information in section e1 of
the notice of funding opportunity for this section of the narrative
reviewers will consider how well you've defended the need problem or challenge
you will address how well you identified who or what will
benefit from the project and how good a job you've done in
involving them in the planning reviewers also re value external needs
assessments or research that can support and validate your need
they'll look at who particularly will benefit and how the museum field will
benefit and they will weigh in on your demonstrated
understanding of current research and practice in the area
the next section of the narrative is the project work plan
this is the part of the narrative in which you explain what you will do
how you plan to address risks that may be present
who will do the project when and using what resources
the reviewers will look for evidence that you know what you're doing have the
right people at the table that the project is realistic that there's room
to change course if needed and for research projects they'll look for
appropriate research design and answers to the questions outlined in the
guidance on effective research proposals which we will go through
and here they are so speaking of research
the questions outlined and explained in the guidance for research applications
within the nlg notice of funding opportunity
are listed on this slide to submit a competitive research
proposal your narrative should answer these questions
we sometimes see projects submitted as research
that don't answer these questions or that don't fit the research category
this could be in order to avoid cost share requirements
and either way it's not a winning strategy or to present a competitive
proposal think carefully about these questions and if they do not make sense
for your project you're likely you likely don't have a research project
if you do submit a research project note that a data management plan becomes a
required document
the final section of the narrative is project results
what specific results do you intend to achieve in your project and what will
change as a result tell us about the tangible products that
will result from your project if you have any
and last but not least tell us how you will to sustain the benefits of your
project beyond the lifespan of this particular work
in other words when the federal funding goes away how will the benefit to the
field be sustained reviewers will register their thoughts
about how likely it is you will deliver on the results that you've proposed how
useful the tangible products you plan to create will be
and whether your plan for sustaining the benefit of the project is reasonable and
practical
when preparing your proposal be careful to include only allowable costs in both
your imls request and your cost share to do otherwise can hurt your chances of
getting positive reviews and being recommended for funding
we'll go through some common expenses that are allowable and unallowable but
for details please see 2 cfr part 200 this is the part of the code of federal
regulations covering uniform administrative requirements cost
principles and audit requirements for federal awards
fortunately the regulations are available online in a searchable format
on the us government publishing office website and a link is listed on the
slide of particular interest will be subpart e
on costs
in the nlg for museums notice a funding opportunity we provide a partial list of
the most common examples of allowable costs for this grant program these
include things like personnel salaries wages and fringe benefits
travel expenses for those involved in the project and consultants
materials supplies software and equipment related directly to the
project activities third-party costs which could be program
evaluation software development you can also include honoraria stipends or other
compensation for project participants for example community members and
advisors training for staff and volunteers that
impact multiple museums paid internships are
welcome indirect and overhead costs are
allowable so these costs may be part of what you ask imls to pay for and or what
you will pay for as part of your cost share if one is required
unallowable costs include general fundraising costs such as development
officer staff or other staff time devoted to general fundraising
contributions to endowments general operating support and that's
because these costs are typically part of what is calculated in an indirect
cost rate so that's already covered through indirect cost
you can't pay for acquisition of collections with imls funding
general advertising or public relations that aren't related to the specific
project that you're focusing on are not allowed
construction or renovation of facilities are not allowed however fabrication and
other types of work can be allowable and you may want to check with us about
those expenses
social activities ceremonies receptions or entertainment are not allowed but
note that sometimes food can be allowable for example when you need to
feed kids or teens during programming or during working lunches at training
workshops so these 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 project cost share in fact unallowable expenses
can't show up anywhere in your proposal
now for some tips first on the list is register early you must have an active
sam.gov registration and know your unique entity identifier
the uei which is generated through your sam
account you must also have a current and functional grants.gov registration
you must have an activegrants.gov registration and know your unique entity
identifier number in order to register with grants.gov
and you must have a functional grants.gov registration in order to
submit an application to imls so check to see whether your grants.gov
registration is associated with a former staff member whose password is a mystery
to you and please leave time to deal with these eventualities
it's also crucial to remember that your sam.gov registration expires each year
and you must renew it you can log into sam.gov at any time to
find out your status
important things to know we make grants only to eligible
applicants that submit complete applications including attachment on or
before the deadline which is november 15 2022
so please start early do your background research
revisit the notice of funding opportunity frequently so that you are
using the guidance that it provides when you're writing your narrative avoid
generalities or jargon or acronyms that your reviewers might not know they will
be experts in the fields but may not be experts on your particular activities
check your spelling grammar and math always important
ask a colleague to review everything with fresh eyes before you submit
and be sure your application is complete pay close attention to required
documents to their format and to their naming
and submit through grants.gov early so that if there are any errors you have
time to resubmit
we want to remind you of important dates for nlg applications
they are due by 11 59 pm eastern time on november 15 2022
and grants.gov system generates a time stamp so that's what we see
staff reviews applications for completeness and institutional
eligibility before they are sent for review which will happen from february
through june there will be two tiers of review during
that time this year nlg for museum awards will be
announced in august of 2023 and all nlg projects must be scheduled
to start on september 1st of 2023
thank you very much for your interest in imls and the national leadership grants
program for museums we hope you have found the information in this webinar
helpful here is a list of some names email
addresses and direct phone numbers for myself and my colleague jeanette
there is also a list of staff on the nlg for museums page of our website with
contact information we encourage you to contact us with any questions you might
have and we'll be very happy to help