the institute of museum and library services native american native hawaiian
museum services information session my name is sarah glass i'm a senior
program officer in the office of museum services and i'm happy that you're
interested in preparing an application for the imls native american native
hawaiian museum services grant program i will be referring to the program
throughout this presentation as nanh the abbreviation of the program title
my goal in this presentation is to provide specific information about the
ninh grant 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 any of the other staff in the office of museum
services to seek answers to your questions or to discuss a project idea
the staff contact slide is shown later in this webinar
this is one of a series of pre-recorded webinars designed to help you find the
information you need to create a competitive application for imls museum
funding choosing a funding opportunity for fy
2023 was pre-recorded and is available as a video and as a pdf of the slides
plus as a transcript on our website at the link identified here
in that webinar we cover 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 how to find information online with a
focus on our website and we cover the two places you must be registered in
order to apply for an imls grant we strongly recommend that you view this
webinar to get the complete picture of preparing and submitting a competitive
application to the nah program in addition to this nanh webinar we are
providing pre-recorded webinars for all of our museum grant programs you can
find links to these on the grant program landing pages on our website
we're often asked about the number of applications and funding success rates
so here are the figures for the past five years for this program
as you can see nah has had a somewhat consistent increase in appropriated
funding over time we seek to award the strongest proposals
with the greatest potential to strengthen tribal museum services
looking back to the beginning of the program in 2005 the first year we made
awards we have since received 635 applications
of those 416 have received grants which has
totaled over 21 million in funding to support the museum services of tribes
alaskan native villages and corporations and native hawaiian serving
organizations to date awards have been made under this program to organizations
located in 30 states
in this presentation i'll be addressing the following topics
program goals and eligibility characteristics of successful nan
projects important dates and times
the questions of how much you may request in funding how many applications
you may submit and how long your project can last
examples of allowable and unallowable costs
application components application tips the review process and imls staff
contact information
let's begin with the nah program goals the overall goal of the nanh program is
to support projects that enhance museum services in order to assist tribes
alaska natives and organizations that primarily serve native hawaiians to
provide opportunities to sustain heritage culture and knowledge through
strengthened activities in areas such as exhibitions educational services and
programming professional development and collection stewardship
since it is designed to serve indian tribes alaska natives and native
hawaiians the nanh program has unique eligibility criteria from other museum
grant programs offered at imls i encourage you to read the specific
eligibility criteria noted on our website and in the notice of funding
opportunity and contact us with any questions
here are some more details on eligibility requirements for the nah
program an organization is eligible to apply to
this program if they are a federally recognized indian tribe as identified by
the bureau of indian affairs an alaska native village or corporation
or a non-profit organization that primarily serves and represents native
hawaiians in most circumstances other entities such as museums libraries
cultural centers schools tribal colleges or departments of education are not
eligible to apply on their own however the three types of eligible
entities listed here are welcome to partner with those non-eligible entities
or organizations the applicant for the grant must meet
the eligibility criteria but the partners are not required to do so
what are characteristics of successful native american native hawaiian museum
services applications there are four
and successful projects address all of them well
as you prepare your application you should keep these characteristics in
mind first institutional impact your project
should address a key need or challenge that faces your organization
second in-depth knowledge your proposal should reflect the thorough
understanding of current practice and knowledge about the subject matter
third project-based design your work plan should consist of a set of logical
interrelated activities tied directly to addressing the key need or challenge
and fourth demonstrable results your project should generate measurable
results that tie directly to the need or challenge it was designed to address
it has been our experience that an unfunded application is one that has
failed to deliver convincingly on one or more of these so it's a good idea to
think about how you structure your application to show how your project
will be strong in each
i want to remind you of important dates for nanh applications
they are due by 11 59 pm eastern time on november 15 2022
this deadline is non-negotiable and the timestamp is auto-generated by the
grants.gov system you will hear this again and again but
start early and submit early that way if you encounter a difficulty
of any kind when submitting your proposal you'll have some time to
resolve the problem after undergoing a peer review process
nah awards will be announced in june 2023 and projects must be scheduled to
start july 1st 2023 please make sure everyone involved in
preparing your grant application is aware of these dates
nah applicants can request anywhere from five thousand to a hundred thousand
dollars in grant funds if you ask for less than five thousand
or more than a hundred thousand your application will be rejected and not
reviewed there is no cost share requirement
though you may include one if your organization will contribute funds
towards this particular project it's important to note that if you
decide to include a cost share in your application it must be met by the end of
the award we will hold you to that figure so keep that in mind when
applying cost share can be in the form of cash
staff or volunteer time or third party contributions it may not be funds from
another federal source in terms of how many applications you
may submit there's no limit to the number of applications you can file in
response to the fy 23 funding announcement for the manh program
however you'll want to consider your organization's capacity not just to
write and submit multiple strong proposals but then to manage multiple
federal awards at once and finally how long may a project last
nah projects must be at least one year but may not exceed three years in length
i have used the term project here several times so let's take a minute to
consider exactly what that means the project management institute has a
good definition this is a temporary endeavor undertaken
to create a unique product service or result
they go on to further explain that a project is temporary because it has a
defined beginning and end in time and therefore define defined scope and
resources and a project is unique in that is not a
routine operation but rather a specific set of activities designed to accomplish
a singular goal we recommend that you keep this
definition in mind as you conceptualize your imls project think of it as a
temporary non-routine set of activities which collectively have a beginning and
an end in time a defined scope requiring specific resources and which are
designed to accomplish a specific singular goal
this slide shows a list of many types of projects we can fund under the nah
program and we invite you to develop and apply for projects that best meet your
tribes or institutions needs remember the overall goal of the na h program is
to assist tribes alaska natives and native hawaiian organizations to enhance
their museum services and provide opportunities to sustain their heritage
culture and knowledge you are not necessarily required to have
a physical museum or cultural center in order to provide these types of services
while there are technically no project categories for the nah program it does
have several primary goals and objectives which are linked to the
overarching goals of the imls strategic plan
we cover these in the choosing a funding opportunity webinar and they are
to champion lifelong learning strengthen community engagement
and advanced collection stewardship and access
i will review the nan goals and objectives in the next three slides and
you should keep these in mind as you prepare your application
each nan program goal has a set of objectives which essentially provide a
list of the types of projects that fit within that goal
so a project that aligns with goal 1 might include but is not limited to
program development for all types of audiences
all are part of an exhibit creating interpretive plans
training for teachers partnerships with schools or out-of-school audiences
program evaluation and professional development opportunities for the native
american native alaskan and native hawaiian museum workforce
these types of projects should start with the concept of learner at the
center and build around it spend time really thinking through who
your learners in this project are and what their needs are
it's likely not going to be everybody so who is it really
what do they want to learn what do you want them to learn and what's the best
way to go about that we'll get to the idea of problems and
needs in a few minutes but a major takeaway here is to be focused on
identifying your target audience and thinking about how you are going to
serve them
a project that aligns with goal 2 is likely to include activities that
contribute directly to your work to build the capacity of your museum
services within your tribe or organization
projects might include but are not limited to
institutional planning and policy development the recruitment and
development of museum staff and the enhancement of technology such as your
website or necessary software and hardware for museum operations
projects that align with goal 3 include just about anything you need to do for
and with your collections except acquire them
we are very open to projects that have multiple components configured in ways
that make sense for you one project might consist of cataloging
taking digital photographs and updating database records while another might
combine digitization activities with rehousing
we support conservation projects of all kinds from general detailed and
environmental surveys to conservation treatments and environmental
improvements and you're welcome to incorporate aspects of training or
collections management into these projects if doing so makes sense for
your situation we also support projects focused on
preserving and perpetuating native language or traditional cultural
practices including archival documentation oral histories or
repatriation efforts it's important to note that with
collections and conservation focused projects we encourage a step-by-step and
progressive approach this means addressing needs creating a prioritized
list of activities and following through by doing the most important and logical
things first
we'll turn now to types of allowable and unallowable costs for your project
be careful when preparing your proposal to only include allowable costs in your
federal funding request and any cost share you choose to provide
including unallowable costs 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 you'll want to console the
federal regulations that govern federal awards
we call these two cfr 200 for short but the full title
is title ii subtitle a chapter 2 part 200 uniform
administrative requirements cost principles and audit requirements for
federal awards i know that sounds like a mouthful but these regulations contain
important guidance that all federal grant applicants and recipients should
be aware of fortunately they are available online in
a searchable format via the us government publishing office website
listed on the screen a particular interest for the topic of
allowable or unallowable costs is subpart e cost principles a small
section of which is shown on the right side of this slide
here's a partial list of some common examples of allowable costs the same
list can be found in section d6a of the nanh notice of funding opportunity
these costs may be part of what you ask imls to pay for with federal funds or
what you will pay for as part of your cost share if you
choose to include any again the rules about allowability apply
to both so when completing your project budget be sure to check that all costs
you include whether grant funds or cost share are allowable
you are required to explain all of your proposed expenses in your application
budget
also in section d6a of the nan notice of funding opportunity we provide a list of
generally unallowable costs these costs may not be part of what you
ask imls funds to pay for nor can they be included as part of your cost share
in fact unallowable expenses can't show up anywhere in your proposal
as you prepare your application budget it's a good idea to compare your list of
proposed expenses against these lists of allowable and unallowable costs as well
as against the federal cost principles which again can be found in two cfr part
200 that part of the code of federal regulations i mentioned a couple slides
ago
next up are application components your application will consist of a
series of individual documents and it's very important to make sure you prepare
and submit everything necessary for your application to be
considered complete application components fall into three
categories in the nah funding opportunity
the first is that of required documents all applications must include the
documents listed here a mission of even just one can result in
the exclusion of your application from further consideration
also important to note are page limits if you exceed the page limit specified
in the notice of funding opportunity we must remove the extra pages before your
application goes out for review that means your reviewer may see a paragraph
or sentence end in mid air and will wonder about your planning skills and
your attention attentiveness to detail 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 two of the required forms are ones
you'll download through grants.gov and they are dynamic
by that i mean that your answers to certain questions will determine which
questions you see next these are the imls supplementary
information form including abstract and the imls museum program information
forum
in the second category of application components
is conditionally required documents
some applicants must include one two or more of these and it's important that
you know which are required for your application
if you are a non-profit organization that primarily serves and represents
native hawaiians then you must include your proof of nonprofit status issued by
the irs as well as appropriate proof of eligibility documentation outlined in
the notice of funding opportunity if you are using a federally negotiated
indirect cost rate in your budget then you must include a copy of your final
rate agreement if you create digital products during
the course of your project then you must complete and submit a digital products
plan if you're requesting support for
conservation treatment then you must include detailed condition reports and
or formal conservation treatment proposals
just like the required documents omission of even one of these can result
in the exclusion of your application from further consideration
and please note that the term digital product includes anything like digitized
and born digital content resources or assets software research data etc
if you're creating any of these types of materials you must include the plan with
your application appendix 4 of the notice of funding
opportunity funding opportunity contains further
guidance for creating a digital products plan
third group of application components
is supporting documents and here's a partial list of examples
supporting documents are optional you may submit some or none
we urge you to make good decisions here and include those that will supplement
your proposal this is not the place to introduce brand new information rather
as the name suggests they should lend support to your project justification
work plan and intended results that you've already 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 programs collections or community a
better idea of what you're describing within your narrative
vendor quotes or equipment specifications show you've done some of
the leg work in getting appropriate estimates for project costs
we recommend that you be respectful of your reviewers time and avoid any
temptation to include hundreds of pages of extraneous material that is not
directly relevant to your project being judicious really does work to your
benefit so supporting documents can make or
break an application include what is important and helpful
and stop there now let's talk about the narrative of
your proposal you have five pages to cover three very
important topics and the notice of funding opportunity provides length and
guidance on what the narrative should include
you should organize your narrative using these three section headings and
consider the nanh grant program goals and objectives you have selected as you
develop it
so first is the project justification what need problem or challenge will your
project address and how was it identified describe how you have used
demographic information economic circumstances condition assessments or
other relevant data from reliable sources to define the need problem or
challenge and develop the scope for your project
who is the target group for your project and how have they been involved in the
planning target group refers to those who will be
most immediately and positively affected by your project
identify the number of individuals in the target group or in each target group
if you identify more than one and who are the ultimate beneficiaries
for this project beneficiaries refers to those who are
likely to be aided in the long term by your project
they may or may not be the same as your target group
identify the number of individuals who will benefit from your
project in the long term if reliable and defensible counts are possible otherwise
describe the characteristics of the beneficiaries you expect to be served
eventually by your project
in section e of the notice of funding opportunity under review criteria you
will find a list of questions that reviewers are asked to answer 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 these questions
correspond fairly directly with the prompts you were given to write your
narrative
because the need 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
as you define your need problem or challenge articulate what will get
better as a result of your project as precisely as possible will someone learn
something develop a skill change an attitude will members of your community
be better able to work together to solve problems
will collections be better cared for will their lifespan be extended will
access to your collections and the information surrounding them be expanded
identify why it is important that this particular change happens
hone your problem definition carefully in clear succinct terms and gather and
present data that supports your problem definition
if the project justification section was the y
the project works plan section is where you identify the who what when and how
who will do what activities when and using what resources
you should explain how you will track your progress towards achieving your
intended results and what you'll do if you need to correct course
note that we 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 i'll say more about risks in a few minutes
again this is the list of questions in section
e of the notice of funding opportunity that reviewers are asked to answer when
they review your proposal so make sure your narrative is answering these
effectively
your work plan will be built on activities so it's important to be clear
about what an activity is an activity is something that someone
does 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
an activity is not a goal a result or an outcome rather it is something you do as
part of striving to achieve those should aim for a reasonable level of
granularity in identifying your activities
that might be hard but strive for balance
too much in your work plan becomes bogged down and confusing but too little
and someone who is reading your application won't understand the who
when what and how of your project
we also ask you to think about risks that are
inherent in your particular project and to tell us how you've taken that into
account in your planning think of it as answering the question
what if x doesn't go according to plan there is no checklist of risks but every
project has them the best proposals will show that you are aware of them and have
fought through a plan for dealing with them
look at your activities and think about what could go wrong focus on the ones
where your experience tells you yes that could happen and identify steps you
would take in response for example if you intend to hire
someone into a grant funded position to work on the project activities what will
you do if it takes longer than expected to find the right candidate bring them
on board and train them imless knows things go differently than
expected we just want you to prepare by identifying implementable options should
they occur
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 neuter problem you identified in your project justification will be
addressed and it will be diminished or eliminated altogether
think about this question from the dual perspectives of advancing the museum's
services of your tribe or institution as well as ensuring that the federal
investment made through this grant will generate benefits to society
how will you know that your project has been successful how will you measure
that success if your project will generate tangible
products and most do here's the opportunity to describe them
and make the case that they will be useful
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 to make continue once your grant is over
what will the longer term impact be
and again here is the list of review questions that reviewers are asked to
answer when they read and score the project results section of your
narrative these are found in section e of the
notice of funding opportunity
we often hear that defining intended results and success measures is
challenging for applicants so it's worth spending a little bit of time on this
here let's think back to the questions we
referenced a couple slides ago when we talked about defining the need problem
or challenge that your project is addressing
if you said someone will learn something how will you know
if your problem related to segments of your community being better able to work
together how will you know when that has been achieved
if collections will be better cared for how will you be sure and how will you
measure better if you're digitizing to expand
accessibility how will you know when you've done it all of your results
should tie back to your need problem or challenge
you may well experience tangible tangential benefits and or other
positive outcomes but make sure you identify them as in addition to and not
instead of your original intended results
reviewers are likely to see that as a disconnect
this focus on project results and measuring success in meaningful ways is
not new but it isn't necessarily easy either
there are many ways to define and measure success and each situation is
unique to aid you in visualizing what success
could look like for your project we encourage you to consider using a logic
model to explain your intended results and your plan for achieving them
some nan applicants use logic models and reviewers appreciate their consciousness
their conciseness and focus there are many excellent resources
available to help you construct a logic model and among these are imls's shaping
outcomes a free online course developed in partnership with indiana university
purdue university of indianapolis it's available at the website on the
screen and it's customized to meet the needs of
museum applicants there are downloadable worksheets and
numerous examples that you are likely to find relevant to your work
so to recap your narrative has three sections project justification project
work plan and project results and you have five pages for it
it's important to remember that the sections are all equally important
write clearly address what we ask you to address and keep an eye on those review
criteria we're telling you here exactly what the
reviewers will look for so make it easy for them to find it and understand it
at the end of 2020 the government added a new requirement to all federal awards
agencies are now required to measure the performance of awardees
this performance performance measurement requirement is different from project
evaluation which is typically included in a project proposal
performance measurement tells us how good a job you did as a federal grantee
it helps imls understand manage and improve our grant programs and the
assistance we provide to applicants and awardees and it helps us inform internal
stakeholders such as imls leadership or key staff in our various offices
as well as external stakeholders such as legislative and oversight committees the
media or the general public about our grant making
project evaluation by contrast is all about your project's intended results or
outcomes the prompts for each section of your narrative we've just covered
project justification work plan and results essentially provide an outline
of your evaluation methods we ask you what need you are addressing
and what associated results do you want your project to have
how you will track progress toward achieving your intended results and how
the knowledge skills behaviors or attitudes of your target audience will
change as a result of your project so now let's turn our focus to the
performance measurement and how we will ask you to plan for and report on it
section a3 of the aah notice of funding opportunity provides a sample chart
which applicants may but are not required to use
on the left side of the chart are four commonly used performance measures that
imls has adopted for this effort effectiveness the extent to which
activities contribute to achieving the intended results
efficiency how well resources such as funds expertise or time are used and
costs are minimized while generating maximum value for the target group
quality how well the activities meet the
requirements and expectations of the target group and timeliness the extent
to which each task or activity is completed within the proposed time frame
across the top are information points that we're asking you to use in your
statements with examples of each for instance with data we will collect
our listed counts costs weights volumes temperatures percentages and hours as
well as qualitative observations opinions and feelings
for each performance measure we provide a couple of examples addressing issues
that might turn up in museum and library projects
our intent was to make it easy for applicants to see the relationship
between this request and the project they are proposing
the blank space is where we suggest applicants write their own performance
measure statements and the chart is constructed so it can expand to allow as
much space as needed we are looking for one statement for
each required performance measure you may provide more than one statement per
measure if you wish however we do limit the performance measurement plan to two
pages
at this point i'd like to share a few tips based on our experiences with the
nah application submission process each year
first off you must submit your application online
through grants.gov imls does not accept applications by
mail or email in order to register with grants.gov
you must have an active sam.gov registration and uei number
so make sure your registrations for both of these sites are complete and 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 faqs
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 an active sam.gov or grants.gov registration by the
application deadline is not an excuse for submitting a late application so
again start early
our regulations state clearly that we can make grants only to eligible
applicants that submit complete applications including attachments on or
before the deadline those are the parameters we must follow
as a federal agency so here are some tips to ensure that you can too
start early become familiar with grants.gov's
workspace this feature has been around for a few
years and now it's the only option it's got very much it's many good elements
including upfront validation that allows you to correct errors prior to
submission and the opportunity to collaborate with others in creating and
saving progress on your application consider starting with the workspace
overview and check out their tutorials do your background research
make it easy for the reviewers to see that you're up to date and know what
you're talking about you should revisit the nan notice of
funding opportunity frequently and follow the narrative outline it provides
use the headings subheadings or numbered sections to make it easy for reviewers
to read avoid generalities acronyms and jargon
the people who will review your application are experts but they may not
be familiar with your particular institutions or fields shorthand so make
it easy for them to understand what you mean
check your spelling grammar and math an advantage to starting your
application early is you can ask a colleague to review everything with
fresh eyes before you submit ask them to act like a reviewer who's
seeing everything for the first time be sure your application is complete
check it against the table of application components in the notice of
funding opportunity and then check it again
and submit to grants.gov early so you can correct any errors and avoid any
possible issues caused by technology challenges forgotten passwords or staff
out on vacation the day of the submission deadline
we have also posted the narrative and schedule of completion as well as
digital products plans from three successful applications from 2022. to
find these applications go to the sample applications on the imls website and
scroll down the page to find the nan examples looking at these proposals
might help clarify your own thinking about your proposal
this is the general grant cycle for the nah program so you can see what happens
to your application once we receive it imls staff will review it for
completeness and eligibility and you will hear from us via email if there are
any problems from january through march experienced
peer reviewers will provide scores and comments based on the criteria outlined
in the nah notice of funding opportunity and imless staff will examine the
project budgets institutional financials and applicants track records with past
and current grants we then prepare materials for the imls
deputy director for museums and the imls director
by law the director has the authority and responsibility to make final award
decisions and this generally happens in may
in june we notify all applicants by email of the award decisions and provide
the scores and comments created by their reviewers
and on july 1st 2023 the funded projects will begin
thank you again for your interest in imls and in the native american native
hawaiian museum services grant program we hope you found the information in
this webinar helpful here's the contact information for the
two imls staff assigned to the nan program
jennifer and i are happy to answer any questions you may have
we actually have an easy and preferred way for you to schedule a call with
either of us straight from the nanh program landing page so please feel free
to use that tool and reach out good luck and we look forward to seeing
your application in november
you