Welcome to the Institute of Museum and Library Services,
Office of Museum Services Informational video Getting
Started with IMLS Museum and Grants.
The goal of this video is to provide a high level overview of
our grant funding opportunities and the process of applying for
them.
This video is organized into six chapters.
What is IMLS?
Is my institution eligible for an IMLS Museum grant?
Which grant program should I apply to?
How do I apply?
What if I have more questions, and what if I'm not ready to
apply this year?
To get the most out of this video, we recommend that you
watch it in its entirety.
This will give you an idea of the funding opportunities that
best fit your organization.
Once you have done that, we recommend reading the Notice of
Funding Opportunity for the programs you are considering.
Notices of Funding Opportunities, also known as
NOFOs, are documents that detail the requirements of each of our
grant programs.
All of our NOFOs can be found at
imls.gov/grants.
Once you've selected a funding opportunity, you'll be ready to
begin the application process.
As you navigate the process, you can use this video as a
reference tool.
If you'd like to skip to a specific section, please use the
time bar below or the links in the description box to navigate
the chapters.
Now that we understand the structure of this video, let's
talk about IMLS.
IMLS is an independent federal grant making agency and the
primary source of federal support for the nation's museums
and libraries.
The IMLS vision and mission statements were adopted as part
of the agency's current strategic plan.
Both emphasize that IMLS is here to support museums and libraries
and their work of serving their communities.
IMLS Vision is a nation where museums and libraries work
together to transform the lives of individuals and communities.
Our mission is to advance, support and empower America's
museums, libraries, and related organizations through grant
making, research, and policy development.
Our full strategic plan is available at imls.gov.
OMS or the Office of Museum Services is a key component of
IMLS and our last annual grant cycle, we awarded approximately
$55 million in funding to a diverse group of institutions,
including art, history and science museums, zoos, aquaria,
professional associations, universities, and Native
American Tribes.
We encourage you to apply for IMLS funding to support your
institution's goals or those of the museum field.
Our current application cycle opened on August 15th and will
close on November 15th.
Let's discuss some eligibility ground rules for applying to our
grant programs.
It's important to remember that each IMLS grant program has its
own specific requirements.
Those are detailed in the NOFOs, and we'll discuss them in
Chapter 3 of this video.
For now, let's go over the federally mandated requirements
that all potential applicants should be aware of.
Your organization must be located in one of the United
States, 50 states, its territories, or the District of
Columbia.
Your organization must be a unit of state, local, or tribal
government or a private nonprofit organization with tax
exempt status.
Three of our grant programs, Museums for America, Museums
Empowered, and the Inspire Grants for Small Museums are
only available to individual museums.
In order to qualify for our museum programs, your
organization must have at least one full time or equivalent
professional staff person either paid or unpaid, have a physical
location that it owns or operates, have been open to the
public for at least 120 days in the year prior to the
application deadline, and own or use tangible objects.
Museums may be stand alone organizations or they may be
part of a larger institution such as a college, university,
Tribe, or state or local government.
Here are some examples of the types of organizations that
could be considered museums.
Please note that this list is not exhaustive. For five other
OMS programs -
21st Century Museum Professionals,
National Leadership Grants for Museums,
Museum Grants for African American History and Culture,
Museum Grants for American Latino History and Culture, and
the Native American Native Hawaiian Museum Services Program
-
additional eligibility requirements exist.
We will address this in Chapter 3 of this presentation.
Please refer to the Eligibility section of the Program NOFOs for
detailed guidance.
Once you've determined whether your organization is eligible
for a given grant program, you'll want to know what types
of activities or projects it can fund.
Expenses must relate to specific project activities, not the
general operation of your institution.
Some of these project related expenses may include: salaries,
wages and fringe benefits; travel expenses; materials and
supplies; third-party costs; publication design and printing;
program evaluation; staff and volunteer training; internships
and fellowships; adaptive and/or assistive technologies and to
improve accessibility for persons with disabilities;
equipment to improve collection storage program;
program-specific overhead costs.
There are also some types of expenses that are not allowed in
your IMLS budget request or in your cost share. These include:
general fundraising costs, such as development, office staff or
other staff time devoted to general fundraising;
contributions to endowments; general operating support; the
acquisition of collections; construction or renovation of
facilities; and social activities, receptions and
entertainment.
Now that we have covered the basics of our eligibility
requirements and allowable versus unallowable cost, let's
get into some program specific details.
As mentioned previously, the IMLS Office of Museum Services
is currently offering 8 grant programs.
It is important to know how these programs are alike and
different so that you apply to the program that best meets your
needs and eligibility.
Museums for America, or MFA, is our biggest grant program,
receiving the largest number of applications each year and the
one through which we make the most awards.
MFA supports museum projects focusing on exhibitions,
educational/ interpretive programs, digital learning
resources, professional development, community debate
and dialogue, audience-focused studies, and/or collections
management, curation, care, and conservation.
These projects should address a key component of your
institution's strategic plan.
As an applicant, you must align your project with one of the
IMLS's agency level goals by choosing a project category.
Your options are Lifelong Learning, Community Engagement,
Collection, Stewardship, and Access.
Grant request may range from $5,000 to $250,000.
MFA requires a 1:1 cost share.
This means that for every dollar you request from IMLS, you must
plan to provide an additional dollar in cash from a
non-federal source, staff or volunteer time, or third-party
in-kind contributions.
Please note that MFA is only available to museums.
Projects can be scheduled to last from one to three years and
they must begin on September 1, 2025.
Museums Empowered, or ME, is a special initiative of Museums
for America.
The program supports projects that use the transformative
power of professional development and training to
generate systemic change within museums of all types and sizes.
The Museums Empowered Grant program identifies four areas of
museum operations to focus on for professional development:
Digital Technology; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion;
Evaluation; and Organizational Management.
Grant requests may range from $5,000 to $250,000 for project
scheduled to last from one to three years.
Like MFA, ME requires 1:1 cost share and is only available to
museums.
All projects must begin on September 1, 2025.
Inspire Grants for Small Museums, another special
initiative of the Museums for America program, is designed
specifically to help small museums address the priorities
identified in their strategic plans.
As an applicant, you must align your project with one of three
project categories: Lifelong Learning; Institutional
Capacity; or Collection, sStewardship, and Access.
When applying to this program, you must make a case as a small
museum using attributes such as staff size, operating budget,
and size relative to other organizations within your
discipline or geographic region.
There are two funding levels in Inspire and each has its own
cost share requirement.
For smaller scale projects requesting $5,000 to $25,000, no
cost share is required.
For larger projects requesting $25,001 to $75,000, a 1:1 cost
share is required.
Just like MFA and ME, this opportunity is only available to
museums.
Inspire projects must begin on September 1, 2025 and may last
from one to three years.
The National Leadership Grants for Museums Program, or NLG-M,
supports projects that advance the museum field's ability to
provide engaging learning opportunities, address community
needs, and steward collections through projects that result in
model tools and resources, training and professional
development, research findings, and forums that explore current
challenges and emerging issues.
NLG-M is open to: museums; organizations or associations
that engage in activities designed to advance the
well-being of museums and the museum profession; and to
institutions of higher education.
There are two NLG project types.
Non-research projects support efforts that result in tools and
resources for the field.
Non-research grant requests may range from $50,000 to $750,000
for project scheduled to last one to three years and requires
a 1:1 cost share.
Research projects pose questions of importance to the field and
use accepted research methodologies to collect,
analyze, and share the data that answers those questions.
Research grants may range from $50,000 to $750,000 for projects
scheduled to last one to three years with no cost share
required.
All NLG-M projects must begin on September 1, 2025.
The 21st Century Museum Professionals Grant Program
supports projects that offer professional development to the
current museum workforce; employ strategies to train and recruit
future museum professionals; and support evaluation efforts to
identify and share effective practices.
We expect successful 21MP projects to involve partnerships
that build career pathways and strengthen professional networks
beyond a single institution, as well as employee inclusive and
equitable recruitment and selection strategies to reach
target audiences.
The 21MP program encourages applications from museum
associations, museum studies, programs at institutions of
higher education, and museums that serve as essential parts of
the professional learning and training environment.
All 21 MP projects began on July 1, 2025.
The goal of the Museum Grants for African American History and
Culture Program, or AAHC, is to build the capacity of African
American museums and to support the growth and development of
museum professionals at African American museums and
historically Black colleges and universities.
There are two funding levels in AAHC and each has its own cost
share requirement.
For smaller scale projects requesting $5,000 to $100,000,
no cost share is required.
For large projects requesting $100,001 to $500,000, a 1:1 cost
share is required.
AAHC is open to museums whose primary purpose, as reflected in
its mission, is African American life, art, history, and/or
culture;
not-for-profit museum service organizations or associations
whose primary purpose, as reflected in its mission, is to
support such museums; and to the federally designated
Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
HBCUs may be eligible even if they do not have a museum.
Projects may be scheduled to last from one to three years and
projects must begin on July 1, 2025.
The Museum Grants for American Latino History and Culture, or
ALHC, program supports projects that build the capacity of
American Latino history and culture museums to serve their
communities, and broadly advance the growth and development of a
professional workforce and American Latino cultural
institutions.
ALHC is open to museums whose primary purpose, as reflected in
its mission, is American Latino life, art, history, and/or
culture,
not-for-profit museum service organizations or associations
whose primary purpose, as reflected in its mission, is to
support such museums.
Grant requests may range from $5,000 to $500,000 for projects
scheduled to last from one to three years.
All projects must begin on July 1, 2025.
The Native American Native Hawaiian Museum Services
Program, or NANH for short, is open to federally recognized
Tribes, including Alaskan Native villages and corporations and
organizations that primarily serve and represent Native
Hawaiians.
Other types of organizations, such as museums, may partner,
but not serve as the legal applicants for this program.
The goal of the NANH program is to build the capacity of Native
American tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to
provide museum services to their communities.
Museum Services is defined broadly for this program, but is
meant to support projects that sustain Indigenous heritage,
culture, and knowledge.
Some of the ways NANH grantees do this is through exhibitions,
educational programs, language preservation, training and
professional development, organizational capacity
building, community engagement, and collections stewardship.
NANH projects can be scheduled to last from one to three years
and must begin on July 1, 2025.
Grant requests may range from $5,000 to $250,000, and no cost
share is required for this program.
Keep in mind that there is no limit to the number of programs
that you can apply to, but if an organization submits multiple
applications, they must be for separate and distinct projects.
For further details on each program, please keep their full
Notice of Funding Opportunity at imls.gov/ grants, or feel free
to contact one of our program officers listed on the web page
associated with the applicable grant program.
Once you have determined which opportunities you are interested
in, it's time to apply.
Again, the cycle for these 8 grant programs opened on August
15th.
We'll be accepting applications for these programs until 11:59
PM Eastern Time on November 15, 2024.
We recommend starting your application as soon as you can.
Unexpected delays may arise, and we cannot accept late
applications.
The first step in applying is to register for sam.gov.
SAM stands for System for Award Management.
SAM is a federal repository that centralizes information about
grant applicants and recipients and is free to all users.
Applicants must be registered with SAM before registering with
grants.gov.
All grant payments will be made to the bank account that is
associated with the organization's SAM registration.
Your registrations must be complete and up to date for you
to submit an application to IMLS or to receive an award.
If this is your first time applying for IMLS funding, it's
important to know that you must complete the sam.gov
registration before moving on to any other steps in the
application process.
If you have registered with SAM in the past, you must renew your
account before moving on to any other steps in the process.
An expired registration will prevent an organization for
submitting applications via grants.gov and receiving awards
or payments.
We strongly recommend that you begin or update these
registrations immediately.
Doing so is completely free.
To begin, visit sam.gov and use the FAQs to answer questions.
If you need further assistance, call the Federal Service Desk at
866-606-8220 Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM
Eastern Time.
The second place you need to register is with grants.gov.
It is the portal through which all Federal grant applications
must be submitted.
Once your SAM registration is active, you can log into your
SAM record to locate your Unique Entity Identifier or UEI.
You need this active UEI to register in grants.gov.
Grants.gov is a website owned and operated by the federal
government and is also free to all users.
Please allow several weeks to complete the grants.gov
registration.
The grants.gov website is extensive and its help
capabilities are numerous and well staffed.
Begin with the website and its FAQs, but if you need additional
help, you may call their helpline at 1-800-518-4726,
which is available 24/7 except on federal holidays.
Visit their support page at the website listed here or e-mail
them at support@grants.gov.
If we haven't answered all of your questions in this video,
don't fear.
There are plenty of ways to learn more about our programs.
Our website, www.imls.gov, has the wealth of information.
There you can find our strategic plan, information about each
grant program, project descriptions of previously
awarded grants, sample applications, and contact
information of IMLS staff.
After you've reviewed the IMLS website, keep an eye out for
additional upcoming videos.
Program specific videos are prepared for each funding
opportunity.
Those will delve into the specific requirements for each
opportunity and provide tips for creating a competitive
application.
You'll be able to find these and additional video
content@imls.gov/ webinars.
If you'd like to ask individualized questions, we
recommend one-on-one counseling sessions with Office of Museum
Services staff.
These are 30 minute meetings between program staff and
potential applicants.
To sign up for a counseling session, visit imls.gov/grants
and navigate to the program you are interested in.
We hope that all potential applicants will take full
advantage of the resources in Chapter 5 of this video and
reach out to a staff member with any lingering questions.
However, we understand that this may not be the ideal time for
your institution to participate in our programs.
If you're not ready to apply this funding cycle, we have a
couple of recommendations.
One option is to apply to become a peer reviewer.
Peer reviewers are industry professionals who play a
critical role in our award selection process by reading and
scoring the grant applications.
As a reviewer, you'll get a behind the scenes view of the
review process and gain a better understanding of what makes a
proposal successful.
To apply to become a peer reviewer, please visit
www.imls.gov/grants/peer-review and click on "Apply to Become a
Museum Reviewer".
You can also find our webinar for potential museum reviewers
through our webinar page.
Another tool that can help you prepare for the grant
application process is an assessment program.
IMLS offers two assessment programs for institutions that
would like to better understand their own needs.
These are the Museum Assessment Program, or MAP, and the
Collections Assessment for Preservation program, or CAP.
IMLS supports these two technical assistance programs
through cooperative agreements with the goal of helping museums
strengthen their operations, identify collections care
priorities, and plan for the future.
Participating in an assessment program is a great starting
point for small and mid-sized museums.
The documents that result from these assessments can be used to
implement future IMLS grant applications.
The Museum Assessment Program, or MAP, is funded by IMLS and
managed by the American Alliance of Museums.
It is available to small and mid-sized museums of all types
and its purpose is to help organizations strengthen their
operations, plan for the future, and meet professional standards
through self-study and a consultative site visit from an
expert peer reviewer.
MAP participants can choose from four assessment types: the
Organizational Assessment; the Collection Stewardship
Assessment; the Education and Interpretation Assessment; and
the Community and Audience Engagement Assessment.
To learn more, please visit www.aam-us.org/map, or call
202-289-9118.
The next application deadline is expected to be February 1, 2025.
To be notified when the next application period
is open and to receive updates about the MAP program, please
send your contact information to map@aam-us.org.
Also funded by IMLS but administered by the Foundation
for Advancement in Conservation or FAIC, the Collections
Assessment for Preservation Program, or CAP for short,
provides small and mid-sized museums with support for general
conservation assessments.
These assessments consist of a self-study and a two-day onsite
visit by assessors to specialize in collections conservation and
building preservation.
CAP is often the first step for small and mid-sized museums that
wish to improve the condition of their collections.
A CAP assessment can assist your institution by helping you
decide how to invest limited funding and staff time;
facilitating the development of a long-term preservation plan;
and serving as a fundraising tool for future conservation
projects.
For more information about the CAP program and application
process, please visit the FAIC's website at
www.culturalheritage.org/cap, or email cap@culturalheritage.org.
Thank you for your interest in IMLS's Museum funding
opportunities.
Before you go, I'd like to leave you with some final reminders.
Each of our grant opportunities have different requirements and
goals.
Please visit https://www.imls.gov/ grants to
learn more.
It is very important to register early with sam.gov and
grants.gov. If you have registered previously,
remember that these registrations expire, and be
sure you know the usernames and passwords you'll need well in
advance of the day you submit your application.
Applications to all IMLS Museum grant programs are due November
15, 2024.
But don't wait until the last minute to submit.
Throughout the application period,
we will offer additional webinars that can be viewed at
imls.gov/webinars.
You can also schedule one-on-one counseling calls with program
staff to answer your specific questions.
Thank you and good luck.