welcome to the institute of museum and library services webinar i am a less
rescue plan grants 2021 information session
my name is cindy landrum my name is chris reich
and we are pleased you could join us and that you are interested in preparing an
application for the imls american rescue plan grants program
our goal in this presentation is to provide specific information
about the imls american rescue plan grants program
and to make some recommendations that you may wish to consider when preparing
your application in this presentation we will
we will be addressing the following topics
program goals and objectives performance measures
important dates and times the question of how much and how many
allowable and unallowable costs what you can and cannot include in your
project application components application
tips and staff contact information
the american rescue plan act passed by the u.s
congress appropriated 200 million dollars to the
institute of museum and library services 15 million dollars of this appropriation
have been allotted to support project proposals submitted to the imls
american rescue plan grants program
this this grant program has two program goals
and three objectives associated with each goal
each applicant should align their proposed project
with one of these two goals and one of the associated objectives
goal one is to strengthen the institutional capacity of museums
libraries and related organizations to respond to community needs
quickly effectively efficiently and responsibly
objective one is to advance digital inclusion
through approaches that may include but are not limited to
improving digital platforms online services
connectivity such as hot spots and creating digital literacy programs as
well as creating new processes and procedures
needed to sustain a robust and online environment
objective two will support hiring new staff
and training or retraining existing staff
to ensure a workforce that has the appropriate knowledge
skills and abilities objective 3 focuses on building community focused
partnerships networks and alliances with
organizations such as other non-profits school systems service organizations
community groups government agencies or institutions of higher education all
with an emphasis on complementing rather than
duplicating resources and services
goal two is to increase the ability of museums libraries and related
organizations to deliver programs and services
that contribute to the well-being of families groups and individuals
of all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds
objective one will support the creation and delivery of online
and in-person educational interpretive and experiential programs and
exhibitions for learners of all ages objective two is to provide trusted
spaces for community engagement and dialogue to
foster recovery and rebuilding and objective three supports efforts to
collect preserve manage and interpret
documentary sources and tangible objects representing all
aspects of the covet 19 pandemic experience
while aligning your proposal with one of the goals and objectives we've outlined
projects may continue enhance or expand existing programs and services or they
may launch new ones to address those needs
the most competitive proposals will be framed as
responses to needs of the community or a target audience
providing data-based evidence of how those needs were identified
as resulting from or exacerbated by the covid19 pandemic
will further strengthen your proposal to this program
a new federal requirement this year that experienced
applicants may not recognize is the performance measurement plan
for this program applicants must let us know
how they will measure the degree to which the project activities
will meet the expectations of the target audience
and also the extent to which each primary activity will be completed
within the proposed timeline a one-page performance measurement plan
must be submitted with the application in the nofo you will find a sample chart
that shows how this can be easily prepared
and is a there is a link to a fillable version
of this chart if you wish to use it you can also provide your own one-page
approach to describing how you will measure the quality and timeliness of
your project activities
here are important dates related to applications to this
program applications must be received through grants.gov
by 11 59 pm eastern time on monday june 28 2021
this date is non-negotiable the time stamp
is auto generated by the grants.gov system and we have no ability to
override it imls american rescue plan grant awards
will be announced in october 2021 and awarded projects must be
scheduled to start on the first day of november
2021 and be no more than one year in length please make sure that everyone
involved in preparing your grant application
is aware of these dates
all requests for imless funding must be between
ten and fifty thousand dollars if your request for funding falls outside of
this range your application will be rejected and not reviewed
with two exceptions requests to this program must
include at least a one-to-one non-federal
cost share cost share can take a number of forms
among them are cash the value of staff or volunteer time engaged in project
activities third-party contributions grants from
foundations and support from state or local
government cost share cannot come from other
federal sources applicants applying as federally recognized indian tribes or
as non-profit organizations that primarily
serve and represent native hawaiians are exempt from the cost share requirement
in this program
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 your imls request and your cost
share on the next slides we'll go through some
common expenses that are allowable and unallowable but for those who want
to dig into the details please see title 2 subtitle a chapter 2
part 200 of the code of federal regulations covering uniform
administrative requirements cost principles
and audit requirements for federal awards
otherwise known as two cfr 200 for short these regulations are available online
in a searchable format on the us government publishing office
website and a tiny url link is listed on this
slide a particular interest is subpart e cost principles a small section of which
is shown on the right side of this slide in the imls american rescue plan grants
notice of funding opportunity we provide a partial list
of the most common examples of allowable costs as listed here
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
the rules about allowability apply to both sides of your budget
we also provide a list of generally unallowable costs
again both for imls funds and for cost sharing
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 cost share
in fact unallowable expenses can't show up anywhere in your proposal
as you prepare your application it's a good idea to compare your list of
proposed expenses against these lists of
allowable and unallowable costs and against the
appropriate set of cost principles
up next are the components your application will consist of a
series of individual documents and it's very important to make sure you
prepare and submit everything you should
these application components fall into two categories for this program
the first is that of required documents all applications must include the
documents listed here omission of even just one might result
in your application's rejection
also important to note are page limits if you exceed the page limit specified
in the notice of funding opportunity we must remove the extras before your
application goes out for review so 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 second category of application components is that of conditionally
required documents some applications must include one two
or even all four of these and it's your job to figure out
which are required for yours if you're applying as a non-profit then
you must include your proof of nonprofit status issued by
the internal revenue service if you are applying as a non-profit
organization that primarily serves or represents native
hawaiians the notice of funding opportunity will explain
special requirements in this instance if you're using a federally negotiated
indirect cost rate in your budget then you must
include a copy of your final rate agreement
finally if you will create digital products during the course of your
product project then you must prepare and submit
a digital products plan guidance for preparing such a plan is
provided in appendix 4 of the notice of funding opportunity
those who have applied for il imls grants in the past
may note that this particular program does not
include supplementary information and documents
as conditionally required documents you should not attach any additional
materials of this kind to your application
they will be deleted if you do so
now let's talk about the narrative for your proposal
you have only three pages to cover three very important
issues the project justification the project work plan and the project
results for the project justification section
you should state which program goal and associated objective
of the imls american rescue plan grant program your project will address as we
outlined earlier in this webinar you will need to describe the covit 19
related need problem or challenge your project addresses
and tell us how you identified it you should include some kind of relevant
data from one or more reliable sources that helped you to identify and document
that need problem or challenge that your project is meant to address
finally tell us who will be served by your project
will it be elementary age students preschoolers
seniors certain target audiences within your community
the campus student body or some other component
of your community
the project work plan is the second section of the narrative where you
identify who will do what activities when and
using what resources we also want you to explain how you will
track your progress toward achieving your proposed results
and what you'll do if you need to correct course along the way
the third and final section of your narrative will be focused on
articulating your project's intended results
this section is your chance to convince the reviewers
that your project will result in something getting better
be sure to tie the results to the need or problem you identified in the project
justification the first part of the narrative very
importantly this is where you can make a strong case that the project you've
proposed will help your community or target
audience recover from the covet 19 pandemic
this is important because that's what these funds are intended to do
so to recap your narrative has three sections
project justification project work plan and project results and you have three
pages for it we recommend that you use all
three pages you should also consider the criteria we
ask reviewers to consider in their
evaluation of your application these review criteria and information on
the review process can be found in section e of the nofo
on pages 18 to 19. at this point we'd like to share a few
tips gleaned from our collective experience in working with applications
submitted to our funding programs each year
first on the list make sure your registrations are complete
and your passwords and usernames are current
you must have a duns number an activesam.gov registration
and a current and functional grants.gov registration
and if you're just starting out you'll need to acquire them
in that order in other words you must have a duns number to register with
sam.gov you must have an activesam.gov
registration to register with grants.gov it's crucial to remember that your
sam.gov registration expires each year and you must renew it
you can check your status at any time by going to
www.sam
in addition your grants.gov password expires every 60 days
and leaving accounts in active for a year or more can result in removal of
all account roles so make sure you know who your grants.gov
authorized organization representative is
and be sure the username and updated password are in place
both the sam.gov and the grants.gov websites have robust help
features and faqs we recommend that you check out the status of these
these registrations today don't wait until a few days before the deadline
or you may find yourself unable to submit your
application
some important things to know our regulations state clearly
that we can make grants only to eligible applicants that submit complete
applications including attachments on or before the
deadline if you aren't already become familiar
with the grants.gov workspace it has been available as an option for a
couple of years now and it is now the only option it has
many good features including upfront validation which
allows you to correct errors prior to submission and the
opportunity to collaborate with others in creating your application
as you write your narrative avoid generalities
acronyms and jargon people who will review your application are experts
but they may not totally be familiar with your particular field shorthand
make it easy for them to understand what you mean
check your spelling grammar and math it makes a difference with reviewers
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 we know that the
application period for this program is very short
even so if you can if you can submit to grants.gov early even a day
early so you can correct possible errors and
avoid any trauma created by technology challenges that might happen
on the day or night of the actual deadline on june 28th
thank you very much for your interest in imls and in our american rescue plan
grants program we hope you found the information in
this webinar helpful cindy and i are the primary contacts for
this program at this time please feel free to email us with any
questions you might have about what you've heard or seen in this webinar
or in the online materials we will do our best to help
we also thank you for the good work you do for your communities
we wish you good luck with the application process
and we look forward to seeing your application later this month