Grant Opportunities from IMLS Small Museum Association Ocean City, Maryland February 18, 2014

1. Grant Opportunities from IMLS Small Museum Association Ocean City, Maryland February 18, 2014

2. Who are we and what do we do? We are the federal voice for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums.

3. IMLS Vision and Mission VISION: A democratic society where communities and individuals thrive with broad public access to knowledge, cultural heritage, and lifelong learning. MISSION: The mission of IMLS is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, learning, and cultural and civic engagement. We provide leadership through research, policy development, and grant-making.

4. How do we do our work? We make grants, convene groups, conduct research, and publish in order to build the capacity of museums and libraries to serve the public.

5. Fiscal Year 2014 Appropriations • Total Budget: $226,860,000 7% for Research and Administration 13% forMuseum Services 80% for Library Services

6. About IMLS Grants

7. Museum Grant Awards—FY2013 Office of Museum Services – FY2013 Statistics 879 Applications 231 Grants Awarded totaling $28 Million to 43 States, DC, and Puerto Rico

8. IMLS Strategic Plan Three programmatic strategic goals drive IMLS grant-making. Learning Experiences: IMLS places the learner at the center and supports engaging experiences in libraries and museums that prepare people to be full participants in their local communities and our global society. Community Anchors: IMLS promotes museums and libraries as strong community anchors that enhance civic engagement, cultural opportunities, and economic vitality. Collections Stewardship: IMLS supports exemplary stewardship of museum and library collections and promotes the use of technology to facilitate discovery of knowledge and cultural heritage. Read more here: www.imls.gov/about/strategic_plan.aspx

9. Who may apply for IMLS grants? You are eligible to apply if you are: A non-profit library or museum located in the United States, its territories, or a freely associated state Additional types of organizations are eligible for some programs.Checkspecific program guidelines on the IMLS website

10. Who may not apply for IMLS grants? You are not eligible to apply if you are: • A federally funded institution • A for-profit organization • An individual • A foreign country or organization If you are a non-eligible institution, we encourage you to partner with an eligible organization.

11. How does IMLS define “museum?” • A museum is defined as an organization that: • Uses a professional staff (employs at least one professional staff member, or the full-time equivalent, whether paid or unpaid, who is primarily engaged in the acquisition, care, or exhibition to the public of objects owned or used by the applicant) • is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational or aesthetic purposes; • owns or uses tangible objects, either animate or inanimate; • cares for these objects; and • exhibits these objects to the general public on a regular basis through facilities which it owns or operates (if such exhibition is a primary purpose of the institution and available for at least 120 days/year)

12. IMLS Museum Grant Programs

13. IMLS Museum Grant Programs

14. Grants for projects focusing on local impact • Museums for America • Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services • Museum Grants for African American History and Culture

15. Museums for America To help strengthen the ability of museums to serve the public through high priority activities that advance an institution’s mission and strategic goals. • Application Categories: • Learning Experiences • (Education, Exhibitions, Interpretation) • Community Anchors • (Building Capacity, Partnerships, Community Needs) • Collections Stewardship • (Inventory, Cataloging, Digitization, Conservation)

16. Museums for AmericaDeadline: December 2, 2013 • Award Amounts: $5,000-$150,000 • Cost Share: 1:1 No Cost Share for awards of $25,000 or less • Length: Up to 3 years

17. Museums for America Awards Pettaquamscutt Historical Society - Kingston, RIAmount: $8,825 The Pettaquamscutt Historical Society will use its grant to improve and enhance the visitor experience and increase opportunities for learning at its two historic sites—the Old Washington County Jail and Hale House—through the installation of interpretive wayside signage. Typically used at historic sites and national parks to mark the presence of a significant feature and to encourage a pause, waysides combine text with graphics to interpret landscape and historic events while encouraging visitors to observe and experience the site more fully. With wayside signage, the historical society will provide information and interpretation at times when its sites are not staffed or closed.

18. Museums for America Awards Chippewa Valley Museum - Eau Claire, WIAmount: $150,000 In 2009, the Chippewa Valley Museum in partnership with local government and other community organizations produced the study, The Good Life: A Cultural Direction for Eau Claire County, which focused on the community’s cultural identity and made recommendations for its future. The museum is now leading an effort to act on the report’s recommendations working with the community to increase the visibility of local history and culture and building a sense of place tied to the county’s rivers and water heritage. The project will develop publications, websites, and new digital programs; create resources that serve residents and attract visitors; and study issues of access identified in the Good Life study.

19. Museums for America Awards Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation - San Juan, PRAmount: $141,440 The Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation will consolidate and rehouse 2,330 of its 5,330 collection objects in order to increase collection access, improve preventive conservation for collections in storage, and raise collection-stewardship awareness among staff and stakeholders. Project activities will include developing and delivering a workshop for project staff in museum management, conducting a full inventory of stored museum collections, installing a museum-quality storage system at the museum’s new facility, designing and fabricating storage supports for objects, moving the objects to the newly constructed storage space and installing them in their new home, and updating the museum’s database.

20. Museums for America Awards L. C. Bates Museum - Hinckley, MEAmount: $10,151 The L.C. Bates Museum’s ornithology collection will be preserved for the use of researchers, scientists, school groups, and museum visitors. This project will conserve and safeguard 55 unique historic and scientific ornithological taxidermy mounts and their historic case or container housing. The preserved birds–which include endangered and threatened species–will better meet audience educational and scientific research needs, and enhance museum activities that support school learning results and STEM. The museum will also present a workshop for Maine museum peers on how to care for scientific mounted collections, and write and disseminate a collections care article related to the project.

21. Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services • Supports services and activities for federally recognized tribes and Alaska Native villages and corporations, as well as nonprofit organizations serving and representing Native Hawaiians. • Projects may involve: • Programming • Professional development • General enhancement of museum services

22. Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum ServicesDeadline: December 2, 2013 • Award Amounts: $5,000-$50,000 • Cost Share: No matching requirement • Length: Up to 2 years

23. Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum ServicesAwards Coeur D'Alene Tribe - Plummer, IDAmount: $46,225 The Coeur d' Alene Tribe will use its grant to update an audio-video documentary about the history and culture of the tribe presented at the tribe's visitor center in Cataldo, Idaho. The video currently used for this purpose was made in the 1970s, and is missing the last several decades of tribal history. The new product will be narrated by a Coeur d’ Alene tribe member and will include new recordings of traditional music. The project will allow guests at to the visitor center to receive more accurate and current information about the tribe.

24. Museum Grants for African American History & Culture • Supports projects that will enhance the institutional capacity and sustainability of African American museums through professional training and development activities • Projects may involve: • Skill-building • Hiring new staff members • Attracting new staff and providing them with support

25. Museum Grants for African American History and CultureDeadline: December 2, 2013 • Award Amounts: $5,000-$150,000 • Cost Share: 1:1 • Length: Up to 2 years

26. Museum Grants for African American History & Culture Awards Bronzeville Children's Museum - Chicago, ILAmount: $65,625 The Bronzeville Children’s Museum (BCM) will use its grant to hire its first outreach coordinator. By having a staff member visit schools, day care centers, and community organizations to make more people aware of the resources offered by BCM, the museum will be better able to achieve its primary goal of educating and building the self-esteem of African American children aged three to nine through exhibitions that inform them about nutrition, exercise, history, and STEM (Science, Technology, Math, and Engineering).

27. Grants for projects with broad impact • National Leadership Grants-Museums • Sparks! Ignition Grants

28. National Leadership Grants for Museums Supports projects that have broad impact and generate models, tools, and/or resources that advance the museum profession • Categories: • Learning Experiences • Community Anchors • Collections Stewardship

29. National Leadership Grants for MuseumsDeadline: December 2, 2013 • Award Amounts: $50,000-$500,000 • Cost Share: 1:1 • Length: 1-3 years

30. National Leadership Grants for Museums Awards Children's Museum of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PAAmount: $444,296 Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, in partnership with the New York Hall of Science, will conduct a research study of family participation in museum-based “makerspaces,” places where people can create in a shared physical environment. The museums will work with academic researchers to design tools that recognize and measure productive patterns of family participation and their associated learning outcomes in these spaces. Museum-affiliated “maker faires” will serve as additional sites for investigating the range of museum-based making experiences for families. Results will benefit other family-oriented museums looking to provide space in which families can create together.

31. National Leadership Grants for Museums Awards Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts - Philadelphia, PAAmount: $189,099 The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts will use its grant to lead the Pennsylvania Cultural Resilience Network (PACRN), a two-year project to develop, coordinate, and consolidate regional efforts to address disaster preparedness and response needs at museums and historic sites through new programs and resources. PACRN offers an innovative, holistic approach to statewide emergency preparedness for cultural institutions, designed to be easily replicated or adapted in other states or regions. More than 300 museum and historic site professionals at sites throughout Pennsylvania are expected to show measurable gains in knowledge level and confidence.

32. Sparks! Ignition Grants for Museums • Supports small, targeted investments in innovative responses to challenges and opportunities with broad implications for the museum or library fields. • Grants will support the testing of specific innovations and foster broad sharing of information learned from the project.

33. Sparks! Ignition Grants for MuseumsDeadline: December 2, 2013 • Award Amounts: $10,000-$25,000 • Cost Share: No matching requirement • Length: Up to 1 year

34. Sparks! Ignition Grants for Museums Awards Chabot Space and Science Center Foundation - Oakland, CAAmount: $24,964 The Chabot Space & Science Museum will produce Random Acts of Science, a pop-up science education program for underserved neighborhoods in Oakland. Inspired by, and in partnership with, the Oakland Firefighter’s Random Acts (a philanthropic outreach organization of Oakland Firefighters), the program will pair trusted and respected firefighters with astronomers and science educators, arriving by fire engine to communities whose members are least likely to come to the Science Center. Chabot will use mobile technology and equipment such as a traveling telescope, computer hookup, and large portable screen. The combination of portable astronomy equipment with the excitement of a fire engine has the potential to serve as a model for science education community outreach programs.

35. How do I prepare to submit a federal grant? Register early! Acquire a D-U-N-S® Number: www.dnb.com/us

36. How do I prepare to submit a federal grant? SAM Registration: www.sam.gov For SAM issues, call the Federal Service Desk at 866.606.8220 (Monday-Friday, 8 am to 8 pm Eastern Time).

37. How do I prepare to submit a federal grant? Grants.gov Registration: www.grants.gov For Grants.gov help, call 800.518.4726 (available 24/7) or email support@grants.gov.

38. What resources are available on the IMLS website? • Application Process • Tools and Resources • Guidelines • Sample applications • Database of funded projects • Webinars • Meeting/conference schedule • Staff contacts

39. Tips to Writing a Competitive Proposal • Be certain your project goals relate to the goals of the program and category to which you are applying. • Follow the narrative bullets and instructions. • Identify consultants and other key personnel or outline the selection process. • Carefully prepare your budget and double-check. • Avoid generalities, acronyms, and jargon. • Ask a colleague to review before you submit. • Contact IMLS program staff for assistance!

40. Narrative Components • Project Justification • What need, problem, or challenge will you address? • Who or what will benefit? • What are the intended results? • Project Work Plan • Who will do what? When and how with what resources? • Project Results • What will change as a consequence of your project? • How will you measure success in achieving your intended results? • How will you sustain the project and/or its benefits?

41. What else do I need to know? • We make grants only to eligible applicants that submit complete applications, including attachments, on or before the deadline. • Review the checklist of application components and be certain that all required, conditionally required, and supporting documents are uploaded to Grants.gov. We will reject incomplete applications.

42. What is the application review process? • IMLS staff check each application for eligibility and completeness. • Experienced and knowledgeable peer reviewers score all eligible and complete applications and provide comments based on the criteria outlined in the program guidelines. • By law, the IMLS director is charged with the authority and responsibility to make final award decisions.

43. What’s it like to be an IMLS reviewer? • IMLS peer reviewers are wise museum professionals who know the needs of communities, can share best practices, and are well versed in the issues and concerns of museums today. • IMLS reviewers are anonymous. • IMLS reviewers enhance their professional knowledge and serve the museum community too.

44. How can I serve as a reviewer? • Talk to us at this meeting! • Become familiar with IMLS grant programs. • Read existing reviewer handbooks on our Web site. • Visit http://www.imls.gov/reviewers/default.aspx. • Submit your information and your resume online.

45. IMLS Technical Assistance Programs

46. How can I connect with IMLS? • Primary Source: Free monthly e-mail update, sent to over 9,000 subscribers. • UpNext Blog: http://blog.imls.gov/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/USIMLS • Twitter: @US_IMLS

47. Our Panel Today Christopher J. Reich Senior Advisor Office of Museum Services Institute of Museum and Library Services 202/653-4685 creich@imls.gov

48. Thank you and good luck in preparing your applications. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov.