Deadline: 15-Nov-21
Applications are now open for National Leadership Grants to support projects that address critical needs of the museum field and that have the potential to advance practice in the profession to strengthen museum services for the American public.
The National Leadership Grants for Museums Program is designed to support the achievement of these agency-level goals and to facilitate the delivery of significant results consistent with the IMLS federal authorizing legislation.
As a result, National Leadership Grants for Museums have significant potential to generate positive societal impact through project activities undertaken as part of the grant-funded work, activities that may be complementary to the project, and through applied research designed specifically for this purpose.
Goals and Objectives
National Leadership Grants for Museums has three program goals and three objectives associated with each goal. Each applicant should align their proposed project with one of these three goals and one or more of the associated objectives.
- Goal 1: Advance the museum field’s ability to empower people of all ages and backgrounds through experiential and cross-disciplinary learning and discovery.
- Objective: Support the development, implementation, and dissemination of model programs that facilitate adoption by museums across the field.
- Objective: Support training and professional development programs, tools, or resources that build the knowledge, skills and abilities of museum staff and/or volunteers in multiple institutions
- Objective: Support research focusing on the role of museums in engaging learners of all types.
- Goal 2: Advance the museum field’s ability to maximize the use of museum resources to address community needs through partnerships and collaborations.
- Objective: Objective: community challenges through partnerships, services, processes, or practices for use across the museum field.
- Objective: Support the development and implementation of training and professional development programs, tools, or resources that build the knowledge, skills and abilities of museum staff and/or volunteers to meet the needs of their communities.
- Objective: Support research focusing on museums’ roles in engaging diverse audiences and fostering civic discourse.
- Goal 3: Advance the museums field’s ability to identify new solutions that address high priority and widespread collections care or conservation issues.
- Objective: Support the development, implementation, and dissemination of new tools or services that facilitate access, management, preservation, sharing, and use of museum collections.
- Objective: Support the development and implementation of training and professional development programs, tools, or resources that impact the ability of museum staff and/or volunteers in multiple institutions to improve the stewardship of collections
- Objective: Support research focusing on any broadly relevant aspect of the management, conservation, and preservation of collections.
Project Types
- The National Leadership Grants for Museums Program has three project types, and applicants must designate one of them for each application they submit. Applicants may submit more than one application to the National Leadership Grants for Museums Program; however, they may not submit the same proposal under more than one type.
- Non-research projects: address critical needs of the museum field and have the potential to advance practice in the profession so that museums can improve services for the American public. These may test scalability or expand and enhance existing products or initiatives.
- Research projects: investigate key questions important to museum practice and result in findings that have the potential to advance the profession so that museums can improve services for the American public. Proposals should include clearly articulated research questions and feature appropriate methods, including relevant theoretical or conceptual approaches, data collection, and analysis. Applications submitted for Research projects will be considered incomplete if they do not include Data Management Plans that explain how the applicant will manage, share, preserve, document, and enable reuse of the information and research products created during the project.
- Rapid Prototyping projects: performing exploratory activities should rapidly prototype, pilot, and evaluate specific innovations in the ways museums operate and the services they provide. Project results, both successful and unsuccessful, should offer valuable information to the museum field and the potential for improvement in the ways museums serve their communities.
Funding information
- Total amount of funding IMLS expects to award through this announcement $5,800,000.
- Expected amount of individual awards:
- Non-research $50,000-$750,000
- Research $50,000-$750,000
- Rapid Prototyping $5,000-$50,000.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible for an award under this National Leadership Grants for Museums Notice of Funding Opportunity, your organization must meet all three of the following criteria:
- Must be either a unit of State, local, or tribal government or be a private, nonprofit organization that has tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code;
- Must be located in one of the 50 States of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau;
- Must qualify as one of the following:
- A museum that, using a professional staff, is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational, cultural heritage, 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 that it owns or operates.
- An organization or association that engages in activities designed to advance the wellbeing of museums and the museum profession;
- An institution of higher education, including public and nonprofit universities; or
- A public or private nonprofit agency that is responsible for the operation of a museum that meets the eligibility criteria in 1, 2, and 3(a), applying on behalf of the museum.
Eligibility of Museums Located within a Parent Organization
- A museum located within a parent organization that is a State, local, or tribal government or multipurpose nonprofit entity, such as a municipality, university, historical society, foundation, or cultural center, may apply on its own behalf if the museum:
- is able to independently fulfill all the eligibility requirements listed in the above three criteria;
- functions as a discrete unit within the parent organization;
- has its own fully segregated and itemized operating budget;and
- has the authority to make the application on its own.
- When any of the last three conditions cannot be met, a museum may only apply through its parent organization.
Eligibility of Nonprofit Organization Affiliated with a Museum
- IMLS may determine that a nonprofit organization that is affiliated with a museum is eligible for this program where the organization can demonstrate that it has the ability to administer the project and can ensure compliance with the terms of this Notice of Funding Opportunity and the applicable law, including the IMLS Assurances and Certifications.
- The applicant organization must submit an agreement from the museum that details the activities that the applicant and museum will perform and binds the museum to the statements and assurances made in the grant application.
- Native American tribal organizations may apply if they otherwise meet the above eligibility requirements.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=335327