funding
federal sources
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
National Endowment for the Arts
National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
1800 M Street NW, 9th Floor
Washington, DC 20036-5841
(202) 653-4657
(202) 653-4600 Fax
www.imls.gov
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) supports all types of museums, from art and history to science and zoos, and all types of libraries and archives, from public and academic to research and schools. Eligibility requirements differ for each library and museum program. Programs include:
Connecting to Collections: Statewide Planning Grants
DEADLINE: December 15, 2009
Statewide Planning Grants are aimed at fostering effective partnerships among organizations that have a strong commitment to the collections stewardship goals of a given state, commonwealth, or territory. IMLS invites proposals for statewide, collaborative planning grants to address the following recommendations: providing safe conditions for collections, developing an emergency plan, assigning responsibility for collection care, and marshaling public and private support for and awareness about collections care.
In 2010, the Institute plans to award one grant to eligible states, commonwealths, and territories that have not yet received a Statewide Planning Grant.
Grant amounts for the two-year program are up to $40,000.
For more information on these IMLS grants, visit: http://www.imls.gov/collections/grants/planning.htm,
or contact:
Christine Henry
Senior Program Officer
202-653-4674
or chenry@imls.gov
Connecting to Collections: Statewide Implementation Grants
DEADLINE: December 15, 2009
Statewide Implementation Grants, an important component of the Connecting to Collections initiative, will fund a limited number of grants to implement the plans or models created with the Statewide Planning grants, addressing issues identified in the Heritage Health Index, to provide safe conditions for their collections; develop an emergency plan; assign responsibility for collections care; and work together to increase public and private support for, and raise public awareness about, collections care.
These grants are designed to encourage people and institutions in each state to cooperate on a plan that will benefit all. Project activities should accommodate needs of institutions in each state; they do not need to address all four recommendations. Each state should indicate its most pressing needs, report what has already been done, name the organizations and people to be involved in the planning process, and outline specific next steps.
Building on a successful Statewide Planning Grant, implementation projects will include multiple partnerships among representatives of libraries, museums, archives, statewide service organizations, and state agencies. Institutions that fulfill the general criteria may apply.
Grant amounts for the two-year program are up to $250,000.
For more information on these IMLS grants, visit: http://www.imls.gov/collections/grants/implementation.htm,
or contact:
Christine Henry
Senior Program Officer
202-653-4674
or chenry@imls.gov
Conservation Project Support Grants
ANNUAL DEADLINE: October 1st
Conservation Project Support grants help museums develop and implement a logical, institution-wide approach to caring for their living and material collections. Applicants should apply for the project that meets one of the institution’s highest conservation needs. All applications must demonstrate that the primary goal of the project is conservation care and not collection management or maintenance. Applicants may receive up to $10,000 in additional project funding to develop an Education Component that directly relates to their project.
Grants are available for five broad types of conservation activities: (1) surveys (general, detailed condition, or environmental), (2) training, (3) research, (4) treatment, and (5) environmental improvements. An institution may submit one application each fiscal year. For more information go to http://www.imls.gov/applicants/grants/conservProject.shtm.
Conservation Assessment Program (CAP)
ANNUAL DEADLINE: December 1st
The Conservation Assessment Program (CAP) provides a general conservation assessment of your museum's collections, environmental conditions, and site. Conservation priorities are identified by professional conservators who spend two days on-site and three days writing a report. The report can help your museum develop strategies for improved collections care and provide a tool for long-range planning and fund-raising. CAP is supported through a cooperative agreement with Heritage Preservation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
ReCAP: Museums previously awarded an IMLS-funded conservation assessment may be eligible to update their CAP assessment if seven years have passed since the original assessment. Applicants must report on their preservation efforts and the need for a new assessment.
Fee-for-Service Plan: For museums that are not eligible to participant in the program but are willing to pay for an assessment, Heritage Preservation offers the same services through the Conservation Assessment Program Fee-for-Service plan. Contact the CAP staff at Heritage Preservation to learn more. cap@heritagepreservation.org
See: “How to Make the Most of CAP” on the Heritage Preservation Web site for helpful information on preparing your application: http://www.heritagepreservation.org/CAP/most.html.
2010 Applications are now available at http://www.heritagepreservation.org/CAP/index.html
Questions?
Contact the Heritage Preservation CAP staff at
cap@heritagepreservation.org or 202-233-0800.
Bank of America/IMLS American Heritage grants
DEADLINE: Deadline Passed for 2009
The American Heritage Preservation Program is a new public-private partnership between the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. This program is designed to fund the preservation of endangered and fragile collections of works of art, rare books, scientific specimens and historical documents (photographs, maps, deeds, etc.) held in the nation’s small and medium sized museums, archives and libraries.
This partnership builds on the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action, a multi-year, multi-pronged initiative to raise public awareness and inspire action on the care of America’s collections. That initiative implements recommendations of an IMLS-supported study, A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America’s Collections, which found that nearly 190 million objects in U.S. collections are in immediate danger of deterioration and need restoration or conservation.
The grants of up to $3,000 are aimed at completing stand-alone projects that convey the essential character and experience of the United States.
Allowable expenses include:
Examples of fundable projects are:
- Conservation treatment of library, museum, or archival collections
- Improvement of collections storage
- Improvement of collections environment
For more information: http://www.imls.gov/collections/grants/boa.htm
Program Contacts
Museums:
Christine Henry, Senior Program Officer
Phone: 202/653-4674
E-mail:chenry@imls.gov
Libraries:
Kevin Cherry, Senior Program Officer
Phone: 202/653-4662
E-mail: kcherry@imls.gov
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
Division of Preservation and Access
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Rm. 802
Washington, DC 20506
(202) 606-8570
www.neh.gov
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent grant-making agency of the United States government, dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities.
For more information contact:
Laura Word
Telephone: 202-606-8570
Email: lword@neh.gov
Division of Preservation and Access programs include:
Preservation Assistance Grants — For Smaller Institutions
DEADLINE: May 18, 2010
The focus of this program is to promote preservation planning and preservation activities within the country’s smaller institutions.
The Preservation Assistance Grants program awards grants of up to $6,000 on a non-matching basis to support the preservation of materials in libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations.
Activities that can be supported through a Preservation Assistance Grant include:
- General preservation and conservation surveys
- Consultations with preservation professionals to develop a plan to address a specific preservation problem, including digital preservation issues
- Attendance at preservation workshops, now including training in Best Practices for Digitization
Note: 2009 Preservation Assistance Grant applications will only be accepted through Grants.gov, the government-wide grants portal.
For more information go to http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pag.html.
Preservation and Access:
Humanities Collections and Reference Resources
DEADLINE: July 15, 2010 (for projects beginning May 2011)
The Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program supports projects that provide an essential foundation for scholarship, education, and public programming in the humanities. Funding from this program strengthens efforts to extend the life of humanities materials and make their intellectual content widely accessible, often through the use of digital technology. Awards are also made to create various reference resources that facilitate use of cultural materials, from works that provide basic information quickly to tools that synthesize and codify knowledge of a subject for in-depth investigation.
Applications may be submitted for projects activities including:
- providing conservation treatment for collections (including mass deacidification)
- digitizing collections
- preserving and improving access to born-digital sources
- developing databases, virtual collections, or other electronic resources to codify information on a subject or to provide integrated access to selected humanities materials
- arranging and describing archival and manuscript collections
- cataloging collections of printed works, photographs, recorded sound, moving images, art, and material culture
Maximum award is $350,000 for up to three years.
(Although cost sharing is not required, NEH is rarely able to support the full costs of projects approved for funding. In most cases, NEH Humanities Collections and Reference Resources grants cover no more than 50 to 67 percent of project costs. A 50 percent level is most likely to pertain in the case of projects that deal exclusively with the applicant’s own holdings.)
For complete information, visit http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/HCRR.html
Or call NEH's Division of Preservation and Access at 202-606-8570 or e-mail preservation@neh.gov.
Preservation and Access Education and Training Grants
Deadline: July 1, 2010
Preservation and Access Education and Training grants help the staff of cultural institutions, large and small, obtain the knowledge and skills needed to serve as effective stewards of humanities collections. Grants also support educational programs that prepare the next generation of conservators and preservation professionals, as well as projects that introduce the staff of cultural institutions to new information and advances in preservation and access practices.
Preservation and Access Education and Training grants support activities including:
- Master’s degree programs in preservation and conservation
- Workshops that address preservation and access topics of national significance and broad impact, such as collections care training for staff members who are responsible for the day-to-day care and management of humanities collections; preventive conservation and sustainable preservation strategies; disaster preparedness, response, and recovery; the preservation of and provision of access to recorded sound and moving image collections; digital preservation; and best practices for enhancing and integrating access to collections in libraries, archives, and museums.
For complete information, visit:
http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pet.html
Call 202-606-8570
or e-mail preservation@neh.gov.
Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
DEADLINE: November 16, 2010
For projects beginning July 2011
Note: Guidelines will be posted on the NEH Web site in early September 2010.
NEH announces a new preventive conservation grant program for U.S. nonprofit museums, libraries, and archives, as well as state and local governmental agencies and tribal governments with humanities collections. Preventive conservation measures include managing relative humidity and temperature levels in collection spaces, providing protective storage enclosures and systems for collections, and safeguarding collections from theft and fire.
These grants are intended to serve institutions working on complex projects requiring interdisciplinary planning teams. Be sure to call NEH with eligibility questions.
Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections offers two kinds of grants:
Planning and Evaluation Grants
To help an institution assess risks to collections and identify realistic approaches for mitigating them, grants of up to $40,000 will support such activities as site visits, meetings, monitoring, testing, project-specific research, and preliminary designs for implementation projects.
These grants might be used to:
- examine passive and low-energy alternatives to conventional energy-intensive systems for managing environmental conditions
- analyze existing climate control systems and the performance characteristics of buildings and building systems to develop a plan for improved operation, effectiveness, and energy efficiency
- evaluate the effectiveness of preventive conservation strategies previously implemented, including performance upgrades to systems and building envelopes
Planning and Evaluation projects should involve an interdisciplinary team appropriate to the goals of the project. The team may consist of consultants and members of the institution’s staff and might include architects, building engineers, conservation scientists, conservators, curators, and facilities managers, among others.
Implementation Grants
To help an institution implement a preventive conservation project, grants of up to $400,000 are available. Implementation grants should be based on the findings and recommendations of appropriate professionals. However, an NEH Planning and Evaluation grant is NOT a prerequisite for an Implementation grant.
Implementation grants might be used to:
- manage interior relative humidity and temperature by passive methods such a creating buffered spaces and housing, controlling moisture at its sources, or improving the thermal and moisture performance of the building envelope
- install or re-commission heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems
- install storage systems and rehouse collections
- improve security and the protections from fire, flood, or other disasters
- upgrade lighting systems and controls to achieve levels suitable for collections that are energy efficient
Implementation grants may also cover costs associated with renovation required for preventive conservation. Because Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections grants may NOT fund new construction, the costs of installing climate control, security, and fire protection systems in a building under construction are not eligible. However, grants may support the purchase of storage furniture and the rehousing of collections that will be moved into a new building.
For more information contact NEH at preservation@neh.gov, or call 202-606-8570
National Endowment for the Arts
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
(202) 682-5400
www.nea.gov
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts — both new and established — bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. (Watch the NEA Web site for details of the next grant cycle.)
For more information contact:
Michael McLaughlin
Telephone: 202-682-5457
Email: mclaughm@arts.gov
Save America's Treasures
DEADLINE: May 21, 2010
Guidelines now Avalaible!
(*2010 SAT grant funds are not affected by the President's FY 2011 budget request that eliminates the SAT program.)
Web site: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/treasures/contacts.htm
The National Park Service, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, awards Save America's Treasures grants.
Grants will be awarded to preserve collections of national significance. Grants for conservation and preservation projects will be awarded on a competitive basis, so start your application now!
The proposed grant amounts will range from $25,000 for collections and up to $700,000 on a 1:1 matching basis.
How can NEDCC help?
NEDCC can generate estimates and help with descriptions of the condition of collections. To discuss a grant project, contact Walter Newman, (978) 470-1010 ext. #228, or Angelina Altobellis, 978-470-1010 ext. 244, .
Please visit the National Park Service Web site for applications and guidelines.
Please discuss your project ideas with the staff of one of the partner agencies:
National Endowment for the Humanities Web site, Laura Word, (202) 606-8570,
National Endowment for the Arts Web site, Michael McLaughlin, (202) 682-5457,
Institute of Museum and Library Sciences Web site: Christine Henry, (202) 653-4674,
National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphia Road
College Park, MD 20740
(866) 272-6272
http://www.archives.gov
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), a statutory body affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration, promotes the preservation and use of America's documentary heritage essential to understanding our democracy, history, and culture.
NHPRC ARCHIVAL AND RECORDS PROJECTS
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) supports projects to facilitate the use of historical records held by archives and other repositories and to assure their long-term preservation. The NHPRC also supports identifying, collecting, describing, reformatting (including microfilming and other means of reproduction and migration), and preserving documentary sources significant to the history and culture of the United States.
The NHPRC currently seeks proposals for fundamental archival activities that promote the preservation and use of America's documentary heritage in the following categories:
ARCHIVES - BASIC PROJECTS
Projects may include basic processing, preservation planning, collections development, and establishing archives.
Deadline: October 7, 2010
(Drafts will be reviewed if submitted by August 2, 2010)
Proposals under the Basic Projects category must demonstrate how the applicant employs the best and most cost-effective archival methods. Activities included may be any one or a combination of the following: Basic Processing, Preservation Planning (including collection-level assessments), Collections Development, and Establishing Archives.
Award Information
A grant normally is for one or two years and for up to $200,000.
ARCHIVES - DETAILED PROCESSING PROJECTS
For projects undertaking major detailed processing and preservation efforts.
Deadline: October 7, 2010
(Drafts will be reviewed if submitted by August 2, 2010)
The NHPRC currently seeks proposals for detailed processing and preservation of collections of national significance. The collections also should have high research demand or substantial preservation challenges.
In general, proposals should describe how the repository will process and create detailed descriptions at the series or file level. In the course of such processing, some selective re-foldering and basic cleaning may be needed, and applicants must explain whether any item level treatment will be necessary, including removing fasteners, opening envelopes, and flattening, copying, encapsulating, de-acidifying, and mending documents.
For collections of fragile textual materials, applicants may apply for grants in support of preservation microfilming or other media. Applicants may propose limited digitization of series or items that have the most potential to benefit a broad public.
Award Information
A grant normally is for one to three years and ranges between $40,000-$200,000.
For complete guidelines and eligibility requirements:
http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/announcement/archival.html
Or contact Daniel Stokes, NHPRC Director for State Programs, (202) 357-5487 or daniel.stokes@nara.gov
NHPRC Digitizing Historical Records Grants:
DEADLINE: June 3, 2010 - Draft deadline (optional): April 1, 2010
The NHPRC seeks proposals that use cost-effective methods to digitize nationally significant historical record collections and make the digital versions freely available online. Projects must make use of existing holdings of historical repositories and consist of entire collections or series. The materials should already be available to the public at the archives and described so that projects can re-use existing information to serve as metadata for the digitized collection.
Award Information:
A grant normally is for 1 to 3 years and up to $150,000. The Commission expects to make up to 5 grants in this category, for a total of up to $400,000. Cost sharing is required. The NHPRC will provide up to 50 percent of the total project costs.
Eligible applicants:
- Nonprofit organizations or institutions with IRS 501(c)(3) tax exempt status
- Colleges, universities, and other academic institutions
- State or local government agencies
- Federally-acknowledged or state-recognized Native American tribes or groups
Program Description:
See: http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/announcement/digitizing.html
Application Information:
All proposals must be submitted via Grants.gov. See application instructions for complete information.
http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/apply/