Museums for America (2023)

Background
The Museums for America program supports museums of all sizes and disciplines in strategic, project-based efforts to serve the public through exhibitions, educational/interpretive programs, digital learning resources, professional development, community debate and dialogue, audience-focused studies, and/or collections management, curation, care, and conservation. The program is designed to support the achievement of agency-level goals including championing lifelong learning, strengthening community engagement, and advancing collections stewardship and access. The program emphasizes diversity, equity, and inclusion in serving individuals of diverse backgrounds and underserved communities.

Grant Details
The grant program has three project categories: Lifelong Learning, Community Engagement, and Collections Stewardship and Access. Projects are expected to focus on a key component of the institution’s strategic plan, reflect a thorough understanding of current practice and knowledge about the subject matter, and generate measurable results that tie directly to the need or challenge addressed. The program uses four performance measures as a basis for understanding how well the grant program is meeting its goals and how individual projects are being managed: effectiveness, efficiency, quality, and timeliness.

Eligibility Requirements
Eligible applicants include units of State, local, or tribal government or private nonprofit organizations with tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code. Museums must be organized on a permanent basis for educational or cultural heritage purposes and exhibit objects to the general public on a regular basis through facilities they own or operate. Nonprofit organizations affiliated with a museum may also be eligible if they can administer the project and ensure compliance with applicable law. Recipients must provide funds from non-federal sources in an amount equal to or greater than the amount of the federal award.

Period of Performance
Projects must begin on September 1, 2023. The anticipated period of performance is from September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2026. Project activities may be carried out for one to three years.

Grant Value
$21,699,000 is expected to be awarded through this announcement with an anticipated number of awards at 120. The expected amount of individual awards ranges from $5,000 to $250,000 with an average amount of funding per award experienced in previous years at $180,825.

Place of Performance
The grant opportunity is open to organizations located in one of the 50 States of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands Micronesia or Palau.