Museums Empowered (ME) is a special initiative of the Museums for America grant program to support projects that use the transformative power of professional development and training to generate systemic change within museums of all types and sizes.
Donor Name: Institute of Museum and Library Services
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/15/2024
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
Institute of Museum and Library Services recognizes the many challenges facing individual museums and the need to invest resources, time, and energy towards nurturing the professional development of staff and strengthening museum operations.
The Museums Empowered grant program identifies four areas of museum operations to focus for professional development.
- Digital Technology focused projects that will support the work of museum staff in using digital technology to enhance audience engagement, collections access, or general museum operations.
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion focused projects that will increase cultural competency among museum staff and support relevancy of museum programs through learning activities that strengthen their ability to connect with the communities they serve.
- Evaluation focused projects that will enhance the ability of museum staff to understand a broad spectrum of evaluation methods and techniques as well as better use evaluation reports, data, and metrics to improve the design and delivery of programs.
- Organizational Management focused projects that will help museum staff develop and implement effective practices in organizational management, human resources, and strategic planning in response to emerging internal or external priorities.
IMLS expects successful Museums Empowered projects to:
- Reflect a solid understanding of relevant theory and effective practices in professional development, organizational dynamics and change management.
- Engage staff, leadership, and volunteers in a series of training activities tied to directly to a key need or challenge.
- Generate systemic change or organizational growth that results in a more agile and sustainable museum.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $ 4,299,000.
- Award Ceiling: $250,000.
- Award Floor: $5,000.
Grant Period
September 1, 2025 – August 31, 2028.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for an award under the ALHC program, your organization must meet all three of the following eligibility criteria:
- Your organization must be:
- a unit of State, local, or Tribal government; or
- a private, nonprofit organization that has tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.
- Your organization 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.
- Your organization must qualify as one of the following:
- A museum that:
- uses a professional staff;
- is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational, cultural heritage, or aesthetic purposes;
- owns or uses tangible objects, including living collections;
- cares for these objects; and
- exhibits these objects to the general public on a regular basis through facilities that it owns or operates.
- A museum that:
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
