Museum Funding Opportunities

21st Century Museum Professionals Program

Grants support efforts to advance the growth and development of a diverse workforce of museum professionals.
Award Amount: $100,000–$500,000
Application Due Date: November 15, 2024

Inspire! Grants for Small Museums

Grants support projects that build the capacity of small museums to serve their communities.
Award Amount: $5,000–$25,000 and $25,001–$75,000
Application Due Date: November 15, 2024

Museums Empowered

Grants support projects that use professional development and training to generate systemic change within a museum.
Award Amount: $5,000–$250,000
Application Due Date: November 15, 2024

Museums for America

Grants support activities that strengthen museums as active resources for lifelong learning, vital components of livable communities, and good stewards of the nation’s collections.
Award Amount: $5,000–$250,000
Application Due Date: November 15, 2024

Museum Grants for African American History and Culture

Grants at two different funding levels support activities that build the capacity of African American museums and support the growth and development of museum professionals at African American museums.
Award Amount: $5,000–$100,000 and $100,001–$500,000
Application Due Date: November 15, 2024

Museum Grants for Latino American History and Culture

Grants support projects that build the capacity of American Latino history and culture museums to serve their communities as well as projects that broadly advance the growth and development of a professional workforce in American Latino institutions.
Award Amount: $5,000-$500,000
Application Due Date: November 15, 2024

National Leadership Grants for Museums

Grants support projects that address critical needs of the museum field and that have the potential to advance practice in the profession so that museums can improve services for the American public.
Award Amount: $50,000–$750,000 (non-research); $50,000–$750,000 (research)
Application Due Date: November 15, 2024

Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services Program

Grants to federally recognized tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations enhance museum services to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge.
Award Amount: $5,000–$250,000
Application Due Date: November 15, 2024

Save America’s Treasures, administered by the National Park Service (NPS)

Grants support the preservation of nationally significant historic properties and collections. Individual properties or collections that received an SAT grant in the past are not eligible for additional funding.
Award Amount: $25,000-$750,000 (collections grants); $125,000-$750,000 (historic properties)
Application Due Date: TBD

IMLS Partner Organizations

Museums for All
Encourages low-income families to visit museums and build lifelong museum habits. Participating museums offer free or greatly reduced admission fees year-round to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Electronic Benefit Transfer cardholders. By promoting affordable museum experiences, the program bolsters the role of museums as community anchors. This initiative is a partnership between IMLS and the Association of Children’s Museums. To learn more and join the effort visit https://museums4all.org/

Museums for Digital Learning
Provides K-12 audiences access to authentic museum content-based resources through activities within Resource Kits. The platform provides museums of all sizes and disciplines with templates to make it easy to contribute content for Resource Kits. To learn more and join the effort visit www.MuseumsForDigitalLearning.org

Visions of America
Approaching and celebrating the semiquincentennial anniversary of America’s independence, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and PBS Books join together to produce “Visions of America: All Stories, All People, All Places,” a digital-first series of videos and virtual conversations that explores our post-pandemic nation with a renewed interest in the places, people, and stories that have contributed to the America we live in today.  Learn more at www.visionsofamerica.org

IMLS Sessions, Speakers and Moderators

Saturday, May 18, 2024 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM EDT - Local Information Literacy: What Your Community Needs Most

There is a pressing need for trusted institutions like museums to explore methods for raising information literacy in their communities. The InformationLiteracy.gov website (going live in 2024) will share proven practices for supporting information literacy through education, programming, and communications to bridge the gaps that trusted institutions face in their local information ecosystems. Geared towards museum practitioners who are interested in addressing information literacy in their local communities, this session will provide participants with resources and materials to engage with their local communities – a critical first step to addressing the polarization and lack of trust in information.

Saturday, May 18, 2024 3:20 PM – 4:20 PM EDT – Philanthropic Insights: Funding the Future of Museum Impact

This panel presents a diverse view of the evolving landscape of museum funding, where esteemed foundation and government funders meet to discuss their role in shaping the future of museums. The panel includes perspectives on museums as catalysts for community well-being and social cohesion and as places of inspiration and connection with peoples of the past. This session will explore how funders and museums are collaboratively working to address diverse challenges and opportunities, ranging from enhancing the emotional and social health of museum workers to funding critical programmatic operations that impact existing and first-time museumgoers. Attendees will gain insights into a spectrum of funding opportunities and innovative approaches, making this panel an essential gathering for museum professionals striving to adapt and thrive in a changing cultural landscape.

Sessions Featuring IMLS-Funded Projects

5/18 9:00-9:25 AM - Hope & Healing: A Framework for Uplifting Community Experiences
In this session, attendees will learn about the Woodland Park Zoo’s Hope & Healing program, which provides monthly virtual experiences of the zoo for children in long-term care. These brief yet impactful experiences offer joy and help the children forget about their current condition for a few minutes in which they smile, ask questions, build positive healing memories, and be their authentic selves. In this session, participants will explore how they can build relationships with community partners and utilize their institution’s assets to provide hopeful and healing experiences.

IMLS grant MA-249189-OMS-21 and MA-251566-OMS-22 

5/18 10:10- 11:10 AM - Measure Your Museum’s Social & Community Impact
Social impact can be defined as the effect of an activity on the social fabric of a community and the well-being of the individuals and families who live there. Working with 38 museums across the United States, the Measurement of Museum Social Impact (MOMSI) project compiled data about the social and community impact of museums of all types and sizes in the Museum Social Impact Toolkit, which allows other museums to study their own social impact independently. In this session, leaders of the MOMSI project will share the toolkit and lessons learned through the study, as well as how to get involved in the newest iteration of this work, the Museum Social Impact in Practice (MSIIP) project, which will establish a nation-wide museum social impact community of practice and provide professional development and skill building centered around advocacy through social impact data.

IMLS grant MG-245336-OMS-20 

5/18 10:10- 11:10 AM - Power of Control: Intentional Exhibition Curation for Community Engagement
This session will offer curatorial teams a framework to guide community considerations in curation. Through a practice-based, moderated discussion with session participants, explore a theoretical and practical tool known as “Dimensions of Curation Competing Values Model,” which centers the curatorial approach around social well-being and action. Attendees will learn about the model and how to apply it to their own work while also considering what social impact and empowerment means in their museums.

IMLS grant MG-50-19-0044-19 

5/18  10:35-11:00 AM - Dispatches from the High: A 3-Year Investigation into Older Adult Audiences 
Research shows that engaging with art and museums has a positive impact on health and well-being for older adults. In this flash session, presenters will share key findings from three years of audience research and evaluation at the High Museum of Art that was undertaken to better understand local, older adult audiences and to develop responsive, reflexive programming. The strategies and lessons learned may apply to other museums that seek to improve access, outreach, and experiences for older adults by creating educational opportunities that provide a sense of belonging, nourish creativity, afford new social connections, and support lifelong learning.

IMLS grant MA-249377-OMS-21 and MA-253526-OMS-23 

5/17 11:30-11:55 AM - Strengthening Families by Engaging Parents in Play
In this session, representatives from Port Discovery Children’s Museum, Promise Heights, and The Parent Encouragement Program will discuss the structure and impact of parent education and empowerment programs that operate through community partnerships with children’s museums. Attendees will learn how to utilize family engagement, parent voices, community partnerships, and social-emotional learning to have a lasting, positive effect on family relationships. After attending this session, attendees will understand how museums can leverage their voices in their communities to strengthen families.

IMLS grant MA-251585-OMS-22

Friday, May 17 12:30 – 1:30 and 4:20 – 5:20 - NeighborHub meetup
NeighborHubs in the Expo Hall offer a relaxed environment where you can easily connect and converse with others without a formal agenda. These hubs are ideal for spontaneous interactions, providing a space to meet, share ideas, and build connections during the event. Drop by NeighborHubs to seize the opportunity for casual yet meaningful conversations and networking by identity and interest area. Additional NeighborHubs include opportunities to connect on session proposals for the 2025 AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo and joining Thanksgiving Point Institute to learn more about their nationwide, IMLS-funded study to understand the influence of cultural institutions on visitors who attend as part of an income-qualified access program. Find the NeighborHubs behind the Solutions Center in the MuseumExpo.

IMLS grant MG-252983-OMS-23