Inspire! Grants for Small Museums

Deadline: November 15, 2023
Application: The FY 2024 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) (PDF, 637KB) is now available.

Grant Amount: $5,000–$75,000
Grant Period: One to two years
Cost Share Requirement: If your total request for federal funding is between $5,000 and $25,000, then no cost share is required. If your request for federal funding is between $25,001 and $75,000, you must provide funds from non-federal sources in an amount that is equal to or greater than the amount of your IMLS request.

Program Overview:
Inspire! Grants for Small Museums is a special initiative of the Museums for America program. It is designed to support small museums of all disciplines in project-based efforts to serve the public through exhibitions, educational/interpretive programs, digital learning resources, policy development and institutional planning, technology enhancements, professional development, community outreach, audience development, and/or collections management, curation, care, and conservation. Inspire! has three project categories:

• Lifelong Learning
• Institutional Capacity
• Collections Stewardship and Access

For the FY2024 grant cycle, the IMLS invites applications that commemorate America’s 250th anniversary as part of the agency’s IMLS250: All Stories, All People, All Places initiative. IMLS believes that the semiquincentennial is an opportunity to commemorate all lived experiences through civic engagement, public programs, and collections stewardship in preparation for 2026.

Program Contacts:
If you have questions, please contact any of the staff members listed under the category that best fits your project.

Lifelong Learning

• Reagan Moore
  Senior Museum Program Officer
  rmoore@imls.gov
  202-653-4637
• To schedule a time to talk to Reagan Moore about Lifelong Learning, click here.

Institutional Capacity

• Reagan Moore
  Senior Museum Program Officer
  rmoore@imls.gov
  202-653-4637
• To schedule a time to talk to Reagan Moore about Lifelong Learning, click here.

Collections Stewardship and Access

• Mark Isaksen
  Supervisory Grants Management Specialist
  misaksen@imls.gov
  202-653-4667
• To schedule a time to talk to Mark Isaksen about Collections Stewardship and Access, click here.

For more information, visit: https://www.imls.gov/grants/available/inspire-grants-small-museums