National Historical Publications & Records Commission

Archives Collaboratives

FY 2025 Grant Announcement: (Initial)

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) of the National Archives support projects that promote access to America’s historical records to encourage understanding of our democracy, history, and culture.

The following grant application information is for Archives Collaboratives

Funding Opportunity Number: COLLABORATIVES-202405

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 89.003

  • Draft Deadline: February 15, 2024
  • Final Deadline: May 8, 2024

NHPRC support begins no earlier than January 1, 2025


Agency Contact

Before beginning the process, applicants should contact NHPRC Director for Access Programs Anastacia Scott (anastacia.scott@nara.gov) who may:

  • Advise the applicant about the review process;
  • Answer questions about what activities are eligible for support;
  • Supply samples of successful applications;
  • Read and comment on a preliminary draft.

     

Grant Program Description

refer to caption

A planning grant went to City of Belen in New Mexico for a collaborative of the Belen Public Library, Los Lunas Public Library, the Valencia County Historical Society, and other organizations .

Erecting Road Signs 1912, from the Belen Harvey House photo archives.

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission seeks Archives Collaboratives of three or more repositories working together to make their collections more readily available for public discovery and use. The grant program will fund Archives Collaboratives to:

  • share best practices, tools, and techniques;
  • assess institutional strengths and opportunities;
  • create replicable and sustainable digital platforms for historical collections;
  • virtually unify records from multiple repositories; and
  • promote management structures for long-term sustainability and growth.

The Commission welcomes collaborations that target institutional advancement for small and underserved local archives and repositories, especially those with collections that focus on the voices and perspectives of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Archives Collaboratives must consist of three or more organizations. They may:

  • be located in the same community, state, or geographic region
  • be “virtual” or online collaboratives
  • share affinities among the scope and subject matter of their collections
  • have similar organizational missions
  • serve similar types of user communities

Award Information

Applicants may apply for either a Planning Grant or an Implementation Grant. You need not have previously received an NHPRC Planning Grant in order to apply for an Implementation Grant.

Planning Grants are available to plan and develop a working collaborative of three or more partners designed to enhance the capacity of small and diverse organizations with historical records collections.  Commitments to the Archives Collaborative should be secured from partners at the time that the application is submitted. Together, the partners would develop a mission, work plan, and timeline to carry out a shared project or develop a shared best practice, tool, or technique that will increase public access to historical records. Applicants are eligible to receive one-year grants up to $25,000, shared by the consortia, to carry out the project. The NHPRC expects to make up to four grants in this category for up to $100,000.  Applications are due on May 8, 2024, with a start date for implementation of January 1, 2025. 

Implementation Grants are available for Archives Collaboratives to put into practice the action items identified during their planning process, whether done independently or through a Planning Grant from the NHPRC. Projects that demonstrate commitments by member organizations to the Archives Collaborative, a work plan, and timeline are eligible to receive one- or two-year grants up to $100,000, shared by the consortia, to carry out the project. The NHPRC expects to make up to four grants in this category for up to $400,000. Applications are due on May 8, 2024, with a start date for implementation of January 1, 2025.  

The Commission requires that grant recipients acknowledge NHPRC grant assistance in all publications and other products that result from its support. 

Eligibility 

Eligible applicants:

  • Nonprofit organizations or institutions
  • Colleges, universities, and other academic institutions
  • State or local government agencies
  • Federally-acknowledged or state-recognized Native American tribes or groups

For a comprehensive list of the Commission’s limitations on funding, please see “What we do and do not fund.” Applications that consist entirely of ineligible activities will not be considered.

In order to ensure eligibility, applicants should first review the rules and regulations governing NHPRC grants under the Administering an NHPRC Grant section.

Cost Sharing

The total costs of a project are shared between the NHPRC and the applicant organization. 

Cost sharing is required. The applicant’s financial contribution may include both direct and indirect expenses, in-kind contributions, non-Federal third-party contributions, and any income earned directly by the project. Indirect costs must be listed under the applicant’s cost sharing contribution. NHPRC grant recipients are not permitted to use grant funds for indirect costs (as indicated in 2 CFR 2600.101). Indirect costs must be listed under the applicant’s cost sharing contribution.

The Commission provides no more than 75 percent of total project costs for the Planning and Implementation Grants. For example, a request of $75,000 in NHPRC grant funds means the applicant institution must provide at least $25,000 in cost share.

Other Requirements

Applicant organizations must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) prior to submitting an application, maintain SAM registration throughout the application and award process, and include a valid Unique Entity ID in their application. To register or request a Unique Entity ID, go to https://sam.gov

Ensure your SAM.gov and Grants.gov registrations and passwords are current. It may take up to one month to register or reactivate your registration with SAM.gov and Grants.gov. NHPRC will not grant deadline extensions for lack of registration.

Drafts

Applicants should submit a draft proposal prior to making a formal application. Draft materials should include, at minimum, the project narrative and budget, and drafts should be sent directly to the Director of Access Programs Anastacia Scott (anastacia.scott@nara.gov), who will send comments on your proposal in time for you to make changes to a final application. The deadline for drafts in this program is February 15, 2024.


 

Application Information

You must use Grants.gov to submit your Proposal (see the right-hand menu for a direct link to the application for this opportunity). All information necessary to apply is included in this announcement, the Application Instructions, and the forms on Grants.gov. If you need the information supplied in an alternative format, please call the NHPRC at 202-357-5010.

In the event that Grants.gov is experiencing technical difficulties that prevent submission, applicants must first attempt to resolve the issue with the Grants.gov Contact Center (800-518-4726). If Grants.gov cannot solve the problem, applicants may request an alternative. To make use of the NHPRC backup system, applicants must contact Jeff de la Concepcion (jeff.delaconcepcion@nara.gov) no later than 3:00 Eastern Time on the day of the deadline with their valid Grants.gov Contact Center trouble-ticket number. Applications that fail to meet deadlines for reasons other than those noted will not be considered for funding.

Preparing Your Application 

Using the Application Instructions, fill out Standard Form 424 and the NHPRC Budget Form. 

You will also prepare a Project Narrative and Supplementary Materials to attach to your Application Package.

 

Project Narrative for Planning Grants

The Project Narrative is a description of the proposal. It should be no more than 20 double-spaced pages in 12-pt type on 8.5 x 11 inch paper with standard margins and page numbers.

Please organize your narrative in sections:

Statement of Purpose: In one or two sentences, please state the project's purpose, the collaborating institutions involved, and the amount you are requesting from NHPRC. For example: The [Institution] is seeking a grant of [$ amount] to form a collaborative with [other institutions] to [what purposes]. 

Overview: Share your project's overall purpose, the nature of the collaboration, the potential or committed partners for the collaborative, and how it will increase public access to historical records. Applicants should indicate what role they will play in the structure of the collaborative. 

Plan of Work: Describe the plan of work for the grant period. Describe in detail the types of activities you intend to engage in and the relationships among them. Outline each stage of the planned work. Types of activities that are typical for these projects may include research, outreach, and collaborating to share best practices, tools, and techniques among member organizations; assess institutional strengths and opportunities; and develop plans and management structures for implementing a collaborative project. 

Your plan should demonstrate how the Collaborative will help build capacity at small, diverse, and under-represented archives and communities. 

Project Products: Describe the structure and content of the products you plan to produce for the completed plan. These may include software and documentation; curriculum, training, and other educational products; websites, manuals; conference presentations; and articles; and/or brochures and pamphlets. The NHPRC expects that products will be freely available.

Staff Qualifications: For the people or positions in the proposal, provide a narrative explanation of the qualifications of the staff who will contribute to the success of this project. Demonstrate that the project staff has the skills, background, and experience appropriate to the project. Explain the roles of all staff named in the project budget, both for those already on staff and for those to be hired. Include descriptions of outside project advisors, reviewers, and evaluators. List the names, titles, institutions, phone numbers, and email addresses of the Project Director and key personnel. Please ensure that the project director listed on this summary is the same person listed in Section 8 (f), of the SF 424. If your institution requires a different contact person on the SF 424, please explain in one sentence. In the supplementary materials, provide a résumé of not more than two pages per person for all staff named in the project budget. For those staff or consultants to be hired for the project, provide position descriptions or call for consultants. 

Performance Objectives: List four to six measurable objectives. Focus on quantifiable results that reflect what you intend to complete by the end of the grant period. For example, how many institutions will form the Collaborative and what will their roles be; how will the members assess strengths and challenges among its members; what measurable improvements are planned for public participation, discovery, or use of historical records; how many people will be reached with outreach programming; how many of the tools developed through the project will be available for use by the broader archival and historical publishing communities.


Project Narrative for Implementation Grants

The Project Narrative is a description of the proposal. It should be no more than 20 double-spaced pages in 12-pt type on 8.5 x 11 inch paper with standard margins and page numbers. Please organize your narrative in sections:

Statement of Purpose: In one or two sentences, please state the project's purpose, the collaborating institutions involved, and the amount you are requesting from NHPRC. For example: The [Institution] is seeking a grant of [$ amount] to form a collaborative with [other institutions] to [what purposes]. 

Overview: Describe the nature of the collaboration, the committed partners for the Collaborative, and how it will increase public access to historical records. Applicants should indicate what role they will play in the structure of the collaborative.

Plan of Work: Describe the plan of work for the grant period. Describe in detail the types of activities you intend to engage in and the relationships among them. Outline each stage of the implementation work and how it fulfills the goals developed during your planning project. Types of activities may include outreach beyond the collaborating organizations to offer information and services; sharing best practices, tools, and techniques among member organizations and others; creating an online repository that makes records from multiple repositories available. 

Your plan of work should demonstrate how the Collaborative will help build capacity at small, diverse, and under-represented archives and communities. 

Project Products: Describe the structure and content of the products you plan to produce for the completed plan. These may include software and documentation; curriculum, training, and other educational products; websites, manuals; conference presentations; and articles; and/or brochures and pamphlets. The NHPRC expects that products will be freely available.

Project Publicity: Describe how you will publicize the project and how you will share any new tools and methods with other institutions to encourage replication and adoption.

Staff Qualifications: For the people or positions in the proposal, provide a narrative explanation of the qualifications of the staff who will contribute to the success of this project. Demonstrate that the project staff has the skills, background, and experience appropriate to the project. Explain the roles of all staff named in the project budget, both for those already on staff and for those to be hired. Include descriptions of outside project advisors, reviewers, and evaluators. List the names, titles, institutions, phone numbers, and email addresses of the Project Director and key personnel. Please ensure that the project director listed on this summary is the same person listed in Section 8 (f), of the SF 424. If your institution requires a different contact person on the SF 424, please explain in one sentence. In the supplementary materials, provide a résumé of not more than two pages per person for all staff named in the project budget. For those staff or consultants to be hired for the project, provide position descriptions or call for consultants. 

Performance Objectives: List four to six measurable objectives. Focus on quantifiable results that reflect what you intend to complete by the end of the grant period. For example, how many institutions will form the Collaborative and what will their roles be; what measurable improvements are planned for public participation, discovery, or use of historical records; how many people will be reached with outreach programming; how many of the tools developed through the project will be available for use by the broader archival and historical publishing communities.

Supplementary Materials

Prepare up to 20 pages of Supplementary Materials to your Narrative, such as:

  • Résumés of named staff members (please use only institutional addresses and phone numbers. No more than two pages per staff member) (required)
  • Position descriptions for staff to be hired with grant funds (required, if applicable)
  • Detailed work plan charts that supplement the Narrative

If these materials are available on a web site, please provide the URLs.

Project Budget

You must submit a budget on the NHPRC Budget Form available on the Application Instructions page. You may include with your application a narrative budget supplement for budget categories that require further detail. Provide specific budget figures, rounding to the nearest dollar.

Submission Dates and Times

Applicants are encouraged to submit drafts, but you are not required to do so. Drafts should be sent by email to Director of Access Programs Anastacia Scott (anastacia.scott@nara.gov) and should include a narrative and budget. 

Draft Deadline: February 15, 2024

Final Deadline: Applications must be submitted electronically by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time May 8, 2024.

NHPRC support begins no earlier than January 1, 2025.


Application Review 

The NHPRC staff will acknowledge receipt of the application soon after we receive it. The following evaluation criteria and weights will be used by NHPRC staff to form recommendations:

  1. Quality and extent of the potential impact in increasing the capacity of small, diverse, and under-represented archives and repositories. (35 percent)
  2. Ability to complete the proposed plan, judged by the qualifications of the staff and reasonableness of the work plan and budget (including cost share). (35 percent)
  3. Transferability of the expected results to the archival and historical communities. (20 percent)
  4. Effectiveness of the dissemination plans for the project's results. (10 percent)

Review Process

After submitting a proposal, do not discuss the pending application with any Member of the Commission. Commission members must ensure fair and equitable treatment of all applications and do not discuss proposals with individual applicants.

Your proposal will be reviewed by:

A Panel of Peer Reviewers: We will ask 5 to 10 external peer reviewers to evaluate the proposal.

The Commission: Based on reviews and staff evaluations, Commission members deliberate on proposals and make funding recommendations to the Archivist of the United States who, as Commission Chairman, has final statutory authority and selects award recipients. Throughout this process, all members of the Commission and its staff follow conflict-of-interest rules to assure fair and equal treatment of every application.


Award Administration Information

 

Notification

Grants are contingent upon available appropriated funds. In some cases, the Commission will adjust grant amounts depending upon the number of recommended proposals and total budget. The Commission may recommend that the Archivist approve the proposal and extend an offer of a grant with applicable terms and conditions, or it may recommend rejection of the proposal.

Commission staff will notify applicants of the Archivist’s decision within two weeks following the meeting and will provide anonymous copies of reviewer comments to all applicants.

Successful applicants will receive an informal offer of award and be required to verify their acceptance of general terms and conditions, and complete a statement on their Financial Capability and Accounting Systems.

Once these are received, reviewed and accepted, the NHPRC will issue an official award notice.

 

Administrative Requirements

In order to ensure that you can manage a grant, applicants should review the Federal grant administration rules and regulations governing grants from the NHPRC listed in the Administering an NHPRC Grant section.

 

Reporting

In most cases, award recipients will report on their performance in narrative reports every six months and submit financial reports once a year.

 

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