Date posted: March 17, 2009
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 45.149
Questions?
Program questions should be directed to NEH's Division of Preservation and Access at 202-606-8570 or preservation@neh.gov. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930.
The Preservation and Access Education and Training program is central to NEH’s efforts to preserve and establish access to cultural heritage resources. Thousands of libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations across the country maintain important collections of books and manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings and moving images, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, art and material culture collections, electronic records, and digital objects. The challenge of preserving and making accessible such large and diverse holdings is enormous and the need for knowledgeable staff is significant and ongoing.
Preservation and Access Education and Training grants support activities such as these:
Preservation and Access Education and Training grants may not be used for
Previously Funded Projects
An institution whose project has received NEH support may apply for a grant for a new or subsequent stage of that project. These proposals receive no special consideration and will be judged by the same criteria as others in the grant competition. In addition, these proposals must be substantially updated and must include a description of the new activities and a justification of the new budget. The applicant must also describe how the previously funded project met its goals.
Providing Access to Grant Products
As a taxpayer-supported federal agency, NEH endeavors to make the products of its grants available to the broadest possible audience. Our goal is for scholars, educators, students, and the American public to have ready and easy access to the wide range of NEH grant products.
Awards normally are for two years. Grants to regional preservation field service organizations typically range from $50,000 to a maximum of $250,000 per year. For all other applicants, the maximum award is $125,000 per year. Successful applicants will be awarded a grant in outright funds, federal matching funds, or a combination of the two, depending on the applicant's preference and the availability of NEH funds. Matching funds are released when a grantee secures gift funds from eligible third parties.
Cost Sharing
Although cost sharing is not required, NEH, is rarely able to support the full costs of projects approved for funding. In most cases, NEH grants cover no more than 80 percent of project costs.
Cost sharing consists of the cash contributions made to the project by the applicant, third parties, and other federal agencies, as well as third-party in-kind contributions, such as donated services and goods. Cost sharing also includes program registration fees and gift money that will be raised to release federal matching funds.
(Learn more about different types of grant funding.)
Any U.S. nonprofit organization is eligible, as are state and local governmental agencies and tribal governments. Grants are not awarded to individuals.
NEH generally does not award grants to other federal entities or to applicants whose projects are so closely intertwined with a federal entity that the project takes on characteristics of the federal entity’s own authorized activities. This does not preclude applicants from using grant funds from, or sites and materials controlled by, other federal entities in their projects.
Ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
HOW TO PREPARE YOUR APPLICATION
Application advice and proposal drafts
Prior to submitting a proposal, you are encouraged to contact program officers who can offer advice about preparing the proposal and read draft proposals. These staff comments are not part of the formal review process and have no bearing on the final outcome of the proposal, but previous applicants have found them helpful in strengthening their applications. Draft proposals should be submitted six weeks before the deadline. Time constraints may prevent staff from reviewing draft proposals submitted after that date. Draft proposals should be submitted by e-mail attachment to preservation@neh.gov.
To see a representative list of funded projects, follow the link to Sample projects under Program Resources. In addition, Program Resources includes a link to a sample narrative from a funded application
You will prepare your application for submission via Grants.gov just as you would a paper application. Your application should consist of the following parts:
Register or Verify Registration with Grants.gov
Applications for this program must be submitted via Grants.gov. Before using Grants.gov for the first time, each organization must register with the Web site to create an institutional profile. Once registered, your organization can then apply for any government grant on the Grants.gov Web site.
If your organization has already registered and you have verified that your registration
is still valid, you may skip this step. If not, please see our
handy checklist
to guide you through the registration process. We strongly recommend that you complete or verify your registration at least two weeks before the application deadline, as it takes time for your registration to be processed. If you have problems registering with Grants.gov, call the Grants.gov help desk at 1-800-518-4726.
Download the Free Adobe Reader software
To fill out a Grants.gov application package, you will need to download and install the current version of Adobe Reader. The latest version of Adobe Reader, which is designed to function with PCs and Macintosh computers using a variety of popular operating systems, is available at no charge from the Adobe Web site (www.adobe.com).
Once installed, the current version of Adobe Reader will allow you to view and fill out Grants.gov application packages for any federal agency. If you have a problem installing Adobe Reader, it may be because you do not have permission to install a new program on your computer. Many organizations have rules about installing new programs. If you encounter a problem, contact your system administrator.
Download the Application Package
You can save your application package at any time by clicking the “Save” button at the top of your screen.
Tip: If you choose to save your application package before you have completed all the required forms, you may receive an error message indicating that your application is not valid. Click “OK” to save your work and complete the package another time. You can also use e-mail to share the
application package with members of your organization or project team.
The application package contains three forms that you must complete in order to submit your application:
HOW TO FILL OUT THE SF-424 SHORT FORM
Select the form from the menu and double click to open it. Please provide the following information:
HOW TO FILL OUT THE SUPPLEMENTARY COVER SHEET FOR NEH GRANT PROGRAMS
Select the form from the menu and double click to open it. Please provide the following information:
HOW TO USE THE NEH
ATTACHMENT FORM
You will use this form to attach the various files that make up your application.
Your attachments must be in Portable Document Format (.pdf). We cannot accept attachments in their original word processing or spreadsheet formats. If you don’t already have software to convert your files into PDFs, many low-cost and free software packages will do so. To learn more, go to http://www.neh.gov/grants/grantsgov/pdf.html.
When you open the NEH Attachment Form, you will find fifteen attachment buttons, labeled “Attachment 1” through “Attachment 15.” By clicking on a button, you will be able to choose the file from your computer that you wish to attach. You must name and attach your files in the proper order so that we can identify them. Please attach the proper file to the proper button as listed below:
ATTACHMENT 1: To this button, please attach your description of the project and its significance. Please name the file “projectdescription.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 2: To this button, please attach your table of contents. Please name the file “contents.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 3: To this button, please attach your list of project participants. Please name the file “participants.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 4: To this button, please attach your narrative. Please
name the file “narrative.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 5: To this button, please attach your budget. Please
name the file “budget.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 6: To this button, please attach your appendices. Please
name the file “appendices.pdf”. If you are submitting a large number of appendices, please bundle them together and send them as a single attachment. If you are concerned about the file size, you can group your appendices into multiple attachments. In this case, please name your attachments appendix.pdf, appendix2.pdf, appendix3.pdf, etc. Please note that you are limited to a total of fifteen attachments.
ATTACHMENT 7: To this button, please attach your history of grants. Please name the file “granthistory.pdf”.
Do not embed any additional files within any of the attachments.
Use the remaining buttons to attach any additional materials (if appropriate). Please give these attachments meaningful file names and ensure that they are PDFs.
UPLOADING YOUR APPLICATION
TO GRANTS.GOV
When you have completed all three forms, use the right-facing arrow to move each of them to the
“Mandatory Documents for Submission” column. Once they have been moved over, the “Submit” button will
activate. You are now ready to upload your application package to Grants.gov.
During the registration process, your institution designated one or more AORs (Authorized Organization
Representatives). These AORs typically work in your institution’s Sponsored Research Office or Grants Office.
When you have completed your application, you must ask your AOR to submit the application, using the special
username and password that were assigned to him or her during the registration process.
To submit your application, your computer must have an active connection to the Internet. To begin the
submission process, click the “submit” button. A page will appear, asking you to sign and submit your
application. At this point, your AOR will enter his or her username and password. When you click the
“sign and submit application” button, your application package will be uploaded to Grants.gov. Please note
that it may take some time to upload your application package, depending on the size of your files and
the speed of your Internet connection.
After the upload is complete, a confirmation page will appear. This page, which includes a tracking number, indicates that you have submitted your application to Grants.gov. Please print this page for your records. The AOR will also receive a confirmation e-mail message.
NEH suggests that you submit your application no later than 5:00 p.m.
Eastern Time on the day of the deadline. That way, should you encounter
a technical problem of some kind, you will still have time to contact
the Grants.gov help desk for support. The Grants.gov help desk is open
Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time at 1-800-518-4726.
You can also send an e-mail to support@grants.gov.
To assist applicants, Grants.gov provides a helpful troubleshooting page.
HOW TO SUBMIT SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
If you are sending supplementary materials (those that cannot be scanned and converted to an electronic form and submitted via Grants.gov), please send eight copies of each item and include a list of these supplementary materials in the application’s table of contents with an indication that these have been mailed separately. Send the materials to:
Preservation and Access Education and Training
Division of Preservation and Access Room 411 National Endowment for the Humanities 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20506 202-606-8570 NEH continues to experience lengthy delays in the delivery of mail by the U.S. Postal Service,
and in some cases materials are damaged by the irradiation process.
We recommend that supplementary materials be sent by a commercial
delivery service to ensure that they arrive intact by
the receipt deadline.
Deadlines
Applications must be received by Grants.gov by July 1, 2009. Grants.gov will date- and time-stamp your application after it is fully uploaded. Applications submitted after that date will not be accepted. Supplementary materials must also arrive at NEH by July 1, 2009, to be considered as part of the application.
Late applications will not be reviewed.
Review and selection process
Knowledgeable persons outside NEH will read each application and advise the agency about its merits. NEH staff comments on matters of fact or on significant issues that otherwise would be missing from these reviews, then makes recommendations to the National Council on the Humanities. The National Council meets at various times during the year to advise the NEH chairman on grants. The chairman takes into account the advice provided by the review process and, by law, makes all funding decisions.
Award notices
Applicants will be notified by mail in January, 2010 of the decision. Institutional grants administrators and project directors of successful applications will also receive at that time award documents by mail. Applicants may obtain the evaluations of their applications by sending a letter or e-mail to NEH, Division of Preservation and Access, Room 411, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506 or preservation@neh.gov.
Administrative requirements
Before submitting an application, applicants should review their
responsibilities as an award recipient.
Award conditions
The requirements for awards are contained in the General Terms and
Conditions for Awards to Organizations, any specific terms and conditions contained in the award document,
and the applicable
OMB circulars governing federal grants
management.
Reporting Requirements
A schedule of report due dates will be included with the award document.
Final performance reports will be required. Further details can be found in Performance Reporting Requirements (formerly Enclosure 2).
A Federal Cash Transactions Report (two-page PDF) will be due within thirty days after the end of each calendar quarter. A final Financial Status Report (two-page PDF) will be due within ninety days after the completion date of the award period. Further details can be found in Financial Reporting Requirements (formerly Enclosure 1).
If you have questions about the program, contact:
Preservation and Access Education and Training
Division of Preservation and Access Room 411 National Endowment for the Humanities 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20506 202-606-8570 or preservation@neh.gov
If you need help using Grants.gov, contact:
Grants.gov: http://www.grants.gov
Grants.gov help desk: support@grants.gov Grants.gov customer support tutorials and manuals : http://www.grants.gov/CustomerSupport Grant.gov support line: 1-800-518-GRANTS (4726) Grants.gov trouble shooting tips.
Privacy Policy
Information in these guidelines is solicited under the authority of the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities
Act of 1965, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 956. The principal purpose for which the information will be used is to process the
grant application. The information may also be used for statistical research, analysis of trends, and Congressional
oversight. Failure to provide the information may result in the delay or rejection of the application.
Application Completion Time
The Office of Management and Budget requires federal agencies to supply information on the time needed to complete forms
and also to invite comments on the paperwork burden.NEH estimates that the average time to complete this application is fifteen hours per response. This estimate includes time for reviewing instructions, researching, gathering, and maintaining the information needed, and completing and reviewing the application.
Please send any comments regarding the estimated completion time or any other aspect of this application,
including suggestions for reducing the completion time, to the Office of Publications, National
Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, DC 20506; and to the Office of Management and Budget,
Paperwork Reduction Project (3136-0134), Washington, DC 20503. According to the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless
it displays a valid OMB number.
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