ClosedOpportunity ME-FY25

Museums Empowered (2025)

Institute of Museum and Library Services

At a glance

Museums Empowered (2025) is a closed federal grant opportunity from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The application deadline was November 15, 2024. Individual awards are listed as $5K – $250K, with about 20 awards expected and $4.3M in total estimated funding. Applicant types listed as eligible include others (see notice). Cost sharing or matching is required. It is funded under Assistance Listing 45.301 (Museums for America).

Summary assembled from the official notice's fields. The official notice governs.

Key facts

Aug 15, 2024Posted
Nov 15, 2024Application deadline
Aug 15, 2025 (est.)Est. award date

Posted: Aug 15, 2024
Close date: Nov 15, 2024
Est. award date: Aug 15, 2025
Award floor: $5,000
Award ceiling: $250,000
Est. total funding: $4,299,000
Expected awards: 20
Cost sharing: Required
Funding instrument: Grant
Opportunity category: Discretionary

Who can apply

Others (see notice)

Additional information on eligibility (from the notice)

See the Notice of Funding Opportunity for program eligibility criteria. IMLS is extending the deadline for Museums Empowered from November 15, 2024, to December 13, 2024, for institutions located in Federally declared emergency and/or major disaster areas who have not been able to meet the current November 15, 2024, deadline because they have been adversely impacted by such emergencies and/or disasters. An affected organization must, by December 13 at 11:59pm EST, submit its completed application with a written statement from its Authorizing Official that: • Specifies the applicable Emergency Declaration and/or Major Disaster Declaration for the area in which the applicant organization is located (see FEMA’s listing of Declared Disasters https://www.fema.gov/disaster/declarations) and • Confirms that the applicant organization was unable to meet the original application deadline of November 15, 2024, due to the emergency or disaster. This statement should be prepared as a Supporting Document and uploaded as part of the application submitted through Grants.gov. For those applicants who have not been adversely affected by such emergencies and/or disasters, the deadline remains November 15, 2024, at 11:59pm EST.

Can your organization apply?

A quick check against the listed applicant types — other requirements in the notice still apply.

Based on the published notice. Review the official notice for complete eligibility requirements.

What it funds

Official synopsis as published by the agency, formatted for readability.

Museums Empowered (ME) is a special initiative of the Museums for America grant program. It supports projects that use the transformative power of professional development and training to generate systemic change within museums of all types and sizes.

IMLS 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.

Additional information from the agency ↗

Full announcement & documents

The full announcement has the complete rules — page limits, required attachments, evaluation criteria and any letter-of-intent dates. Files download directly from Grants.gov.

FY25 Notice of Funding Opportunity for Museums Empowered.Full Announcement · fy25-oms-me-NOFO.pdfOCTE · 860 KB

Assistance Listing

What is an ALN?

45.301Museums for AmericaProgram →

Reported obligations under ALN 45.301

Historical data · not a prediction

FY24

$29.9M

FY25

$15.3M

FY26

$28.7M est.

Source: SAM.gov Assistance Listing 45.301. Program-wide totals, not awards from this specific opportunity.

Who was funded under ALN 45.301

Historical data · not a prediction

Since October 1, 2023, 855 grant awards had funding actions under Museums for America. These are program-wide awards, not awards from this specific notice.

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER$1.35M
FRIENDS OF THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES$1.35M
TOWN OF NORMAL CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY MUSEUM FOUNDATION$1.18M
FLORIDA HOLOCAUST MUSEUM, INC$1.05M
CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST AND HUMANITY EDUCATION$1.05M

Recipients, states, recent awards and sub-awards →Source: USAspending.gov.

Agency contact (as published)

Institute of Museum and Library Services
imls-museumgrants@imls.gov
202-653-4634

Quick answers

Who is eligible to apply for “Museums Empowered (2025)”?

The official notice names these applicant types as eligible: Others (see notice). Additional restrictions may apply; review the full notice.

How much funding is available through “Museums Empowered (2025)”?

Per the notice, individual awards are listed as $5k – $250k, total estimated program funding is $4,299,000 and the agency expects to make about 20 awards.

How do I apply for “Museums Empowered (2025)”?

Applications are submitted through the official source, not through GrantsJunction. Open the official notice on Grants.gov (opportunity ME-FY25), and review the full announcement and application package. Organizations applying through Grants.gov generally need an active SAM.gov registration and a Grants.gov account, which can take several weeks to set up.

Matched on shared Assistance Listings, agency, categories and eligible applicant types.

OpenALN 45.301