Museum Grants for American Latino History and Culture

This program supports projects that build the capacity of American Latino history and culture museums to serve their communities, and broadly advance the growth and development of a professional workforce in American Latino museums. The ALHC program

The Museum Grants for American Latino History and Culture (ALHC) program supports projects that build the capacity of American Latino history and culture museums to serve their communities and advance the growth and development of a professional workforce in American Latino cultural institutions. The goals of this program are to: • Build the capacity of American Latino museums to serve their communities; and • Support the growth and development of a professional workforce in American Latino museums. The primary audiences for this program are American Latino museums and cultural institutions, related museum service organizations, institutions of higher education, and museum professionals. Secondary audiences include museum visitors and future museum professionals.

An applicant to this initiative must meet geographic and governance criteria and qualify as one of the following types of organizations: 1. A museum with a primary focus on American Latino life, art, history, and culture that uses a professional staff, is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational, cultural heritage, or aesthetic purposes; owns or uses tangible objects, either animate or inanimate; cares for these objects; and exhibits these objects to the general public on a regular basis through facilities that it owns or operates. 2. A public or private nonprofit agency that is responsible for the operation of a museum that meets these criteria. 3. A museum service organization or association whose primary purpose, as reflected in its mission, is to support museums whose primary focus is on American Latino life, art, history, and culture. 4. An Institution of Higher Education, including Hispanic-Serving Institutions, that will engage in the project with one or more eligible museums. Applicants should consult the Notices of Funding Opportunity for more details.

Students enrolled in Institutions of Higher Education, including Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) who wish to pursue internships and fellowships at American Latino museums, and professionals working in American Latino museums.

Grant funds must be used for the purposes outlined in the Notice of Funding Opportunity, and in accordance with the Institute of Museum and Library Services General Terms and Conditions. Examples of allowable costs include personnel salaries, wages, and fringe benefits for project staff; travel expenses for key project staff and consultants; materials, supplies, software, and equipment related directly to project activities; adaptive and/or assistive technologies and other resources and services to improve accessibility for persons with disabilities; equipment to improve collections storage and exhibit environments; third-party costs; publication design and printing; program evaluation; staff and volunteer training; paid internships/fellowships; and indirect or overhead costs. Examples of unallowable costs include general fundraising costs; contributions to endowments; general operating support; acquisition of collections; general advertising or public relations costs designed solely for promotional activities other than those related to the specific project; construction or renovation of facilities; social activities, receptions or entertainment; and research projects. This is a discretionary program.

Unallowable costs include general fundraising costs, such as development office staff or other staff time devoted to general fundraising, contributions to endowments, general operating support, acquisition of collections, general advertising or public relations costs designed solely for promotional activities other than those related to the specific project, construction or renovation of facilities (generally, any activity involving the construction trades is not an allowable cost), social activities, receptions, or entertainment, and research projects.

Projects awarded in FY2025 must begin July 1, 2025. Project activities may be carried out for one to three years. Money awarded must be obligated within the approved period of performance specified in the Official Award Notification. Method of awarding/releasing assistance: Funds are released as advances or reimbursements in response to requests for payment.

IMLS staff review applications for eligibility and completeness. IMLS uses a peer review process to evaluate all eligible and complete applications. Peer reviewers are experts in the field with relevant knowledge and expertise in the types of project activities identified in the applications. IMLS instructs reviewers to evaluate applications according to the review criteria outlined in the Notice of Funding Opportunity. Peer reviewers must comply with Federal ethics and conflicts of interest requirements.

The IMLS Director takes into account the input provided by the review process and makes final funding decisions consistent with the purposes of the agency's mission and programs. Funded and non-funded applicants are notified by email when all deliberations are complete.

IMLS will not release information about the status of an application until the applications have been reviewed and all deliberations are concluded. IMLS expects to notify both successful and unsuccessful applicants of the final decisions by email in August 2026.

IMLS may extend particular grants at the discretion of the Director. Awardees may request no-cost extensions of up to a year.

IMLS will provide copies of reviewer comments and scores to all unsuccessful applicants and invite them to consult with specific IMLS staff when determining whether to revise the proposal and submit it again to IMLS or another funding agency.