Friends Of The North Carolina State Museum Of Natural Sciences

Friends Of The North Carolina State Museum Of Natural Sciences, doing business as Friends Of The North Carolina Museum Of Natural Sciences, is a tax-exempt non-profit organization based in Raleigh, North Carolina that serves as a federal grant recipient in paleontology, museum operations, species conservation, and STEM education, with recent awards concentrating in the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service. The organization competes as a prime recipient on full-and-open federal grants; the source contains no federal prime contracts and no set-aside designations.

The museum's recent federal footprint spans 58 awards (56 prime, 2 sub-awards) with combined potential value of $2.1 million and combined obligated dollars of $18.3 million. The National Science Foundation leads by award count with 15 grants, followed by the DOI Fish and Wildlife Service Region 4 and the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science at 7 awards each, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services at 6. A concentration on IMLS Museums for America grants (CFDA 45.301) anchors the largest dollar values: $1.79 million (September 2026) to transform the museum's entrance and main gallery into an immersive science orientation experience; $1.17 million (September 2026) to preserve and digitize over 100,000 fossil specimens; and $1.25 million (September 2026) to expand participatory paleontology initiatives serving middle school classrooms nationwide. An NSF Biological Sciences grant (CFDA 47.074) of $1.39 million awarded in August 2022 funds integrated distribution models for approximately 100 North American mammal species, with results shared through podcasts and YouTube. The museum also holds a cooperative agreement with the Bureau of Land Management of Utah (September 2024 to August 2029) to train entry-level fossil conservators and process paleontological resources from the Cedar Mountain Formation, and a Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service cooperative agreement ($275,203, October 2022 to September 2027) under the Coastal Program (CFDA 15.630) to implement the Project Restore program for endangered and imperiled species in North Carolina including American shad, Venus flytrap, and red wolf. Recent awards also include a $70,019 grant from an unnamed Shared Services Center (May 2024) for balanced science program execution related to lunar, Mars, and space exploration research, and an $80,000 purchase order from a Civilian Acquisitions office (September 2024) for a Wildlife Insights subscription running through September 2028.

Activity has been variable, ranging from 2 to 5 awards per year over the past five years, with four awards reaching completion in the next twenty-four months (combined potential value $80,000). The museum's sub-award footprint is minimal; it receives sub-awards from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission on genetic structure research for smallmouth bass populations in western North Carolina. Federal grant partners include the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology, the Fish and Wildlife Service Region 4, the Bureau of Land Management Utah Region, and NASA's Shared Services Center, with work performed in Raleigh, North Carolina and at field sites in Utah and Florida.