Find Nonprofit and Small Business Grants

To be eligible as an applicant for the Accelerating Promising Practices for Small Libraries Initiative, you must:
- Be either a unit of State or local government or be a private, nonprofit institution that has nonprofit status under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended, and
- Be located in one of the 50 States of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau.

In addition, you must be one of the following six types of organizations:

(1) A library or a parent organization, such as a school district, a municipality, a State agency, or an academic institution, that is responsible for the administration of a library. Eligible libraries include:
- Public libraries;
- Public elementary and secondary school libraries;
- College (including community college) and university libraries;
- Research libraries and archives that are not an integral part of an institution of higher education and that make publicly available library services and materials that are suitable for scholarly research and not otherwise available. Research libraries must be under the supervision of at least one permanent professional staff librarian and must be either generally recognized as possessing unique, scholarly research materials and services that are made available to the public, or able to demonstrate that such is the case when submitting an application to IMLS;
- Private or other special library, but only if the State in which such private or special library is located determines that the library should be considered a library for the purposes of the Library Services and Technology subchapter (see 20 U.S.C. 9121-9165);

(2) A digital library, if it makes library materials publicly available and provides library services, including selection, organization, description, reference, and preservation, under the supervision of at least one permanent professional staff librarian;

(3) A library agency that is an official agency of a State or other unit of government and is charged by the law governing it with the extension and development of public library services within its jurisdiction;

Native American tribal organizations may apply if they otherwise meet the above eligibility requirements.

The following list includes some examples of unallowable costs, both for IMLS funds and for cost share (if applicable), under this announcement:
- 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 (see 2 C.F.R. §3187.15(b))
- 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, ceremonies, receptions, or entertainment
- Research projects (see 2 C.F.R. § 200.87)
- Pre-award costs

Due date: Submit through Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on December 2, 2019.

Anticipated Date of Notification of Award Decisions: July 2020 (subject to the availability of funds and IMLS discretion)

While cost sharing is not considered in the peer review of applications, inclusion of cost share supports organizational investment in and commitment to the project.

Before submitting an application, your organization must have a current and active D-U-N-S® number (a unique entity identifier), System for Award Management (SAM.gov) registration, and Grants.gov registration. Check your materials and registrations well in advance of the application deadline to ensure that they are accurate, current, and active.

The multi-step Grants.gov registration process generally cannot be completed in a single day. If you are not already registered, you should allow several weeks before the grant program deadline to complete this one-time process. Do not wait until the day of the application deadline to register.

View this opportunity on Grants.gov:
https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=320100

For a list of application documents, see the Package tab (press Preview) on the Grants.gov page above.

FAQ:
https://www.imls.gov/grants/available/faq-accelerating-promising-practices-small-libraries

Pre-application webinar:
https://www.imls.gov/webinars/fy-2020-accelerating-promising-practices-small-libraries-pre-application-webinar