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national organizations of archives and records professionals that involve activities taking place in multiple States or that will have a direct impact on the records community throughout the nation. Projects involving the records of organizations with a national scope should be submitted under the "State" category unless project activities will actually take place in multiple States. Applicants for funding who feel that their proposal may be eligible for submission under the "National" category should discuss their project with the Commission staff before submitting a formal proposal.

Applicants should refer questions about the classification of projects to the Records Program staff. The Commission prefers to consider borderline cases as State proposals and to submit them for review by the appropriate State Historical Records Advisory Board.

C. Types of Project Funding

The Commission makes funds available as outright or matching grants or as grants combining these two types of funding. Applicants may request the funding arrangement best suited to their needs, although occasionally the Commission will decide to offer a different mix of funding. Institutional cost sharing in the form of cash and in-kind contributions is also an important part of each project's funding. Income from project activities (registration fees, publication sales, etc.) may also be a source of support.

Outright funding: The Commission supports the entire cost of a project, minus the share of costs borne by the applicant. The institution's share of the costs should be substantial, although the percentage may vary depending upon the nature of the project. Any direct or indirect costs. relating to the project that are contributed by the applicant may be included as cost sharing.

Matching funding: The Commission matches cash (usually dollar-fordollar) raised from non-Federal sources, including new monies from a State or local government agency's funding source that are provided explicitly for the proposed grant project. Applicants need not have money in hand in order to make a matching grant request; they need only have reasonable prospects of obtaining the matching funds. Upon Commission approval of a matching grant request, the applicant must present written certification that a non-Federal source has provided matching funds for the project and indicate the budget lines and amounts for which those third-party matching funds will be used.

Cost sharing: Cost sharing indicates non-Federal cash or in-kind contributions to the cost of a project. Cost sharing includes both direct and indirect costs and can also include any income earned directly by projects. (for example, through registration fees or publication sales).

The Commission suggests that cost sharing equal approximately

50 percent of the total cost of the project. Projects whose primary beneficiary is not the applicant institution but the broader records community may not warrant such substantial cost sharing. This may also be true for projects undertaken by professional organizations in the broad public interest or to provide special services to members.

Direct and indirect costs: Direct costs are expenses that applicants can attribute directly to the cost of a project, such as a portion of the project director's salary, project supplies, travel expenses, or equipment rented or purchased for a project.

Indirect costs are those costs that are incurred for common or joint objectives and therefore cannot be readily identified with a specific project or activity of an organization. Typical examples are the costs of operating and maintaining facilities, local telephone service, and accounting and legal services.

Commission policy on indirect costs:

Many agencies of the Federal government negotiate indirect cost rates with grantees. These rates are usually a fixed percentage of all or part of the total direct costs of the project. The NHPRC does not negotiate indirect cost rates with its grantees, but does recognize rates negotiated between its applicants and other Federal agencies. It is the Commission's policy to give preference to applications that include indirect costs as a portion of the grantee's cost-sharing contribution.

IV. Grant Applications and Procedures

A. Who May Apply

Nonprofit organizations and institutions, State and local government agencies, and Federally acknowledged or State-recognized Native American tribes or groups may apply to the program. All applicants must be legally established and located within the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia. In some cases individuals may also apply. Proposals for State projects will be accepted only from applicants in States in which a State Historical Records Coordinator and a State Historical Records Advisory Board have been appointed.

B. Preliminaries to Application

Read these guidelines carefully before beginning to prepare an application. Special guidelines and policies have been prepared for certain types of grants and project activities: historical photograph projects, microform projects, projects included in the Commission's Native American Initiative, grants to individuals, regrant projects sponsored by State Boards, State Board travel and meeting expense grants, state assessment and reporting projects, and projects involving the hiring of consultants. If you think that your project or its work may fall under one of these categories, request the appropriate special guidelines or policy statements from the Commission before you start to prepare your application and study them carefully.

It is essential for State project applicants to contact their State Coordinator (see Appendix J) prior to preparing a proposal. Several Boards request that applicants discuss proposal ideas with them before submitting a formal draft; others require earlier application deadlines (in some cases several months earlier) than those set by the Commission so that proposals may undergo a formal board review prior to their submission to the Commission.

The Records Program staff and the State Historical Records Coordinators welcome and encourage preliminary conversations or inquiries about prospective grant applications. Often, the Coordinator, State Board, and Records Program staff make suggestions that improve the prospects of funding. Applicants should be aware that the proposal development process usually takes several months. Gathering information and making contacts well in advance of the application deadline is essential if proposals are to be competitive in the evaluation process.

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C. When and How to Apply

Deadlines and Categories

The Commission meets three times each year. Applicants must submit signed, complete proposals according to the following category deadlines. All deadlines are postmark deadlines.

above.

RECORDS PROGRAM GRANT CYCLES

October Meeting (Application Deadline: June 1)

National, Regional, and Statewide Projects
State Board Regrant Proposals

February Meeting (Application Deadline: October 1)

National, Regional, and Statewide Projects
Archival Programs in Colleges and Universities
Archival Programs in Local Governments

Proposals Addressing the Native American Initiative

June Meeting (Application Deadline: February 1)

Archival Programs for Local Governments

Archival Programs in Museums, Service Organizations,
Religious Institutions, and Other Non-profits
Collections Projects: Arrangement, Description,

Preservation, etc., of Textual and Electronic
Records, Photographs, Motion Pictures, Sound
Recordings, and Other Documentary Materials

The "State," "National," and "Regional" categories have been defined The following definitions apply to the various subcategories within the overall "State" category:

1.

Statewide Projects: or affecting a multi-county area within a single state, such as development of improved records programs and recordkeeping techniques or education and training projects.

Projects involving activities taking place in

2.

State Board Regrant Projects: Projects undertaken by State Historical Records Advisory Boards that regrant Commission funds to institutions and organizations within the State. Regrant projects should address the Boards' highest priorities, as indicated in State assessment reports or formal Board statements of priorities. Prospective applicants should request a copy of the special guidelines that have been developed for these projects.

3. Archival Programs in Colleges and Universities: Projects to develop archival programs for the institutional records of colleges and universities. Records management work may be undertaken if it is clearly linked to the development of an archival program. Projects involving the preservation, arrangement, and description of manuscript collections or other materials held by colleges and universities should be submitted under the "Collections Projects" category (see definition below).

4. Archival Programs in Local Governments: Projects to develop
archival programs for individual local government jurisdictions.
Records management work may be undertaken if it is clearly linked to
the development of an archival program. Projects should involve all
of the records of an entire jurisdiction (county, municipality,
etc.) rather than those of a particular office. Projects involving
the preservation, arrangement, and description of a particular
office's records or a particular group of records should be submitted
under the "Collections Projects" category (see definition below).

5. Proposals Addressing the Native American Initiative: Projects to
preserve and make available records of American Indians, Alaska
Natives, and Native Hawaiians. The initiative includes specific types
of activities, such as development of archival/records management
programs. Prospective applicants should request a copy of the
Commission's "Native American Records Guidelines," which describes the
initiative and application requirements.

6. Archival Programs in Museums, Service Organizations, Religious
Institutions, and Other Nonprofits: Projects to develop archival
programs for the institutional records of these nonprofit
organizations. Records management work may be undertaken if it is
clearly linked to the development of an archival program. Although
some activities involving other documentary materials held by these
organizations may be included, the primary focus of the project should
be program development.

7. Collections Projects: Arrangement, Description, Preservation,
etc., of Textual and Electronic Records, Photographs, Motion Pictures,
Sound Recordings, and Other Documentary Materials: Projects involving
work with a discrete body of records. Projects to survey and
accession records relating to a particular subject within a single
State should be submitted under this category rather than as
"Statewide" projects. Prospective applicants planning to microfilm
records or undertake work involving historical photographs
should request a copy of the Commission's special guidelines in those
See also Appendices D and E of this brochure.

In addition to these categories, two other types of proposals--State Board Travel and Meeting Expense Grants and State Assessment and Reporting Projects--may be submitted against any deadline. Prospective applicants should request copies of the special guidelines that have been developed for these two proposal types.

Consultant Grants

In addition to the project types outlined above, applications may also be submitted for funding to hire consultants to assist in the resolution of special technical problems or to assist in the initial planning and development of archival programs in organizations where no professional archival staff are employed. Such proposals should clearly state the institution's specific need for consultant assistance and the intended use to be made of the consultant's findings and recommendations. Applications for consultant assistance should be submitted against the deadline for the category most closely related to the focus of the consultant grant. example, an application for funding for a consultant to provide assistance in in planning a local government archival program should be submitted against the October 1 and February 1 deadlines for "Archival Programs in Local Governments."

For

Consultants may also be employed on more broadly based projects to provide special technical expertise. The Records Program's special guidelines on the use of consultants and consultant grants should be requested and reviewed by applicants prior to proposal development.

Application Preparation and Submission

Applications must be submitted using the standard application and budget forms and certifications bound in the center of this brochure. Photocopies of the forms may be used. Applications that do not use these standard forms, that are incomplete, or that miss the deadline will be returned to the applicant and will not be eligible for consideration during the funding cycle.

Applications should be prepared on one side of paper only. Do not staple the signed original and do not put applications in binders or folders. Submit the signed original to the Commission in all cases. Although Federal grant regulations do not require the submission of more than one original and two copies of the application, the Commission strongly urges applicants to send additional copies to the Commission and/or to the State Historical Records Coordinator according to the type of grant application as indicated below. State Boards submitting applications of their own are requested to send the original and ten copies to the Commission, except for travel and meeting expense grants, for which only the original should be submitted. The Commission's address may be found in Appendix H. Addresses for State Coordinators may be found in Appendix J.

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*A few States have Boards with more than ten members; in those cases, Coordinators may request applicants to submit more than ten copies of the application. Check with the Coordinator in your State to determine the exact number of copies needed.

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