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welcome to the institute of museum
and library services webinar i am a less

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rescue plan
grants 2021 information session

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my name is cindy landrum my name is
chris reich

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and we are pleased you could join us and
that you are interested in preparing an

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application for the imls american rescue
plan grants program

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our goal in this presentation is to
provide specific information

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about the imls american rescue plan
grants program

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and to make some recommendations that
you may wish to consider when preparing

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your
application in this presentation we will

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we will be addressing the following
topics

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program goals and objectives performance
measures

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important dates and times the question
of how much and how many

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allowable and unallowable costs
what you can and cannot include in your

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project
application components application

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tips and staff contact information

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the american rescue plan act passed by
the u.s

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congress appropriated 200 million
dollars to the

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institute of museum and library services
15 million dollars of this appropriation

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have been allotted to support
project proposals submitted to the imls

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american rescue plan grants program

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this this grant program has two program
goals

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and three objectives associated with
each goal

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each applicant should align their
proposed project

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with one of these two goals and one of
the associated objectives

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goal one is to strengthen the
institutional capacity of museums

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libraries and related organizations to
respond to community needs

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quickly effectively efficiently and
responsibly

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objective one is to advance digital
inclusion

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through approaches that may include but
are not limited to

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improving digital platforms online
services

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connectivity such as hot spots and
creating digital literacy programs as

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well as creating new processes and
procedures

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needed to sustain a robust and online
environment

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objective two will support hiring new
staff

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and training or retraining existing
staff

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to ensure a workforce that has the
appropriate knowledge

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skills and abilities objective 3
focuses on building community focused

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partnerships
networks and alliances with

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organizations such as other non-profits
school systems service organizations

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community groups government agencies
or institutions of higher education all

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with an
emphasis on complementing rather than

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duplicating
resources and services

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goal two is to increase the ability of
museums libraries and related

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organizations to deliver programs and
services

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that contribute to the well-being of
families groups and individuals

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of all cultural and socioeconomic
backgrounds

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objective one will support the creation
and delivery of online

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and in-person educational interpretive
and experiential programs and

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exhibitions for learners of all ages
objective two is to provide trusted

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spaces
for community engagement and dialogue to

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foster recovery and rebuilding
and objective three supports efforts to

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collect
preserve manage and interpret

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documentary sources and
tangible objects representing all

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aspects
of the covet 19 pandemic experience

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while aligning your proposal with one of
the goals and objectives we've outlined

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projects may continue enhance or expand
existing programs and services or they

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may launch
new ones to address those needs

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the most competitive proposals will be
framed as

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responses to needs of the community or a
target audience

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providing data-based evidence of how
those needs were identified

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as resulting from or exacerbated by the
covid19 pandemic

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will further strengthen your proposal to
this program

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a new federal requirement this year that
experienced

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applicants may not recognize is the
performance measurement plan

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for this program applicants must let us
know

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how they will measure the degree to
which the project activities

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will meet the expectations of the target
audience

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and also the extent to which each
primary activity will be completed

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within the proposed timeline
a one-page performance measurement plan

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must be submitted with the application
in the nofo you will find a sample chart

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that shows how this can be easily
prepared

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and is a there is a link to a fillable
version

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of this chart if you wish to use it
you can also provide your own one-page

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approach to describing how you will
measure the quality and timeliness of

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your project
activities

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here are important dates related to
applications to this

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program applications must be received
through grants.gov

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by 11 59 pm eastern time on monday
june 28 2021

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this date is non-negotiable the time
stamp

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is auto generated by the grants.gov
system and we have no ability to

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override it
imls american rescue plan grant awards

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will be announced in october
2021 and awarded projects must be

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scheduled to start on the first day of
november

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2021 and be no more than one year
in length please make sure that everyone

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involved in preparing your grant
application

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is aware of these dates

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all requests for imless funding must be
between

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ten and fifty thousand dollars if your
request for funding falls outside of

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this range your application will be
rejected and not reviewed

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with two exceptions requests to this
program must

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include at least a one-to-one
non-federal

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cost share cost share can take a number
of forms

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among them are cash the value of staff
or volunteer time engaged in project

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activities
third-party contributions grants from

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foundations
and support from state or local

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government
cost share cannot come from other

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federal sources applicants applying
as federally recognized indian tribes or

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as non-profit organizations that
primarily

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serve and represent native hawaiians are
exempt from the cost share requirement

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in this program

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we'll turn now to allowable and
unallowable costs for your project

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be very careful in preparing your
proposal and include only allowable

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costs
in both your imls request and your cost

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share
on the next slides we'll go through some

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common expenses that are allowable
and unallowable but for those who want

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to dig into the details
please see title 2 subtitle a chapter 2

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part 200 of the code of federal
regulations covering uniform

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administrative requirements cost
principles

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and audit requirements for federal
awards

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otherwise known as two cfr 200 for short
these regulations are available online

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in a searchable format
on the us government publishing office

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website
and a tiny url link is listed on this

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slide a particular interest is subpart e
cost principles a small section of which

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is shown on the right side of this slide
in the imls american rescue plan grants

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notice of funding opportunity we provide
a partial list

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of the most common examples of allowable
costs as listed here

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these costs may be part of what you ask
imls to pay for

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and or what you will pay for as part of
your cost share

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the rules about allowability apply to
both sides of your budget

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we also provide a list of generally
unallowable costs

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again both for imls funds and for cost
sharing

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these costs may not be part of what you
ask imls to pay for

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nor can they be part of what you will
pay for as part of your cost share

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in fact unallowable expenses can't show
up anywhere in your proposal

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as you prepare your application it's a
good idea to compare your list of

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proposed
expenses against these lists of

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allowable
and unallowable costs and against the

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appropriate set of cost
principles

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up next are the components
your application will consist of a

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series of individual documents
and it's very important to make sure you

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prepare
and submit everything you should

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these application components fall into
two categories for this program

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the first is that of required documents
all applications must include the

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documents listed here
omission of even just one might result

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in your
application's rejection

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also important to note are page limits
if you exceed the page limit specified

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in the notice of funding opportunity
we must remove the extras before your

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application goes out for review
so make sure your content fits into the

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page limit specified
and make sure the number of pages holds

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when you convert your document
to a pdf

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the second category of application
components is that of conditionally

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required documents
some applications must include one two

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or even all four of these and it's your
job to figure out

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which are required for yours
if you're applying as a non-profit then

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you must include
your proof of nonprofit status issued by

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the internal revenue service
if you are applying as a non-profit

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organization that primarily serves or
represents native

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hawaiians the notice of funding
opportunity will explain

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special requirements in this instance
if you're using a federally negotiated

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indirect cost
rate in your budget then you must

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include a copy of your final rate
agreement

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finally if you will create digital
products during the course of your

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product
project then you must prepare and submit

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a digital products plan
guidance for preparing such a plan is

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provided in appendix 4 of the notice of
funding opportunity

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those who have applied for il imls
grants in the past

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may note that this particular program
does not

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include supplementary information and
documents

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as conditionally required documents
you should not attach any additional

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materials of this kind to your
application

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they will be deleted if you do so

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now let's talk about the narrative for
your proposal

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you have only three pages to cover three
very important

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issues the project justification
the project work plan and the project

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results
for the project justification section

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you should state which program goal and
associated objective

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of the imls american rescue plan grant
program your project will address as we

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outlined earlier in this webinar
you will need to describe the covit 19

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related need problem or challenge your
project addresses

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and tell us how you identified it you
should include some kind of relevant

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data from one or more reliable sources
that helped you to identify and document

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that need problem or challenge
that your project is meant to address

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finally tell us who will be served by
your project

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will it be elementary age students
preschoolers

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seniors certain target audiences within
your community

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the campus student body or some other
component

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of your community

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the project work plan is the second
section of the narrative where you

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identify
who will do what activities when and

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using what resources
we also want you to explain how you will

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track your progress
toward achieving your proposed results

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and what you'll do if you need to
correct course along the way

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the third and final section of your
narrative will be focused on

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articulating your project's intended
results

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this section is your chance to convince
the reviewers

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that your project will result in
something getting better

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be sure to tie the results to the need
or problem you identified in the project

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justification
the first part of the narrative very

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importantly this is where you can make a
strong case that the project you've

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proposed
will help your community or target

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audience recover from the covet 19
pandemic

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this is important because that's what
these funds are intended to do

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so to recap your narrative has three
sections

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project justification project work plan
and project results and you have three

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pages
for it we recommend that you use all

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three pages
you should also consider the criteria we

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ask
reviewers to consider in their

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evaluation of your application
these review criteria and information on

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the review process
can be found in section e of the nofo

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on pages 18 to 19.
at this point we'd like to share a few

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tips gleaned from our collective
experience in working with applications

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submitted to our funding programs each
year

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first on the list make sure your
registrations are complete

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and your passwords and usernames are
current

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you must have a duns number an
activesam.gov registration

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and a current and functional grants.gov
registration

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and if you're just starting out you'll
need to acquire them

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in that order in other words you must
have a duns number to register with

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sam.gov
you must have an activesam.gov

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registration to register with grants.gov
it's crucial to remember that your

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sam.gov registration
expires each year and you must renew it

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you can check your status at any time by
going to

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www.sam

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in addition your grants.gov password
expires every 60 days

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and leaving accounts in active for a
year or more can result in removal of

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all account roles so make sure you know
who your grants.gov

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authorized organization representative
is

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and be sure the username and updated
password are in place

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both the sam.gov and the grants.gov
websites have robust help

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features and faqs we recommend that you
check out the status of these

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these registrations today don't wait
until a few days before the deadline

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or you may find yourself unable to
submit your

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application

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some important things to know our
regulations state clearly

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that we can make grants only to eligible
applicants that submit complete

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applications
including attachments on or before the

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deadline
if you aren't already become familiar

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with the grants.gov workspace
it has been available as an option for a

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couple of years now
and it is now the only option it has

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many good features
including upfront validation which

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allows you to correct
errors prior to submission and the

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opportunity to collaborate with others
in creating your application

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as you write your narrative avoid
generalities

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acronyms and jargon people who will
review your application are experts

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but they may not totally be familiar
with your particular field shorthand

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00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:12.080
make it easy for them to understand what
you mean

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check your spelling grammar and math it
makes a difference with reviewers

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be sure your application is complete
check it against the table of

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application
components in the notice of funding

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opportunity
and then check it again we know that the

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application period for this program is
very short

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even so if you can if you can
submit to grants.gov early even a day

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early
so you can correct possible errors and

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avoid any trauma created by
technology challenges that might happen

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on the day or night
of the actual deadline on june 28th

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thank you very much for your interest in
imls and in our american rescue plan

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grants program
we hope you found the information in

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this webinar helpful
cindy and i are the primary contacts for

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this program at this time
please feel free to email us with any

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questions you might have about what
you've heard or seen in this webinar

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or in the online materials we will do
our best to help

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we also thank you for the good work you
do for your communities

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we wish you good luck with the
application process

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and we look forward to seeing your
application later this month