Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Accepting Applications for Cultural and Historic Support Grants to Museums, County Historical Societies

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is pleased to announce it will be awarding nearly $2 million in grants to qualified museums and official county historical societies under the Cultural and Historic Support program. This is the third year that the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has worked with the state legislature to provide funding for museums through the grant program.  A total of $2 million was included in the 2015-2016 state budget for PHMC to use for the Program.

“PHMC is pleased to offer these general operating support grants to museums and historical societies,” PHMC Executive Director James Vaughan said. “The need for this type of funding is something we’ve heard from Pennsylvania’s museum community. It’s great that we have a program to help meet that need.”

Applicants must meet organizational eligibility requirements. Awards are based on a calculation that uses the operating budget from the most recently completed fiscal year.  The goals of the Cultural and Historic Support Program are:

  • Strengthen the Pennsylvania museum community;
  • Provide general operating support to museum and official county historical societies that are not supported by other state agency funding programs;
  • Provide financial support as unrestricted operating support to address primary needs of museums;
  • Allow applicants to determine and describe how they will use funds;
  • Keep application process fair and simple;
  • Determine award amounts using an equation based on a percentage of the previous year’s operating budget; and
  • Achieve geographical balance in the distribution of grants.

The Cultural and Historical Support grant program is restricted to eligible organizations:

  • Museums located in Pennsylvania with annual operating budgets exceeding $100,000 and at least one full-time professional staff person (some museums are not eligible if they are eligible for grant support from other state agencies). The maximum award for a museum is $65,000; and
  • Official county historical societies. The awards for Official County Historical Societies range from $2,500 to $4,000.

All applications must be completed by Tuesday, May 24, 2016, on PHMC’s eGrant application system (http://phmc.egrant.org) and hardcopy materials must be received by Friday, May 27, 2016.  Eligibility information and grant guidelines can be found at: www.phmc.pa.gov/Preservation/Grants-Funding.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is the official history agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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