<commit_before>---
layout: default
title: 2016 NCPTT Media Grant
permalink: /2016-ncptt-media-grant/
---

# NCPTT 2016 Media Grant Application

We are writing a grant application and a guide to writing grant applications at the same time! Check out [our blog post for why we are doing this]({{ site.url }}/blog/ncptt-media-grant-application/), read on to see the grant application in progress, then share your comments with [<NAME>](http://twitter.com/elipousson). You can also creating issues in this repo or fork this repo to contribute edits directly.

## How do you apply for a grant?

This guide assumes that you have a project first—which is a good idea. Coming up with a project just for a grant is not always a bad idea but it can cause problems—especially for small organizations. 

1. Find a grant opportunity
2. Read the description or announcement of the grant opportunity. There are several questions you need to answer before continuing:
  - Is my organization eligible to apply?
  - Is my project eligible?
  - When are applications due?
  - How do I apply?
  - How are they planning to review applications?
3. Read about the organization making the grant (optional). If you are not familiar with the grant-making organization, find and read their mission and core goals. It can sometimes be helpful to read about any listed staff members or board members to better understand what the organization does and who is helping to guide the organization's mission.
4. Contact a grant program administration by phone or email (optional but recommended). If you are still unsure if your project is suited to this grant opportunity, call or email a grant program administrator to discuss your project and any questions you may have. Grant administrators want to help you shape a competitive application!
5. Re-read the announcement and any related materials.
6. Create an outline based on the evaluation criteria for the grant narrative. Expand the outline with short descriptions or lists that explain how the proposed project meeting the requirements.
7. Draft a project summary. **:point_left: This is where we are at right now in preparing our 2016 NCPTT Media Grant application.**
8. Revise and expand the outline to fit within the limits on words or pages. Some online submission forms use character counts to limit the length of submissions so make sure you know how much space you are allowed to explain your project.
9. Share your draft with a friend, colleague or partner (or more than one) to read for feedback and edits. Pay special attention to the clarity of organization, maintaining a direct connection between the narrative and the grant criteria, as well as spelling and grammar. Small mistakes (like mispelling the name of a partner organization) can undermine the credibility of an otherwise compelling proposal.
10. Revise the narrative one last time based on the feedback you recieved.
11. Collect any additional attachments that may be required. Typical requirements include financial statements, resumes or CVs, 501c3 certification letters, etc. 
12. Submit your grant application!

One last step: send thank-you notes to anyone who helped you with the grant application and mark your calendar for the date when you expect you might hear back.

## How should we write the project abstract? Tell us about this project in 100 words or less

Here is what NCPTT says is required for the **abstract**:

> The abstract is a summary of proposed work suitable for dissemination to the public. It is limited to 100 words in length. The project abstract will be a file attachment in the application. Please create the file in Microsoft Word or Word compatible software.

## Local Preservation School: Project Abstract

I'm saving the trouble of writing the abstract until the end!

## How should we write the project narrative? Tell us about this project is 10 pages or less  

Here is what NCPTT says is required for the **narrative description**:

> The proposal is a narrative description that should specifically address each of the review criteria (see Section IV). The proposal text must be no longer than 10 pages, no smaller than font size 11, and have 1-inch margins. The 10-page limit includes all text, figures, references, and resumes (Forms SF-424, SF-424A, SF- 424B, project abstract, key contacts, and the statement of indirect charges are not counted as part of the 10 page limit).

I’m estimating that resumes, references and figures will take about 3-4 pages of the total. That leaves us to write (or reuse) around 6-7 pages of description to explain this project. I’m going to start with an outline of the key components of our project and how they fulfill the goals for the grant. It is always good to make this very explicit—don’t assume a grant reviewer will understand why your project is a good fit for a funding opportunity? You _always_ have to tell them.

- **Project Title**. 
- **Discipline**. Include archeology, architecture, engineering, collections, historic landscapes, or materials conservation 
- **Project Description**. Describe the project. Be sure to answer the criteria questions (1500 words): 

1. **Innovation:** Does the proposal offer a media product for disseminating innovative technology to the preservation community? (Weight 30%)
	- How does this product disseminate preservation technology?
	- How does the preservation community benefit from this product? 
	- Why is the choice of media (publication, mobile application, video) the most appropriate way to disseminate the information or gather resource data? 
	- Are there similar media products that are currently available to the public? How does the proposed media product differ? 
2. **National Need**: Does the proposal meet a national preservation need? (Weight 30%)
	- How does this project address a wide range of preservation needs?
	- How are the project results applicable to more than one cultural resource? 
3. **Audience**: Does the proposal identify the target audience and ways to reach that audience? (Weight 20%)
	- Who is the target audience for the product?
	- Provide a distribution plan to reach the target audience. 
4. **Costs**: Are the costs reasonable for the work to be performed? ￼(Weight 10%)
	- How do the benefits of the project relate to the proposed budget? 

- **Schedule**. Include schedule and project tasks. (500 words).
- **Deliverables**. Describe deliverables or products associated with project (500 words). 
- **Qualifications**. Summary of the expertise and project-related experience of the principal investigator (500 words) and of the research team (1000 words). 
- **Project Income**. If the project is expected to generate income, please indicate the nature and source of the income. How will these funds be used to offset costs for the project? 

## Local Preservation School: Project Description

### Introduction

Local Preservation School is an online open educational resource (OER) designed to teach historic preservation concepts, skills and practices to volunteer and professional preservation advocates. Over the next year, we plan to develop a collection of lessons, exercises, activities illustrated with interactive maps, quizzes, graphics and data visualizations that can be used by a diverse community of preservation advocates around the country as learning resources. Preservation professionals can also use (and customize) these same resources to teach interested individuals in their own communities about how to participate in historic preservation efforts in a variety of ways.

This proposal continues to explain how the Local Preservation School disseminates innovative technology, addresses a national need, identifies an audience (with a plan to reach them), and clearly justifies project costs. In summary:

1. This project disseminates a unique model for how GitHub, Jekyll and open-source web technologies can facilitate affordable, effective and collaborative preservation advocacy and education. Our planned educational resources include both lessons on how to use open-source tools for preservation (e.g. Omeka, Open Street Map, and geojson.io) and templates and guidelines for how teachers can create their own lessons with GitHub and Jekyll.
2. This project addresses a wide range of needs with a collaborative approach for content development—including professionals/volunteers from different cities and regions who have experience with wide variety of cultural resources. We seek to balance this broad and inclusive scope by envisioning a design and user experience that can allow any individual to customize their learning experience—matching beginners to introductory lessons or experienced advocates to advanced tutorials.
3. After a detailed review of existing online educational resources, we identified volunteer historic preservation advocates as the primary audience for the Local Preservation School resources—an audience we believe to be underserved by existing resources. We identified early to mid-career professionals working in fields related to historic preservation (tourism, community and economic development, urban planning, etc.) as a secondary audience—recognizing their role as frequent collaborators with volunteer and professional preservation advocates. Early to mid-career professionals working in historic preservation are a final audience for the project, serving as collaborators, contributors and advisors as we develop the course content and guidelines for teaching and collaboration.
4. The project funding requested under this grant proposal would support the addition of key partners to the project team, including an instructional designer with experience in online education and a web developer with open-source project management experience.<commit_msg>Update overview for NCPTT 2016 Media Grant application page<commit_after>---
layout: default
title: 2016 NCPTT Media Grant
permalink: /2016-ncptt-media-grant/
---

# NCPTT 2016 Media Grant Application

We are writing a grant application and a guide to writing grant applications at the same time! Check out [our blog post for why we are doing this]({{ site.url }}/blog/ncptt-media-grant-application/), review our instructions for how to apply for a grant, take a look at the requirements for the NCPTT 2016 Media Grant, or read our grant application in progress.

Please share your comments on our grant application tutorial or the draft grant application with [<NAME>](http://twitter.com/elipousson). You can also creating issues in this repo or fork this repo to contribute edits directly. This grant is due on **Tuesday, November 3, 2015**.

## How do you apply for a grant?

This guide assumes that you have a project first—which is a good idea. Coming up with a project just for a grant is not always a bad idea but it can cause problems—especially for small organizations. 

1. Find a grant opportunity
2. Read the description or announcement of the grant opportunity. There are several questions you need to answer before continuing:
  - Is my organization eligible to apply?
  - Is my project eligible?
  - When are applications due?
  - How do I apply?
  - How are they planning to review applications?
3. Read about the organization making the grant (optional). If you are not familiar with the grant-making organization, find and read their mission and core goals. It can sometimes be helpful to read about any listed staff members or board members to better understand what the organization does and who is helping to guide the organization's mission.
4. Contact a grant program administration by phone or email (optional but recommended). If you are still unsure if your project is suited to this grant opportunity, call or email a grant program administrator to discuss your project and any questions you may have. Grant administrators want to help you shape a competitive application!
5. Re-read the announcement and any related materials.
6. Create an outline based on the evaluation criteria for the grant narrative. Expand the outline with short descriptions or lists that explain how the proposed project meeting the requirements.
7. Draft a project summary. **:point_left: This is where we are at right now in preparing our 2016 NCPTT Media Grant application.**
8. Revise and expand the outline to fit within the limits on words or pages. Some online submission forms use character counts to limit the length of submissions so make sure you know how much space you are allowed to explain your project.
9. Share your draft with a friend, colleague or partner (or more than one) to read for feedback and edits. Pay special attention to the clarity of organization, maintaining a direct connection between the narrative and the grant criteria, as well as spelling and grammar. Small mistakes (like mispelling the name of a partner organization) can undermine the credibility of an otherwise compelling proposal.
10. Revise the narrative one last time based on the feedback you recieved.
11. Collect any additional attachments that may be required. Typical requirements include financial statements, resumes or CVs, 501c3 certification letters, etc. 
12. Submit your grant application!

One last step: send thank-you notes to anyone who helped you with the grant application and mark your calendar for the date when you expect you might hear back.

## How should we write the project abstract? Tell us about this project in 100 words or less

Here is what NCPTT says is required for the **abstract**:

> The abstract is a summary of proposed work suitable for dissemination to the public. It is limited to 100 words in length. The project abstract will be a file attachment in the application. Please create the file in Microsoft Word or Word compatible software.

## Local Preservation School: Project Abstract

I'm saving the trouble of writing the abstract until the end!

## How should we write the project narrative? Tell us about this project is 10 pages or less  

Here is what NCPTT says is required for the **narrative description**:

> The proposal is a narrative description that should specifically address each of the review criteria (see Section IV). The proposal text must be no longer than 10 pages, no smaller than font size 11, and have 1-inch margins. The 10-page limit includes all text, figures, references, and resumes (Forms SF-424, SF-424A, SF- 424B, project abstract, key contacts, and the statement of indirect charges are not counted as part of the 10 page limit).

Here is how NCPTT outlines the required content for the narrative description in  [How to Apply Quick Guide for 2016 NCPTT Media Grants](https://ncptt.nps.gov/download/36252/).

- **Project Title**. 
- **Discipline**. Include archeology, architecture, engineering, collections, historic landscapes, or materials conservation 
- **Project Description**. Describe the project. Be sure to answer the criteria questions (1500 words): 

1. **Innovation:** Does the proposal offer a media product for disseminating innovative technology to the preservation community? (Weight 30%)
	- How does this product disseminate preservation technology?
	- How does the preservation community benefit from this product? 
	- Why is the choice of media (publication, mobile application, video) the most appropriate way to disseminate the information or gather resource data? 
	- Are there similar media products that are currently available to the public? How does the proposed media product differ? 
2. **National Need**: Does the proposal meet a national preservation need? (Weight 30%)
	- How does this project address a wide range of preservation needs?
	- How are the project results applicable to more than one cultural resource? 
3. **Audience**: Does the proposal identify the target audience and ways to reach that audience? (Weight 20%)
	- Who is the target audience for the product?
	- Provide a distribution plan to reach the target audience. 
4. **Costs**: Are the costs reasonable for the work to be performed? ￼(Weight 10%)
	- How do the benefits of the project relate to the proposed budget? 

**Note:** Pay close attention to grant review criteria! It is always good to make this very explicit—don’t assume a grant reviewer will understand why your project is a good fit for a funding opportunity? You _always_ have to tell them.

- **Schedule**. Include schedule and project tasks. (500 words).
- **Deliverables**. Describe deliverables or products associated with project (500 words). 
- **Qualifications**. Summary of the expertise and project-related experience of the principal investigator (500 words) and of the research team (1000 words). 
- **Project Income**. If the project is expected to generate income, please indicate the nature and source of the income. How will these funds be used to offset costs for the project? 

## Local Preservation School: Project Description

### Introduction

Local Preservation School is an online open educational resource (OER) designed to teach historic preservation concepts, skills and practices to volunteer and professional preservation advocates. Over the next year, we plan to develop a collection of lessons, exercises, activities illustrated with interactive maps, quizzes, graphics and data visualizations that can be used by a diverse community of preservation advocates around the country as learning resources. Preservation professionals can also use (and customize) these same resources to teach interested individuals in their own communities about how to participate in historic preservation efforts in a variety of ways.

This proposal continues to explain how the Local Preservation School disseminates innovative technology, addresses a national need, identifies an audience (with a plan to reach them), and clearly justifies project costs. In summary:

1. This project disseminates a unique model for how GitHub, Jekyll and open-source web technologies can facilitate affordable, effective and collaborative preservation advocacy and education. Our planned educational resources include both lessons on how to use open-source tools for preservation (e.g. Omeka, Open Street Map, and geojson.io) and templates and guidelines for how teachers can create their own lessons with GitHub and Jekyll.
2. This project addresses a wide range of needs with a collaborative approach for content development—including professionals/volunteers from different cities and regions who have experience with wide variety of cultural resources. We seek to balance this broad and inclusive scope by envisioning a design and user experience that can allow any individual to customize their learning experience—matching beginners to introductory lessons or experienced advocates to advanced tutorials.
3. After a detailed review of existing online educational resources, we identified volunteer historic preservation advocates as the primary audience for the Local Preservation School resources—an audience we believe to be underserved by existing resources. We identified early to mid-career professionals working in fields related to historic preservation (tourism, community and economic development, urban planning, etc.) as a secondary audience—recognizing their role as frequent collaborators with volunteer and professional preservation advocates. Early to mid-career professionals working in historic preservation are a final audience for the project, serving as collaborators, contributors and advisors as we develop the course content and guidelines for teaching and collaboration.
4. The project funding requested under this grant proposal would support the addition of key partners to the project team, including an instructional designer with experience in online education and a web developer with open-source project management experience.
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