Outreach Grants

The Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC) offers awards of up to $1,000 to support projects and activities that improve public understanding of conservation and support under resourced institutions in meeting their collection care needs.

This could include collaborating with an institution on rehousing of collections or giving a public lecture to help advance awareness of the conservation field. Priority will be given to projects and programming that develop community awareness of conservation, engage media coverage of conservation activities, and create connections between conservation practitioners and allied practitioners and/or the public. This funding opportunity is open to creative and innovative projects, but is not intended to support focused conservation treatment, large scale initiatives such as a collections assessment or ongoing programming, or activities at the AIC Annual Meeting.

Submission Deadline: February 15 or September 15

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• We will notify awardees six to eight weeks after the deadline. Projects and programming should take place six weeks to twelve months after the application deadline.
• Partnering organizations may include historic houses, museums, libraries, archives, or cultural organizations. 
• Funding may be used to help defray organizational costs, necessary materials and supplies, travel costs, honoraria, site fees, and other expenses such as marketing and publicity.
• Successful projects and programming include local and regional publicity such as television, newspaper, and magazine coverage to publicize the need for conservation, collections care, and preservation. All publicity and news releases must recognize FAIC’s financial support.

Criteria for Review

• Feasibility of project (reasonableness of budget, organization’s ability to publicize, etc.)
• Urgency of project
• Financial need of project/program team or partnering institution(s)
• Level of commitment demonstrated from team and/or partnering institution(s)
• Project or program team’s capability and capacity to convey information about conservation and meet all stated goals
• Ability to publicize project to raise awareness of conservation among the public and/or within institution and community
• Number of people reached, other projected outcomes

Application Process

Applications are submitted through our online application portal. When you enter the portal, you will be prompted to login to the system using a login ID and password. If you already have an account (this should be the case if you are an AIC member or have participated in an AIC or FAIC program), use the same login information you use to access that account. If you do not have an account in the system, you can quickly set one up before you begin your application.

  The online form will take you through the three sections of the application:

1. Description (site information, letter of commitment from site director, project description)
2. Coordinator information (names, contact information, and letters of commitment from Project Coordinator and Site Coordinator)
3. Budget information (project costs and FAIC funding request)

You can save and return to your application later to complete it. When you are satisfied with your responses, “save and finalize” to submit your application. Once you have submitted the application, you cannot return to edit the form.

A committee reviews applications and makes recommendations to the FAIC board for final approval. Reviewers will follow the Reviewer Guidelines and an established evaluation rubric based on the criteria for review to evaluate all applications. We notify awardees six to eight weeks after the deadline. Projects should take place six weeks to twelve months after the application deadline.

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Final Report

The Project Coordinator must submit a final report and the Site Coordinator must submit a site evaluation form within 60 days of the event directly to funding@culturalheritage.org.

The final report should include:

• Information on what worked, what could have been done better and how any programming or project activities were publicized.
• Images from any programming or project activities, showing participants and/or attendees
• A summary of expenses and sources of revenue for the project.
• Copies of publicity materials, such as news articles or flyers/listserv postings.
• If appropriate, copies of project documentation, which could include conservation report summaries and brief photo documentation.
• Any participants or attendees should be given an opportunity to evaluate their experience through a feedback or evaluation form. Their evaluation should be included in the final report.