National Leadership Grants for Libraries

Overview

• Type

  Grant

• Title

  National Leadership Grants for Libraries

• Source

  Institute of Museum and Library Services

• Federal or State

  Federal

• Total Amount

  $11,500,000

• Number of Awards

  45

• Award Range

  $25,000 - $1,000,000

• Cost Share

  Yes

• Status

  Active

Topics

Buildings & Infrastructure

Resilience

Eligibility

• Audience

  Education, Nonprofits

• Sector

  Buildings & Infrastructure, Resilience

• Activity

  Education & Outreach, Planning, Research & Development

• Eligibility

  Eligibility is restricted to organizations that are:

  • Located in the United States or any U.S. Territories or Freely Associated States; AND
  • A unit of a State, local or Tribal government or a private, nonprofit organization; AND
  • One of seven types of qualifying organizations:

  1. A library or a parent organization, such as a school district, a municipality, a State agency, or an academic institution, that is responsible for the administration of a library;

  2. An academic or administrative unit, such as a graduate school of library and information science that is part of an institution of higher education through which it applies;

  3. A digital library or archives, if it makes materials publicly available and provides library or archival services, including selection, organization, description, reference, and preservation, under the supervision of at least one permanent professional staff librarian/archivist;

  4. A library or archival agency that is an official agency of a State, Tribal, or other unit of government and is charged by the law governing it with the extension and development of public library and archives services within its jurisdiction;

  5. A library or archives consortium that is a local, statewide, regional, interstate, or international cooperative association of library or archives entities that provides for the systematic and effective coordination of the resources of eligible libraries or archives, as defined above, and information centers that work to improve the services delivered to the clientele of these libraries or archives;

  6. A library or archives association that exists on a permanent basis; primarily serves libraries, archives, or library or archival professionals on a national, regional, state, or local level; and engages in activities designed to advance the well-being of libraries, archives, and the library, and archives professions; or

  7. A nonprofit organization affiliated with a library or archives whose sole mission includes supporting the specified library or archives, has the ability to administer the project, and can comply with the terms of this NOFO and applicable laws, including the IMLS Assurances and Certifications. We require that you provide an agreement from the library or archives that details the activities the applicant and library will perform and binds the library to the statements and assurances in the application.

• Location

  National

Application Process

• Application Link

  https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/363766

• Pre-Application?

  No

• Requirements

  Award Amount and Cost Share Requirement: Award amounts and cost share requirements are as follows:

  Project Type	Award Amount	Cost Share Requirement
  Planning Grants	$75,000 to $200,000	No cost share required.
  Forum Grants	$75,000 to $200,000	No cost share required.
  Community-Centered Implementation Grants	$25,000 to $100,000	No cost share required.
  National Implementation Grants	$75,000 to $1,000,000	Requests of more than $299,999 in IMLS funds require at least 1:1 cost share from non-federal sources.
  Applied Research Grants	$75,000 to $750,000	No cost share required.

  Cost sharing is not considered in the review of applications but is an eligibility criterion for certain NLG-L project types. See the Notice of Funding Opportunity for further information on cost share.

  Grant Period: One to two years for Planning Grants, Forum Grants, and Community-Centered Implementation Grants. One to three years for National Implementation Grants and Applied Research Grants.

  Please refer to the full NOFO for further requirements: Search Results Detail | Grants.gov

• Disbursement Method

  Reimbursement

Important Dates

• Application Open Date

  Sep 1, 2026

• Application Close Date

  Nov 13, 2026

• Open Date

  Sep 1, 2026

• Period of Performance Start

  Aug 1, 2027

• Period of Performance End

  Jul 31, 2030

• Publish Date

  Sep 1, 2026

Resources & Contacts

• Contact

  Program Contact: If you have questions, please contact imls-librarygrants@imls.gov

• Resources

  Applicant Webinar: We invite you to watch a pre-application webinar  to learn more about the grant program.

  National Leadership Grants for Libraries | Institute of Museum and Library Services