PILGRIM HALL MUSEUM GRANT WRITING

Operating on the assumption that you can never have TOO much to do, over the winter of 2013 I was also interning several days a week at Pilgrim Hall Museum. The Hall is partnered with Plimoth Plantation; although both cover the period of New England settlement in the 17th century, Pilgrim Hall focuses on the material culture and personal possessions of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony.

For about six months, I was the sole grant-writer on an application for funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. With such an impressive collection of artifacts and artwork, Pilgrim Hall Museum needed to carry out some assessments of its collections and the environment that they're stored in. I researched possible funding sources, wrote the application, and was the main point of contact between the museum and their professional partners in designing their grant program. This is an open and active grant, the results of which will be announced in December 2013.

The main thing I learned while grant-writing? When using Grants.gov or any other Federal website, create a schedule, block off your time that you THINK you'll need, and then give yourself an extra week. Just in case.