Teaching with Primary Sources - Regional Awards | 030ADV24R0029

Opportunity Information: Apply for 030ADV24R0029

The Library of Congress is offering the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Regional Awards to fund organizations that can serve as Regional Partners for the TPS program, the Librarys long-running education outreach effort focused on helping educators use digitized primary sources in teaching. At its core, TPS supports instructional materials, tools, and professional development that strengthen students literacy, critical thinking, subject-matter understanding, and research skills by grounding learning in original historical documents, images, recordings, and other primary sources from the Library of Congress. The program also aligns with the Librarys broader outreach strategy, positioning TPS partners as "connectors" who help bring Library resources and teaching approaches to educators and learners nationwide.

This funding opportunity is not primarily for classroom projects or individual teacher initiatives. Instead, it is aimed at identifying capable organizations to run a regional subaward program on the Librarys behalf. Since the TPS Regional Program was formally incorporated in 2018, Regional Partners have issued many small subawards (historically in the 5,000 to 25,000 range) to local and state education-related organizations. As of January 2024, the existing regional partners had already provided subawards to 511 organizations across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Those subawards have supported a wide variety of community-tailored efforts, such as reaching teachers in remote areas, linking local museum or archive collections to Library of Congress primary sources so learners can study events from both local and national perspectives, and helping youth from ethnic minority communities research and tell the story of their communities experiences in America using Library resources.

Under this Notice of Funding Opportunity, the Library is seeking proposals from organizations that want to become Regional Partners and take on the full administrative and programmatic workload of managing TPS (and LHI) regional subawards within a designated region. That includes promoting and marketing the program to educators and organizations, soliciting subaward proposals, assembling review panels, evaluating and selecting subawardees, issuing and processing subawards, monitoring performance, closing out subawards, and delivering required narrative and financial reporting back to the Library of Congress. Regional Partners are also expected to actively support and connect their regional awardees into the broader TPS community, keep track of educational trends in the states and territories they serve, and advise Library staff as the TPS Regional Program evolves. In practical terms, the Library is looking for partners with the credibility, relationships, and operational capacity to reach both large and small communities and to run a fair, well-documented, outcomes-oriented subgrant program.

Applicants must choose exactly one region to serve, and they must be prepared to serve all states and territories included in that region. The regions listed in the opportunity are Eastern, Midwest, Western, Southern, Great Plains, and U.S. Territories, with each region defined by specific states or territories in the notice. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, meaning recipients should expect active coordination with the Library of Congress rather than a hands-off grant relationship. The opportunity is listed under CFDA 42.010, with an award ceiling of 900,000 and an expected total of about six awards.

Eligibility is broad and includes many entity types such as state, county, and local governments; school districts; public and private colleges and universities; federally recognized tribal governments and certain tribal organizations; nonprofits (with or without 501(c)(3) status); for-profit entities (including small businesses); and other eligible organizations as defined in the notice. The notice also notes that collaborative partnerships are welcomed, for example pairing an organization with strong content expertise with a state or regional education entity that has established educator networks.

Applications must be submitted by email to tps-grant@loc.gov, and submissions through Grants.gov will not be accepted. The original closing date listed is October 2, 2024. Applicants are directed to the Related Documents section for the full requirements and evaluation criteria, and an amendment dated August 21, 2024 notes that a Proposal Narrative Template was added there to guide applicants in preparing their submission.

• The Library of Congress in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Teaching with Primary Sources - Regional Awards" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 42.010.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-08-20.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-10-02. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $900,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 6 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for 030ADV24R0029

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: