Progress

1. Applicant details

Before completing this form, please read the grant guidance which is available on the Museum Development South East website.

You can preview all the questions by downloading a copy of the application form, but please do not use it to apply. If you are unable to use this form for technical reasons please email us at admin@mdse.org.uk.

The grant is available to any eligible museum within our region.

We do not fund:

activity that has already been delivered, commissioned or ordered
permanent staff salaries (although we will consider requests to 'backfill' roles if it is integral to the delivery of the project)
general operating costs
contingency
internal admin and management fees to support the delivery of the project
hospitality costs over 10% of the grant total

For more information about our funding criteria, deadlines, assessment procedures and advice on how to complete the application, please read our Grant Guidance document, which is available to download from the Grants page on our website.

The grant award for this scheme is between £500 and £4000.

Talk to us

It is a requirement that you talk to your Museum Development Officer before submitting your grant application at least 7 days before the deadline. This is to help improve the quality of your application, and improve your chances of success. They will sit on the assessment panel to provide more context to your application.

Terms and Conditions

As part of our funding Terms and Conditions, we ask our grant recipients to:

acknowledge Museum Development South East, Arts Council England and Art Fund in publicity material associated with the funded activity, using approved branding and logos.
complete the proposed activity no later than 12 months of receiving the grant contract.
submit a Grant Report to MDSE no later than 12 months of receiving the grant contract.
participate in the upcoming Annual Museum Survey commissioned by Museum Development England.

Failure to uphold the T&Cs may affect your museum's chance of securing further grants from MDSE for up to 12 months.

These grants are funded by Arts Council England and Art Fund.

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Please provide the name of the person responsible for this grant application

Name:

Role/Job Title:

Phone:

Email:

Your Museum

Museum Name:

Address:

County:

Postcode:

Name of Governing Body (if different from museum name)

Please add your Accreditation Number or your Working Towards Accreditation (WTA) reference (each museum venue will have a reference number). The number will normally be a 3 or 4 digit number while a WTA reference will start with T. If you do not know your reference number you can find the latest list of Accredited museums with their numbers here at the Arts Council England website.

Is your organisation volunteer run and operated (you don't regularly employ staff)?

Yes

Does your organization operate more than one museum at different sites?

Yes

What is the size of your Museum? You will have recorded your visitor figures via the museum development annual museum survey last year.

micro (less than 10,000 visitors per year)

small-medium (between 10,000 and 50,000 visitors)

large-largest (more than 50,000)

Please choose one theme which your application broadly addresses. If you are unsure which theme to select please consult your local museum development officer.

Collections Care & Management: Grants in this category will include projects relating to improving the quality of the management of collections. Funds could be used : to support review and rationalisation; emergency planning; storage and packing materials; collections management systems; transport or removal costs; or conservation and condition reporting; digital engagement of your collection.

Organisational Development and fundraising: Grants in this category will include projects relating to strategic business planning and improvement. Funds could be used to support work with trustee boards; strategic reviews or forward planning; professional finance or charity law support; fundraising or income generation work.

Workforce & Volunteer Development: Grants in this category will include projects relating to personal and professional growth. Funds could be used to support volunteer recruitment and management work; using digital technology to support engagement and volunteering; addressing skills gaps or wellbeing initiatives.

Audiences and inclusion: Grants in this category will include projects related to audiences and engagement. There may be a focus on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, access or placemaking. The aim is to make museum activity more inclusive for a wide range of people or collections more relevant to a particular audience

Environmental Responsibility: Grants in this category will include projects that support the creation and implementation of green initiatives. Funds could be used to carry out audits, surveys or benchmarking reports; efforts to reduce your organisation’s carbon emissions; more environmentally friendly equipment and systems, support projects that engage your audiences with issues relating to climate change using your collections or developing and implementing climate action plans.

Project Title (up to 150 characters)

How much funding are you asking MDSE for?

If your museum is VAT registered, please calculate your costs excluding VAT. You can add more details about your project costings later in the application form.

Please provide a very brief description about the project you wish the grant to support (max 50 words). This will form part of your grant award contract, and the information from this question will be shared with the Arts Council.

You can include information about the need for the project on the next page