[Canada Wide] DIGITAL MUSEUMS CANADA LAUNCHES CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR FUNDING

The Digital Museums Canada (DMC) investment program helps build digital capacity in Canadian museums and heritage, cultural and Indigenous organizations, and gives people living in Canada unique access to diverse stories and experiences.

Funding is provided for organizations seeking to develop an online project from the ground up, in collaboration with a web development agency of their choice.

Online projects should be centred around telling a story, exploring a collection, or sharing the history, culture and/or traditions of a community. As such, initiatives such as institutional websites, databases, photobooks, etc. are not eligible. Each online project must be conceived with a specific target audience in mind, and the user experience must be developed around that audience.

Online projects must be presented in both English and French, but may also incorporate other languages. They must also be user-centric and fully accessible to all users, without a requirement for specialized equipment.

Sample projects include virtual exhibitions, virtual tours, online games, web apps, educational resources, and more.

Program Objectives

DMC supports Canadian museums, and heritage, cultural or Indigenous organizations, in:

• telling the stories, past and present, of communities across Canada;
• sharing access to collections across all disciplines;
• promoting digital capacity-building for organizations;
• strengthening their online presence; and
• encouraging people living in Canada to share their heritage with other

Organizational Eligibility

To apply for DMC funding, eligible organizations must satisfy Part 1: Primary Purpose and Mandate and Part 2: Legal Status.

PART 1: PRIMARY PURPOSE AND MANDATE

The organization MUST be a:

1. Museum, heritage, cultural or Indigenous* organization that is:

• established and operating in Canada; and
• 
  
• managing a physical establishment or site open to the public, OR providing programming to the public in various locations or via a website.

Examples of eligible organizations include: museums, archives, aquariums, art galleries, artist-run centres, botanical gardens, cultural centres, historic sites, historical societies, Indigenous organizations, planetariums, zoos, etc.

*Indigenous organizations must be mandated to support and/or preserve Indigenous culture.

AND

2. The primary purpose of the organization, as articulated in its mandate, MUST be to engage the public in at least four of the following areas:**

• exhibitions
• 
  
• programming
• research
• collections
• preservation
• documentation
• dissemination

Organizations will be asked to provide their mandate statement.

**This includes artistic, scientific, cultural, traditional and historical material. Collections may consist of physical objects and/or intangible cultural heritage.

PART 2: LEGAL STATUS

At the time of submitting a proposal (on or before December 1), the applicant organization must have been in existence for at least 1 year, and be one or more of the following:

1. A registered charity.

According to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), a registered charity is a corporate body or trust that is registered under the Income Tax Act and is able to issue tax receipts to donors for income tax purposes.

OR

2. A federally or provincially incorporated not-for-profit (NPO). 

According to the CRA, to be considered an NPO, no part of the organization’s income may be payable to, or available for, the personal benefit of any proprietor, member or shareholder of the organization.

OR

3. An Indigenous nation, group or organization that operates similarly to a not-for-profit and supports Indigenous heritage and culture.

OR

4. A municipal, provincial or band heritage organization, or university-affiliated organization.

The organization must operate independently, at arms-length, and have a clear mandate, staff and governance structure.

Prior to beginning the proposal, organizations unsure of their eligibility are invited to contact proposals@digitalmuseums.ca to clarify their status. The deadline to submit an eligibility review is November 10. DMC will respond by November 17.

Should the organization decide to proceed with a proposal prior to an eligibility review by DMC, they agree to acknowledge that the organization may not qualify for DMC funding, and that the proposal may be rejected on the basis of eligibility.

Note: Any organization previously funded by DMC that wishes to submit a proposal in this year’s Call for Proposals must have completed any existing DMC-funded projects prior to the deadline of December 1. This means that a new proposal may not be submitted if a previously funded project is still in development.

DMC reserves the right to request proof of eligibility at any time during the proposal-review process, and to make its own determination on eligibility.