CSA Angels Project

Institutions applying for a grant must meet the following requirements:

• Be a small museum, historical society, historic house or sites, or other similar institution;
• Have a collection of tangible costume objects;
• Have a very limited budget ($350,000 or less) and staff (5 or fewer) to support the costume collection who perform multiple responsibilities;
• Utilize volunteers to perform key staff functions;
• Be a non-profit organization as recognized under IRS Section 501;
• Be regularly open to the public for a minimum of forty days a year;
• Have a work space large enough to accommodate the Angels on the workday;
• Propose a project relating to maintaining the costume and textile collection;
• Be located within a forty-five minute drive of the CSA symposium hotel:
• To accept a grant, an institution must be or become a Library (formerly Institutional) or Museum and Association Member of the CSA or have an active staff member who is an Individual CSA Member.

A CSA Angels Project Grant is intended to make a dramatic beneficial impact on the receiving institution’s costume collection. Applications will be evaluated on:

• High impact of the project on the collection’s well-being and mission;
• Significance of the collection;
• Feasibility of the project in terms of resources, location, timeline and personnel to carry it out.

A complete application must be uploaded as one (1) pdf file under 100 MB using this online submission form and include the following documents in listed order:

• Contact Information
• Project Proposal (1000 words) including:

1. Brief description of the project;
2. Brief description of the institution, including institutional history, the institutional mission, budget, and the paid and unpaid staff (reported as full-time equivalents, i.e. half-time, quarter-time, etc.);
3. Description of the institutional holdings, especially the size and scope of the costume and textile collection and its relationship to the institutional mission;
4. Summary of what, if anything, has been done with the costume collection in terms of cataloguing, care and storage, research, interpretation, exhibition, and publication;
5. Roster of the personnel who work with the collection;
6. Reasoning for the proposed project (include specific information about the costume objects to which it pertains);
7. Rationale of the how the proposed project will impact the institution, detailing why the institution needs this grant and how the project meets the costume collection’s most pressing needs.

• Budget Numbers & Narrative. If equipment or supplies are requested, list what they are and how they will be used.  List the requested items, suppliers, quantity, costs, and totals.
• Copy of your institution’s most recent IRS Form 990/990-EZ.
• Any relevant documentation and supporting material.

The application deadline is October 1, 2025. Receipt of applications will be acknowledged within one week. Qualified applicants will be notified after October 15, 2025.  After that date, there will be a visit, virtual or onsite, before a recipient is chosen by the Angels Project Leadership Committee.

Recipient must publicly acknowledge CSA in all lectures, publications, publicity pertaining to the award.

The grant committee will review the applications and select a short list of candidates. Institutions may be asked to clarify or refine their applications if necessary, working with the grant committee to ensure their applications if necessary, working with the grant committee to ensure their proposed project is feasible, conservationally sound and meets the collection’s most pressing needs. An onsite visit is conducted when possible. A final evaluation will then be done and the grant committee will select the grant recipient.

The Angel Project leadership will report to the Board the accomplished work.