The Council of State Archivists (CoSA) is excited to announce the continued support of our mission from the Mellon Foundation in the amount of $900,000 to be spent over four years. These funds will extend the work of our previous planning project to implement the recommendations of the State and Territorial Archives Data Aggregation Implementation Grant (2023-2025). Implementation will also encompass strategic planning for CoSA's organizational sustainability, further support our website migration and data management for internal tracking, and comprehensive restructuring of the current Resource Center to be more functional and accessible. Among the project's goals are:

• a customized member management system;
• a well-structured Resource Center to facilitate more refined searching and linking;
• visualization of the conditions and practices of state and territorial government archives in the United States;
• enhanced collaboration and knowledge-sharing among and between the CoSA community, other government agencies, researchers, and mission-adjacent professionals; and 
• implementation of a plan for continuous improvement and sustainability of the Resource Center through active maintenance and user feedback.

The work also aligns with CoSA’s next strategic planning cycle and will allow for professional support to facilitate the process and consider issues of internal organizational alignment to best achieve mission impact. The project will involve increasing staffing support, contracting an individual for the next iteration of the Archives and Records Management Survey (ARM 2.0), and hiring a contractor for 18+ months to develop and refine the website and resource center, followed by an additional 18+ months to transition to a contractor or employee responsible for the maintenance and growth of the Resource Center.

"This funding comes at a critical time in CoSA's overall organizational development and builds on many important projects that came before," said Executive Director Joy Banks. "This level of support emphasizes the importance of state and territorial government archives, launching CoSA into a new period of member engagement that is driven by integrated data and technology. Our outcomes will reshape how CoSA assists our members and facilitates our research and advocacy work."

Subscribe to CoSA's Job Board for upcoming announcements about available consultant positions.

About CoSA

The Council of State Archivists (CoSA) is a nonprofit membership organization of the state and territorial government archives in the fifty states, five territories, and District of Columbia. Through collaborative research, education, and advocacy, CoSA provides leadership that strengthens and supports state and territorial archives in their work to preserve and provide access to government records. CoSA facilitates networking, information sharing, and project collaboration among its member organizations to help state and territorial government archives with their responsibilities for protecting the rights and historical documents of the American people.

About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.