American Alliance of Museums
Deadline: There are two deadlines each year – July 1 and December 1.
Award Range: Services and materials valued at $4,000-$6,000.
Match Required: $750 (sliding scale participation fee).
The Museum Assessment Program (MAP) is a one year self-assessment program designed to help museums understand their strengths and weaknesses and strengthen their operations and meet the standards. MAP offers three different assessments including Organizational, Collections Stewardship and Community Engagement.
American Council for Learned Societies
Deadline: Annually in January. Exact 2019 date TBA.
Award Range: Varies; capped at $150,000.
Match Required: none.
ACLS Digital Extension Grant Program supports digitally based research projects in all disciplines of the humanities and related social sciences. It is hoped that these grants will help advance humanistic scholarship by enhancing established digital projects, extending their reach to new communities of users, and supporting teams of scholars at all career stages as they participate in digital research projects.
Conservation Center for Art and Historical Artifacts
Risk Assessment and Emergency Preparedness Program
Deadline: Annually in March. Exact 2019 date TBA.
Award Range: Services values at more than $5,000.
Match Required: $350 per institution.
Through funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), CCAHA is able to offer a limited number of subsidized risk assessments. Institutions selected to participate will receive a site visit from a CCAHA preservation expert. The assessor will spend one full day on-site at the institution. The institution will first receive a written Risk Assessment report. Then, CCAHA staff will work with staff at the institutions to develop a full Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan for the collections.
Preservation Needs Assessment Program
Deadline: Annually in March. Exact 2019 date TBA.
Award Range: Services values at more than $5,000.
Match Required: $350 per institution.
Through funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), CCAHA is able to offer a limited number of subsidized preservation needs assessments. Institutions selected to participate will receive a site visit from a CCAHA preservation expert consisting of a review of the site, an examination of the collections, and interviews with relevant staff. The CCAHA assessor will spend one full day on-site at the institution. The institution will also receive a written report providing observations, recommendations, and resources to serve as a guide in the development of a comprehensive preservation plan for the collections. The report can become a valuable tool for institutional strategic planning and fundraising.
Council on Library and Information Resources
Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives
Deadline: TBA for 2018.
Award Range: $50,000-$250,000 for single-institution projects and up to $500,000 for collaborative projects.
Match Required: None. However, applicants are advised that reviewers consider cost sharing as one indicator of institutional support when evaluating the proposal.
Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives grants supports projects that facilitate innovative scholarship in the digital research environment; digitize collections; promote strategic partnerships; support best practices to ensure the longevity of digital content; and facilitate open public access to digital collections.
Deadline: June 29, 2018 for fourth (and last) call for proposals.
Award Range: $5,000-$50,000.
Match Required: None.
Recordings at Risk is focused on digitally reformatting “at-risk” audio and audiovisual materials of high scholarly value.
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Deadline: February 1, 2018.
Award Range: $3,900 per assessor.
Match Required: Museum will be required to pay remaining fees related to assessment that exceed $3,900 cap per assessor.
The CAP program provides small and mid-sized museums with partial funding toward a general conservation assessment. The assessment is a study of all of the institution’s collections, buildings, and building systems, as well as its policies and procedures relating to collections care. Participants who complete the program receive an assessment report with prioritized recommendations to improve collections care. CAP is often a first step for small institutions that wish to improve the condition of their collections.
Deadline: December 1, 2017.
Award Range: $5,000-$500,000 (up to 3 years).
Match Required: None (for requests up to $25,000) ; 1:1 (for requests over $25,000).
Museums for America supports projects that strengthen the ability of an individual museum to serve its public. Project categories include: (1) Learning Experiences: projects that position museums as teaching and inquiry-focused institutions within today’s formal and informal learning ecosystem; (2) Community Anchors: projects that strengthen museums’ capacities for civic engagement; and (3) Collections Stewardship: projects that help the museum field address state-of-the-art collections care and collections-information management, curation, preventive conservation, conservation treatments, database creation and enhancement, digitization, and the use of digital tools to facilitate discovery and deepen engagement with museum collections.
National Leadership Grants for Museums
Deadline: December 1, 2017.
Award Range: $5,000-$1,000,000 (up to 3 years).
Match Required: 1:1 (non-federal sources).
National Leadership Grants for Museums support projects that address critical needs of the museum field and that have the potential to advance practice in the profession so that museums can improve services for the American public. Project categories include: (1) Learning Experiences: projects that position museums as teaching and inquiry-focused institutions within today’s formal and informal learning ecosystem; (2) Community Anchors: projects that strengthen museums’ capacities for civic engagement; and (3) Collections Stewardship: projects that help the museum field address state-of-the-art collections care and collections-information management, curation, preventive conservation, conservation treatments, database creation and enhancement, digitization, and the use of digital tools to facilitate discovery and deepen engagement with museum collections (includes cross-collaboration with libraries).
National Center for Preservation Technology and Training
Preservation Technology and Training
Deadline: Annually in January. Exact 2019 date TBA.
Award Range: $5,000-$40,000.
Match Required: None.
2017 Preservation Technology and Training (PTT) Grants are intended to create better tools, better materials, and better approaches to conserving buildings, landscapes, sites, and collections. PTT Grants will support the following activities: (1) Innovative research that develops new technologies or adapts existing technologies to preserve cultural resources (typically $25,000 to $40,000); (2) Specialized workshops or symposia that identify and address national preservation needs (typically $15,000 to $25,000); (3) How-to videos, mobile applications, podcasts, best practices publications, or webinars that disseminate practical preservation methods or provide better tools for preservation practice (typically $5,000 to $15,000). Grants are not for brick and mortar projects.
National Endowment for the Arts
Deadline: TBA for 2018.
Award Range: $10,000-$100,000. Average grant award is less than $25,000.
Match Required: 1:1 (non-federal).
ART WORKS: Museums provides support for exhibitions, care of collections, conservation, commissions, public art works, community engagement, education activities, and other museum work.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Deadline: June 5, 2018.
Award Range: Up to $325,000 (for up to 3 years).
Match Required: None.
Digital Humanities Advancement Grants (DHAG) support digital projects throughout their lifecycles, from early start-up phases through implementation and long-term sustainability. DHAG may involve: (1) creating or enhancing experimental, computationally-based methods or techniques that contribute to the humanities; (2) pursuing scholarship that examines the history, criticism, and philosophy of digital culture and its impact on society, or explores the philosophical or practical implications and impact of digital humanities in specific fields or disciplines; or (3) revitalizing and/or recovering existing digital projects that promise to contribute substantively to scholarship, teaching, or public knowledge of the humanities.
Deadline: September 18, 2018.
Award Range: Research Projects – up to $150,000 (for up to 3 years). Fellowships – up to $50,400 (for up to 12 months).
Match Required: None.
The Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) program is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop and advance knowledge concerning endangered human languages. Awards support fieldwork and other activities relevant to recording, documenting, and archiving endangered languages, including the preparation of lexicons, grammars, text samples, and databases.
Humanities Collections & Reference Resources
Deadline: July 19, 2018.
Award Range: Up to $350,000 for up to 3 years.
Match Required: None.
Humanities Collections and Reference Resources offer planning and implementation funding that supports efforts to extend the useful life of humanities collections and to make them more accessible to the public.
Deadline: September 13, 2017.
Award Range: $50,000-$100,000 (up to three years).
Match Required: None.
Humanities Open Book Program supports projects that provide expansive public access to outstanding out-of-print humanities books using “ebook” technology.
Deadline: August 1, 2018.
Award Range: Up to $500,000 (for up to four years).
Match Required: 3:1 (non-federal sources).
The mission of this Challenge Grants program is to strengthen the institutional base of the humanities by enabling infrastructure development and capacity building. Grants aim to help institutions secure long-term support for their core activities and expand efforts to preserve and create access to outstanding humanities materials.
Deadline: January 10, 2019.
Award Range: Up to $325,000 (two-year period).
Match Required: None.
NEH is soliciting proposals from institutions to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP is creating a national digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922, from all the states and U.S. territories.
Deadline: May 1, 2018.
Award Range: $100,000 (each year, up to two years).
Match Required: None.
Preservation and Access Education and Training grants are awarded to organizations that offer national or regional (multistate) education and training programs. Grants aim to help the staff of cultural institutions, large and small, obtain the knowledge and skills needed to serve as effective stewards of humanities collections. Grants also support educational programs that prepare the next generation of conservators and preservation professionals, as well as projects that introduce the staff of cultural institutions to new information and advances in preservation and access practices.
Deadline: May 1, 2018.
Award Range: Up to $6,000 (for 18 months).
Match Required: None.
Preservation Assistance Grants help small and mid-sized institutions—such as libraries, museums, historical societies, archival repositories, cultural organizations, town and county records offices, and colleges and universities—improve their ability to preserve and care for their significant humanities collections. These may include special collections of books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, architectural and cartographic records, decorative and fine art objects, textiles, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, furniture, historical objects, and digital materials. Applicants must draw on the knowledge of consultants whose preservation skills and experience are related to the types of collections and the nature of the activities on which their projects focus.
Deadline: June 7, 2018.
Award Range: Tier I (planning and basic research) – up to $75,000 for up to 2 years. Tier II (advanced implementation) – up to $350,000 for up to 3 years.
Match Required: None.
Research & Development grants support projects that offer innovative solutions to the significant challenges faced in preserving or accessing humanities collections and resources. All projects must demonstrate how advances in preservation and access would benefit the cultural heritage community in supporting humanities research, teaching, or public programming.
Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections
Deadline: December 5, 2017.
Award Range: Planning grants (up to $40,000); Implementation grants (up to $350,000).
Match Required: None.
Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections helps cultural institutions meet the complex challenge of preserving large and diverse holdings of humanities materials for future generations by supporting sustainable conservation measures that mitigate deterioration, prolong the useful life of collections, and support institutional resilience: the ability to anticipate and respond to natural and man-made disasters.
Deadline: December 5, 2018.
Award Range: $50,000-$100,000 (up to three years).
Match Required: None.
Scholarly Editions and Translations grants support the preparation of editions and translations of pre-existing texts of value to the humanities that are currently inaccessible or available in inadequate editions. Typically, the texts and documents are significant literary, philosophical, and historical materials; but other types of work, such as musical notation, are also eligible.
National Historical Publications & Records Commission
Access to Historical Records – Archival Projects
Deadline: Annually in October. Exact 2018 date TBA.
Award Range: Up to $100,000 (up to two years).
Match Required: At least 25%.
The Access to Historical Records – Archival Projects grants program All types of historical records are eligible, including documents, photographs, born-digital records, and analog audio and moving images. Projects may preserve and process historical records to: (1) Create new online Finding Aids to collections, and (2) Digitize historical records collections and make them freely available online.
Deadline: First Deadline: January 18, 2018 (Preliminary Proposal). Second Deadline: July 11, 2018 (Full Proposal)
Award Range: Up to $350,000 (one to three years).
Match Required: At least 50%.
The Access to Historical Records – Major Initiatives grant program All types of historical records are eligible, including documents, photographs, born-digital records, and analog audio and moving images. Projects may: (1) Digitize historical records collections, or related collections, held by a single institution and make them freely available online; (2) Provide access to born-digital records; (3) Create new freely-available virtual collections drawn from historical records held by multiple institutions; and (4) Create new tools and methods for users to access records.
Deadline: Annually in October. Exact 2018 date TBA.
Award Range: $50,000 to $150,000 (up to 3 years).
Match Required: 50% of total direct project costs.
Public Engagement with Historical Records grants support create models and technologies that other institutions can freely adopt. Projects might create and develop programs to engage people in the study and use of historical records for institutional, educational or personal reasons. For example, an applicant can: (1) Enlist volunteer “citizen archivists” in projects to accelerate access to historical records, especially those online. This may include, but is not limited to, efforts to identify, tag, transcribe, annotate, or otherwise enhance digitized historical records; and (2) Develop educational programs for K-12 students or community members that encourage them to engage with historical records already in repositories or that are collected as part of the project.
Deadline: Round 1: June 14, 2017. Round 2: October 5, 2017.
Award Range: Up to $200,000 (for one year).
Match Required: 50%.
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission seeks proposals to publish documentary editions of historical records. Projects may focus on the papers of major figures from American history or cover broad historical movements in politics, military, business, social reform, the arts, and other aspects of the national experience.
National Park Service
Deadline: Annually in February. Exact 2019 date TBA.
Award range: $25,000 – $500,000.
Match Required: 1:1.
SAT grants provide preservation and/or conservation assistance to nationally significant historic properties and collections. Grants will be administered by the National Park Service in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund for Historic Interiors
Deadline: TBA for 2018.
Award Range: $2,500-$10,000 for 1 year.
Match Required: 1:1 (cash only).
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund for Historic Interiors is intended to assist in the preservation, restoration, and interpretation of historic interiors. Eligible activities include: obtaining professional expertise in areas such as architecture, planning, paint analysis, archaeology, or graphic design; hiring a preservation architect to create an interior restoration plan; hiring a consultant to develop a conservation plan for an interior’s textiles; producing a historic furnishings plan; and sponsoring a workshop on the preservation of historic interiors.
Johanna Favrot Fund for Historic Preservation
Deadline: TBA for 2018.
Award Range: $2,500-$10,000 for 1 year.
Match Required: 1:1 (cash only).
Johanna Favrot Fund for Historic Preservation is intended to save historic environments in order to foster an appreciation of our nation’s diverse cultural heritage and to preserve and revitalize the livability of the nation’s communities. Eligible activities include: obtaining the services of consultants with expertise in areas such as architecture, planning, economics, archaeology, fundraising, media relations, education or graphic design; obtaining professional advice to strengthen management capabilities; designing, producing and marketing print and video communications materials; sponsoring preservation conferences and workshops; and designing and implementing innovative preservation and education programs.