IH: Activate History Micro-Grants Program

Overview

_NOTE: This grant cycle opens Jan 21, 2025 and remains open until October 1 or when funds are expended._

About Us

Illinois Humanities, the Illinois affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, is a statewide nonprofit organization that activates the humanities through free public programs, grants, and educational opportunities that foster reflection, spark conversation, build community, and strengthen civic engagement. We provide free, high-quality humanities experiences throughout Illinois, particularly for communities of color, individuals living on low incomes, counties and towns in rural areas, small arts and cultural organizations, and communities highly impacted by mass incarceration.

Activate History Micro-Grants Program

Activate History micro-grants provide $750 project-based grants to enable those who maintain local collections of various kinds (archives, texts, photos, stories, and more) to explore creative ways for community members to become more engaged with them. We see this work as encouraging individual curiosity and connections to local history; as celebrating the efforts of amateur and other local historians; and as an avenue for growing the outreach efforts of local collections– all of which helps bolster community identity. Illinois Humanities has designed this micro-grants program to be accessible with a quick turnaround, in response to the dearth of available funds for individuals and smaller entities to host discussions on history and related matters.

Funding

* The Activate History micro-grants are for $750 each.
* Applicants can request up to $150 in additional support to help make their events more accessible to audience participants, particularly those with physical disabilities, as well as an additional $100 for documentation of the project (say hiring a photographer to cover a key event, for example). This might include such features as American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation, Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART), but can also include other resources such as providing transportation to and from events for those who need it.

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._

* The Activate History micro-grants program funds creative interpretation and dialogue that is meant to attract attention to local collections, texts, and stories of regional significance.
* Any nonprofit, church, school, government entity, library, museum and/or individual can apply.
* Either the applicant, the theme to be explored, or the audience addressed should be focused on Illinois.
* Funding can be used for leading conversations, for activating a space through an event, and for artistic interpretation of collections.
* Illinois Humanities is using a broad definition of an archive or collection.
* We see the archive, whether physical or electronic, as an everyday tool that encourages collective memory.
* The aim is to engage audiences with archives that have never been seen before, presenting an existing archive in a way that is original or fresh, or bringing in audiences that usually don’t have access.
* Funding is for stewards or other collaborators.
* Support can be for research and digitization provided they are part of an engagement strategy.
* Event or activity must happen within 6 months of the application deadline.
* Programs can be held virtually, in-person, or in a hybrid format.

Ineligibility

* We do not fund:
* Activities that promote a specific political position or ideology
* Alcoholic beverages
* Businesses, for-profits
* Capital projects (i.e., renovation or purchase of buildings or land)
* Endowment contributions
* Foreign travel
* General operating (though indirect costs can be included in project budgets)
* Lobbying
* Major equipment purchases (though equipment to assist a specific program is admissible)
* Out-of-state programs that have no specific relevance or thematic connection people in Illinois (though technically a grant recipient or fiscal agent can be located elsewhere in the U.S.)
* Programming that falls outside of the humanities
* Social services (though a social services agency may apply for funding of a humanities project)