SC Humanities: Major Grants

Overview

_NOTE: As of April 2025, Major Grants are suspended until further notice, due to loss of federal funding.
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South Carolina Humanities Mission

SC Humanities seeks to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians by providing high-quality programs that enrich minds and broaden perspectives, foster positive human relationships, encourage good citizenship and bring together the diverse people of our statewide culture. SC Humanities supports programs that are balanced, reflect sensitivity to a breadth of ideas, encourage open dialogue, demonstrate integrity and are ethical in operations. Established in 1972, SC Humanities is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Humanities

The humanities are our cultural and intellectual heritage, our ways of looking at the almost endless diversity of human culture and experience. They give us knowledge of the past, insight about the present and wisdom for the future. In order to develop the critical skills of reasoning, inquiry and analysis, the humanities disciplines offer methodologies that teach us about others and help us to know ourselves. Humanities disciplines include history, literature, folklore, philosophy, comparative religion, archaeology, African American studies, Southern studies, linguistics, ethics, jurisprudence, political science, anthropology, international studies, art theory and criticism and Women’s Studies.

SC Humanities seeks projects that:

* cause people to analyze critically their values, beliefs, and attitudes relating to both the past and the present; 
* promote public awareness of the importance and pervasiveness of the humanities in daily life;
* build alliances and networks across the state through collaboration with local organizations including education, business, federal, state and local governments; 
* make a particular effort to reach underserved areas of South Carolina and ensure that all counties have access to SC Humanities and its programs; 
* can become self-perpetuating or that have a high possibility of extended/ lasting impact; 
* preserve and promote knowledge and understanding of the history, story and culture of South Carolina;
* engage with current technologies as a means to communicate with larger audiences;
* demonstrate collaboration among teaching institutions and cultural entities to increase the possibility of interdisciplinary exchanges.

The SC Humanities Grant Program

SC Humanities grants support public programs designed to be accessible by a broad audience, to serve citizens in urban, rural, and small-town settings, and to make possible humanities programs that illuminate and enrich the lives of both audiences and scholars.

Major Grants

Grant awards are in sums between $5,000 and $15,000.

Eligibility

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

* Any nonprofit organization or institution may apply for SC Humanities grants for projects and programs of interest to South Carolinians.
* The humanities must be central, not tangential, to the project.
* Funds awarded by SC Humanities are federal in origin and are subject to the federal criteria that governs administrative requirements, allowable costs, and audit requirements.

Ineligibility

* We do NOT fund:
* SC Humanities does not award grants to individuals. Your application must have a nonprofit sponsoring organization. 
* SC Humanities does not award grants to fiscal agents. Applicants must not function solely as fiscal agents or fiscal sponsors but should make substantive contributions to the success of the project.

* Creative or performing arts performances. We do fund the theory and criticism of the arts. Your program should be designed to generate dialogue between humanities scholars and the audience and not for the presentation of the art form itself. 
* Creative writing, autobiographies, memoirs, and creative nonfiction. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts consider creative writing to be an arts discipline.

* Programs that advocate for a particular ideology, political, social, or religious viewpoint or advocacy of a particular program of social or political action.
* Programs intended for only college students or college faculty. Your program must engage non-academic participants.
* Programs that carry a high ticket or registration fee. 
* Courses, scholarships, awards, fellowships or individual research.

* Publications, scholarly, writing or editing projects.  
* Capital projects. These include the purchase of land, buildings, restorations, constructions, or museum / library acquisitions. Charges may be made to a grant project for equipment purchases (such as modest expenditures related to SC Humanities funded exhibits) if the applicant can demonstrate that the purchase amount of permanent equipment is less expensive than rental charges.
* Food, alcoholic beverages or entertainment for audiences. 
* Expenses incurred or paid for before the SC Humanities grant is awarded or the beginning of the grant period. 
* Competitive regranting
* Lobbying
* Funds for activities supported by other non-NEH federal funds or overlapping project costs with any other pending or approved application(s) for federal funding and/or approved federal awards.
* Indirect costs or cancellation costs