Staffing the Humanities Grants

Overview

_NOTE: Mass Humanities will not be offering Staffing the Humanities grants in 2025._

Staffing the Humanities Grants

_“By far our largest expense is salaries and wages. Everything we do has people – intellectual talent and hard work – behind it.” –_ Mass Humanities grantee, field survey response, 2021.

Humanities programs require thoughtful, dedicated staff in order to grow, especially after two years of extraordinary change for organizations that serve the public. Mass Humanities offers “Staffing the Humanities” a grant to support humanities program staff costs for past Mass Humanities grantees with annual operating expenses between $50,000 and $350,000 and with five or fewer Full-Time Equivalent Employees (FTE). Mass Humanities is offering this opportunity through funding from the Massachusetts

Cultural Council. Funds can support increased staffing costs to grow, create, or bring back humanities programs. “Staffing the Humanities” responds to needs identified through Mass Humanities pandemic relief grant programs, CARES and SHARP, as well as a 2021 survey of recent applicants and grantees. Forty five percent of SHARP grantees requested funds for staffing. Fifty four percent of survey respondents selected “Staffing the Humanities” as their top choice for a grant program. “Staffing the Humanities” will support the growth and development of humanities programs across the Commonwealth by providing staffing funds to help organizations increase their staff capacity and retention.

What can staffing grants fund?

Staffing grants will fund organizations to hire new staff, expand hours of current staff or bring back staff in order to:

* Expand currently existing humanities programing to reach more people or new audiences.
* Create new humanities programing that addresses an organizational need.
* Restore previously existing humanities programing that has been lost due to the COVID pandemic.
* We encourage applicants to pay humanities staff a competitive wage rate.

Eligibility

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

* The 2023 grant cycle is open to current grantees for a second year of funding. Grantees need to complete their final report for their first year grant. Once completed, the application for the 2nd year grant will be made available. 
* Applicant organizations must:

* Be a 501(c)(3) or fiscally-sponsored museum, historical society or community cultural organization with humanities programs, state or federally recognized tribe, with operating budgets between $50,000 and $350,000 and with five or fewer Full-Time Equivalent Employees (FTE).
* Organizations that employed seasonal employees that exceeded five employees for 120 days or less in 2021 are still eligible, as long as the organization had five or fewer employees for the reminder of the year and are within the operational budget threshold.
* Be located in Massachusetts.
* Be a past Mass Humanities grantee.
* Be in compliance with state and federal regulations which bar discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, age, or sexual orientation, and which require accessibility for persons with disabilities. Specifically:
* The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
* Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504)
* Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
* Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
* The Age Discrimination Act of 19

Ineligibility

* The following staff expenses are not eligible for the staffing grant:
* Staff time or positions that only do administration work or non-humanities based programs.
* Staff time or positions that support fundraising and/or advocacy efforts.
* Sustaining currently existing program staff positions without a plan for growing current staff time and number of programs or audiences.
* Work undertaken before or after the grant period
* “Friends of …” groups or staffing for government entities.