NEH Cultural and Community Resilience Program Grants

Application Deadlines: January 12, 2023, OR May 16, 2023 

This new grant program supports community-based efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic by safeguarding cultural resources and fostering cultural resilience through the identification, documentation, and/or collection of cultural heritage and community experience. National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will award successful applicants up to $150,000, with no required additional funding from other sources. NEH anticipates awarding approximately $1,500,000 among an estimated ten to fifteen recipients per deadline. 

NEH welcomes applications at all stages of project development from planning through implementation, especially those that employ inclusive methodologies, such as participatory archiving, oral history, rapid response collecting, shared stewardship arrangements, and community-centered access. NEH also encourages leveraging open access online resources and using Creative Commons licenses, when possible and as appropriate. The CCR program supports activities such as:  

• identifying and capturing cultural and historical resources, including through digital means, in communities potentially endangered by climate events, such as wildfires, drought, hurricanes, or rising sea levels; 
• safeguarding cultural resources to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; 
• collecting oral histories from individuals impacted by extreme weather events or the COVID-19 pandemic, including survivors and first responders; 
• documenting traditional knowledge, memories of elders, practices, or technologies; 
• engaging in collaborative planning efforts to prepare communities for rapid response collecting; and
• applying insights from cultural heritage identification and documentation projects to inform local and regional community resilience strategies.

To be eligible to apply, you must be established in the United States or its jurisdictions as one of the following organizational types: a nonprofit recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an accredited institution of higher education (public or nonprofit), a state or local government or one of their agencies, or a federally recognized Native American Tribal government.

Recognizing that the ability to prepare for and recover from the impacts of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic is specific to a community’s historical, social, economic, and environmental context, the CCR program prioritizes projects from disadvantaged communities.

In its efforts to broaden access to the humanities and humanities resources, NEH welcomes applications from small and medium-sized organizations with strong ties to the communities they seek to document, including those that may not have previously received NEH support, as well as Native American organizations and communities. NEH especially welcomes applications from federally recognized Native American tribal governments, Native Hawaiian organizations, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Hispanic Serving Institutions of higher education (HSIs), as well as from two-year community colleges, 

You must apply using Grants.gov Workspace or a Grants.gov system-to-system solution. Ensure your SAM.gov and Grants.gov registrations and passwords are current as it may take up to one month to register with SAM.gov and Grants.gov. For more information, visit the NEH webpage: https://www.neh.gov/program/cultural-and-community-resilience.