Humanities Funding Resources A to Z

A

Advanced Study, Institute for
The Institute supports fundamental research in the sciences and humanities. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by Faculty, and it offers all who work there the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute
American Antiquarian Society
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) is an independent research library founded in 1812 in Worcester, Massachusetts. The library's collections document the life of America's people from the colonial era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. The American Antiquarian Society offers long-term and short-term visiting academic research fellowships.
American Overseas Research Centers, Council of (CAORC)
The Council fosters international scholarly exchange primarily through sponsorship of fellowship programs which allow pre-doctoral and senior scholars to pursue independent research important to the increase of knowledge and to our understanding of foreign cultures.
The American Association of University Women (AAUW)
One of the world's largest sources of funding exclusively for graduate women, the AAUW Educational Foundation supports women breaking through educational and economic barriers as aspiring scholars around the globe, teachers and activists in local communities, women at critical stages of their careers, and those pursuing professions where women are underrepresented.
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
ACLS is a private, nonprofit federation of seventy national scholarly organizations and is the preeminent representative of American scholarship in the humanities and related social sciences. ACLS offers fellowships and grants in programs for research in the humanities and related social sciences at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels.
American Institute of Indian Studies
American knowledge of India is shaped by the American Institute of Indian Studies, a consortium of universities and colleges in the United States at which scholars actively engage in teaching and research about India. The Institute has provided fellowship support for senior American scholars and Ph.D. candidates.
The American Philosophical Society (APS)
The American Philosophical Society promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and community outreach. The APS sponsors the Franklin Grants Program, specialized programs for humanities and social science, clinical medicine, North American Indian linguistics, and ethno-history, and a library resident fellowship program for research in its collections.
Archives, The National -- National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) promotes the preservation and use of America's documentary heritage essential to understanding our democracy, history, and culture.

B

Bicentennial Swedish-American Exchange Fund
Priority areas: Politics, Public Administration, Working Life, Human environment, Mass media, Business, Education, and Culture. The program will fund a two to four-week study in Sweden for up to 30,000 SEK.
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC. It conducts independent research to provide innovative, practical recommendations that strengthen American democracy, foster the economic and social welfare, security and opportunity of all Americans, and secure a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative international system. The Institution offers research programs in Economic Studies, Foreign Policy, Global Economy and Development, Governance Studies, and Metropolitan Policy.
Bureau of International Information Programs (formerly USAID now American.gov)
The State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) communicates with foreign publics, including opinion makers and youth, about U.S. policy, society, and values. IIP engages foreign publics through speaker programs, print outreach, and the web in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Persian, Russian, and Spanish.

C

Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund
The Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund was created by Chapters 227 and 323 of the 1992 Acts of Assembly for use by the Commonwealth of Virginia for environmental education and restoration projects to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.
Commerce, Department of (DOC)
The Department fosters, promotes, and develops the foreign and domestic commerce of the United States. It sponsors NTIA Broadband Grants, EDA Investment Grants, NIST Measurement Science and Research Grants, and NIST Science and Engineering Fellowship Program.
Council for the International Exchange of Scholars (CIES)
The Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), the scholar division of the Institute of International Education (IIE), is well known for its expertise and extensive experience in conducting international exchange programs for scholars and university administrators. It administers the Fulbright Scholar Program, the United States flagship academic exchange effort.
Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC)
The Council fosters international scholarly exchange primarily through sponsorship of fellowship programs which allow pre-doctoral and senior scholars to pursue independent research important to the increase of knowledge and to our understanding of foreign cultures.
Creative Capital
Creative Capital is a national nonprofit organization that supports artists pursuing adventurous and imaginative work in the performing and visual arts, film/video, innovative literature, and emerging fields.

D

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is a publicly-funded independent organization of higher education institutions in Germany. It promotes international academic relations especially through the exchange of students and faculty.
Department of Education (ED)
The Department of Education promotes student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. It is dedicated to establishing policies on federal financial aid for education, and distributing as well as monitoring those funds, collecting data on America's schools and disseminating research, and focusing national attention on key educational issues.
Department of Justice (DOJ)
The Department of Justice enforces the law and defends the interests of the United States according to the law, ensures public safety against threats foreign and domestic, provides federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime, seeks just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior, and ensures fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.
- National Institute of Justice funding opportunities
Dumbarton Oaks
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection is dedicated to supporting scholarships internationally in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies through fellowships, meetings, exhibitions, and publications.

E

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
EPA leads the nation's environmental science, research, education and assessment efforts. The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment.
- EPA Grants
- EPA Contracts
Eurasia Foundation
Eurasia Foundation Network partners award grants and operate programs within three broad mandate areas: Private Enterprise Development, Public Administration and Policy, and Civil Society. Within these areas, programs fall into many practice areas, including: anti-corruption, community development, corporate philanthropy, education, entrepreneurship, independent media, labor migration, responsive local government and youth activism, among others.

F

Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger is a world-renowned research center on Shakespeare and on the early modern age in the West. Its conservation lab is a leading innovator in the preservation of rare materials. It is home to the world’s largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials and to major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art.
Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships
Through its program of Diversity Fellowships, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students. It supports Predoctoral, Dissertation, and Postdoctoral Fellowships.
The Foundation Center
The Foundation Center is a national nonprofit service organization recognized as the nation’s leading authority on organized philanthropy, connecting nonprofits and the grantmakers supporting them to tools they can use and information they can trust. The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. grantmakers and their grants, issues a wide variety of print, electronic, and online information resources, and conducts and publishes research on trends in foundation growth, giving, and practice.
Fulbright Scholar Program (CIES)
The Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), the scholar division of the Institute of International Education (IIE), is well known for its expertise and extensive experience in conducting international exchange programs for scholars and university administrators. It administers the Fulbright Scholar Program, the United States flagship academic exchange effort.

G

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is a publicly-funded independent organization of higher education institutions in Germany. DAAD helps students, researchers, and faculty in the USA and Canada on their journey to study or research in Germany.
The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
The Foundation offers Fellowships to further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts including natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and creative arts.
Gwathmey Memorial Trust
Grants are made to institutions and organizations which qualify under IRS regulations as tax exempt and operated exclusively for charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes, so long as attempts to influence legislation or to Support candidates for public office do not form part of their activities.

H

Hagley Museum and Library
Hagley Museum and Library collects, preserves, and interprets the unfolding history of American enterprise. Hagley’s collections document the interaction between business and the cultural, social, and political dimensions of our society from the late 18th century to the present. It offers Henry Belin du Pont Fellowships, Henry Belin du Pont Dissertation Fellowships, and Grants-in-aid.
Howard Foundation
The Howard Foundation awards a limited number of fellowships each year for independent projects in selected arts and humanity fields. The Foundation targets its support specifically to early mid-career individuals, those who have achieved recognition for at least one major project. Fellows must be nominated by the institution.
Huntington Library
The Huntington is an independent research center with holdings in British and American history, literature, art history, and the history of science and medicine. The Huntington offers fellowships that derive from a variety of funding sources and have different terms. Recipients of all fellowships are expected to be in continuous residence at The Huntington.

I

I Tatti, Villa, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti is devoted to advanced study of the Italian Renaissance in all its aspects: the history of art; political, economic, and social history; the history of science, philosophy, and religion; and the history of literature and music. It offers a year-long I Tatti Fellowship program to post-doctoral scholars in the early stages of their careers.
Information Agency, U.S. (USIA)
An independent foreign affairs agency supporting U.S. foreign policy and national interests abroad, USIA conducts international educational and cultural exchanges, broadcasting, and information programs.
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study encourages and supports fundamental research in the sciences and humanities. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by Faculty, and it offers all who work there the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.
Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research
The Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research is a meeting place and residential center where a diverse mix of people from various faith communities, including scholars, writers, professionals, artists and corporate leaders, gather to connect faith to the world and its pressing social issues. It supports research, publication, and education on the important intersections between faith and culture. The Institute offers three main programs: the Resident Scholars Program, Short-term Residency Program, and Summer Programs through the Ecclesial Literature Project workshops.
Institute of International Education (IIE)
Institute of International Education is among the world's largest and most experienced international education and training organizations. It is committed to delivering program excellence to a diverse range of participants, sponsors, and donors. IIE leads the way in applied research and policy analysis in the field of international student mobility.
Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development.
International Research & Exchanges Board Scholar Grant Opportunities (IREX)
IREX is an international nonprofit organization providing leadership and innovative programs to improve the quality of education, strengthen independent media, and foster pluralistic civil society development. It offers access to scholars, policymakers, and research resources of the Newly Independent States of Eurasia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Mongolia.

J

John Carter Brown Library
The John Carter Brown Library is an independently administered and funded center for advanced research in history and the humanities. The Library offers fellowships that give scholars an opportunity to pursue their work in proximity to a distinguished collection of primary sources.

K

Kellogg Institute for International Studies
The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies aims to advance investigation in comparative international studies. The Institute promotes international research by attracting faculty, students, and visitors to Notre Dame and by providing them with a supportive community of scholarship, through various activities. It offers Visiting Fellowships designed to promote interdisciplinary international research on the Kellogg Institute’s themes.

L

The Library Company of Philadelphia
The Library Company of Philadelphia is an independent research library specializing in American history and culture from the 17th through the 19th centuries. It awards fellowships for research in residence in its collections, which are capable of supporting research in all aspects of American history and culture up to about 1880.
Library Services, Institute of Museum and
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development.
Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities
The Liguria Study Center is located on the Italian Riviera and provides Bogliasco residential fellowships for qualified persons working on advanced creative or scholarly projects in the arts and humanities including Archaeology, Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Classics, Dance, Film/Video, History, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Theater, and the Visual Arts.
Lindbergh Foundation
The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation provides grants to men and women whose individual initiative and work in a wide spectrum of disciplines furthers the Lindberghs' vision of a balance between the advance of technology and the preservation of the natural/human environment. Proposal topics include agriculture, aviation/aerospace, conservation, education, art, exploration, and health/biomedical research.

M

MacDowell Colony
The MacDowell Colony nurtures the arts by offering creative individuals of the highest talent an inspiring environment in which to produce enduring works of the imagination. It supports a resident fellowship program.
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities at Stanford (now Stanford University Humanities Fellows Program) The Humanities Fellows Program provides postdoctoral fellowships in Stanford's fifteen humanities departments over the course of two years. The positions will carry department affiliation and limited teaching duties, and the opportunity for scholarly work and intellectual growth.
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation supports the richness and diversity of the region’s arts resources and promotes wider access to the art and artists of the region, nation and world. It offers various programs to support artists and arts organizations.
Museum and Library Services, Institute of
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development.

N

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. The Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
- Guide to the NEA
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. The Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
National Gallery of Art - Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts is a research institute that fosters study of the production, use, and cultural meaning of art, artifacts, architecture, and urbanism, from prehistoric times to the present. The Center encourages a variety of approaches by historians, critics, and theorists of art, as well as by fellows in related disciplines of the humanities and social sciences.
National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) promotes the preservation and use of America's documentary heritage essential to understanding our democracy, history, and culture.
National Humanities Center
The National Humanities Center is the only major independent American institute for advanced study in all fields of the humanities. It provides fellowships in the liberal arts, drawing attention to the enduring value of ancient and modern history, language and literature, ethical and moral reflection, artistic and cultural traditions, and critical thought in every area of humanistic investigation.
National Institute of Justice
NIJ is the research, development, and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice and is dedicated to researching crime control and justice issues. NIJ provides objective, independent, evidence-based knowledge and tools to meet the challenges of crime and justice. NIJ funds research, development, and evaluation about criminal justice through competitive solicitations.
National Trust for Historical Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a private, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to saving historic places and revitalizing America's communities. The National Trust Preservation Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation offers several types of financial assistance to nonprofit organizations, public agencies, for-profit companies, and individuals involved in preservation-related projects.
Newberry Library
The Newberry Library provides a home to a world-class collection of books, manuscripts, and maps, and also to a growing community of readers. The Newberry offers fellowships for scholars and seminars for undergraduates.
Notre Dame Institute for Advance Study (NDIAS)
The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study awards 10-15 faculty fellowships each year to scholars from across the disciplines whose work addresses its annual research theme. Fellows live and work at Notre Dame and typically receive half their salary per academic year (up to $75,000), subsidized housing, a research allowance, and a private office. During the 2024-2025 academic year, the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study is sponsoring residential research projects that investigate The Good Life. Applications for Faculty Fellowships on The Good Life are due by Monday, October 2, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. (EDT).

P

U.S. Institute of Peace
The United States Institute of Peace is an independent, nonpartisan, national institution established and funded by Congress. It helps to prevent and resolve violent international conflicts, promote post-conflict stability and development, and increase conflict management capacity, tools, and intellectual capital worldwide. It funds grant and fellowship programs to expand the work of the Institute.

R

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies
Radcliffe Institute creates an academic community where individuals can pursue advanced work in any of the academic disciplines, professions, or creative arts. Radcliffe Institute fellowships are designed to support scholars, scientists, artists, and writers of exceptional promise and demonstrated accomplishments who wish to pursue work in academic and professional fields and in the creative arts.
Retirement Research Foundation
The Retirement Research Foundation is devoted exclusively to improving quality of life for America’s older population. The Foundation supports a range of programs and special initiatives designed to improve conditions for those who are vulnerable due to frailty associated with advanced age, those who are economically disadvantaged and at greatest risk of falling through the safety net, and those who experience disparities related to race and ethnicity.
Rockefeller Foundation
The Center brings together people of diverse expertise and cultures in a neutral, inspiring and thought-provoking environment to promote international understanding that allows innovation and creativity to flourish. The Center offers scholarly residencies in humanities, social sciences, and academic disciplines.
Russell Sage Foundation
The Russell Sage Foundation is the principal American Foundation devoted exclusively to research in the social sciences. It provides support for scholars at other institutions to pursue research projects that advance the Foundation's research programs. Programs include immigration, cultural contact, and social inequality.

S

Social Science Research Council (SSRC)
The Social Science Research Council is an independent nonprofit organization devoted to the advancement of social science research and scholarship. It is an international resource for interdisciplinary, innovative public social science. It offers a multitude of programs concerning Eastern Europe, International Migration, International Peace and Security, Japan, Near and Middle East, South Asia, the Soviet Union and successor states, and others.
Spencer Foundation
The Spencer Foundation invests in education research for the purpose of making education better. The Foundation's fellowship programs support scholars engaged in educational research at different stages of their professional lives.
Stanford Humanities Center
The Stanford Humanities Center offers residential fellowships who meet regularly in formal and informal sessions while pursuing their individual study, research, and writing. The Center constitutes an intellectual and social community in which historians, philosophers, scholars of literature and the arts, anthropologists, and other humanists of diverse ages, academic ranks, and departmental and institutional affiliations contribute to and learn from one another's work.
Stanford University Humanities Fellows Program-Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship The Humanities Fellows Program provides postdoctoral fellowships in Stanford's fifteen humanities departments over the course of two years. The positions will carry department affiliation and limited teaching duties, and the opportunity for scholarly work and intellectual growth.
State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV)
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia makes higher education public policy recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly in such areas as capital and operating budget planning, enrollment projections, institutional technology needs, and student financial aid. SCHEV administers a variety of educational programs that benefit students, faculty, parents, and taxpayers.
State Justice Institute
The State Justice Institute awards grants to improve the quality of justice in State courts, facilitates better coordination between State and Federal courts, and fosters innovative, efficient solutions to common issues faced by all courts.

U

UCLA Clark Memorial Library
It organizes academic programs, bringing together scholars from the area, the nation, and the world, with the goal of encouraging research in the period from 1600 to 1800. It seeks to enlarge the Clark Library's holdings in this period in order to enhance research opportunities. It provides resident fellowships and scholarships to support research in early modern studies and other areas central to the Clark's collections.

Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA)
VCA supports and stimulates excellence in all of the arts, in their full cultural and ethnic diversity, in order to enhance the quality of life, to stimulate economic development, to support educational advancement, and to make the arts accessible to all Virginians. The commission sponsors project grants, Technical Assistance Grants, Technology Enhancement Grants, and local Government Challenge Grants.
Virginia Environmental Endowment (VEE)
The Virginia Environmental Endowment improves the quality of the environment by using its capital to encourage all sectors to work together to prevent pollution, conserve natural resources, and promote environmental literacy. Grant-making priorities in the Virginia Program are focused on water quality research and monitoring of water quality conditions, land and open space conservation, Chesapeake Bay fisheries conservation, research, and education, and environmental education.
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH)
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities brings the humanities fully into Virginia's public life, assisting individuals and communities in their efforts to understand the past, confront important issues in the present, and shape a promissing future. If offers grant and fellowship programs to promote a greater understanding of the humanities.

Virginia Water Resources Research Center The Water Center offers research and educational opportunities to water scientists and students, and provide citizens and government leaders with water science information. It funds competitive grants, challenge grants, and facilitated projects.

W

Wallace Foundation, The
The Wallace Foundation is currently active in three focus areas: building appreciation and demand for the arts, educational leadership, and out-of-school time learning. It enables institutions to expand learning and enrichment opportunities for all people by supporting and sharing effective ideas and practices.
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
The Wenner-Gren Foundation supports significant and innovative anthropological research into humanity's biological and cultural origins, development and variation, and fosters the creation of an international community of research scholars in anthropology.
Williamsburg Community Health Foundation (WCHF)
WCHF is a non-profit, private, grant-making foundation whose mission is to improve the health of the people living in the Williamsburg and surrounding counties by strengthening access to quality health services and promoting responsible health practices. It provides funding through multiple strategies including request for proposals, Foundation-Directed Initiatives, and capacity building grants.
Winterthur Library
Winterthur offers short and long-term residential research fellowships to academic, independent, and museum scholars, and advanced graduate students. Research areas include material culture, architecture, decorative arts, design, consumer culture, garden and landscape studies, Shaker studies, travel and tourism, the Atlantic World, childhood, sentimental literary culture, and many other areas of social and cultural history.
Women's Research and Education Institute
WREI is the source of reliable data and clear thinking about the status of American women. WREI offers scholars the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in manipulating the levers of power. They work as professional staff in House and Senate offices as prestigious Congressional Fellows on Women & Public Policy.
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Wilson Center is the nation's official living memorial to President Woodrow Wilson. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars supports research in the social sciences and humanities. Fellows conduct research and write in their areas of interest, while interacting with policymakers in Washington and Wilson Center staff.
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
The Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation is an initiative to meet the nation’s need for college teachers. The Foundation has a suite of Fellowships that support the development of future leaders at a variety of career stages in several critical fields including teaching, foreign affairs, conservation, women and gender, and religion and ethics.
Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies The Woodson Institute administers the undergraduate major/minor degree in African-American and African Studies. The program offers students the opportunity to explore studies in an interdisciplinary curriculum, raising awareness of its significance as an integrated area of study. It also offers a Distinguished Majors Program for fourth-year students who wish to conduct intensive research culminating in a thesis, and sponsor limited opportunities for study abroad in Africa.