Illinois Humanities 2021 COVID-19 Emergency Relief and Recovery Grants

June 2, 2021

In 2021, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) received $135 million in funding to assist humanities and cultural organizations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP).

As the state affiliate for the NEH, Illinois Humanities will redistribute more than $1,000,000 to humanities and cultural nonprofits across Illinois. 

Illinois Humanities is offering two grant opportunities to help humanities organizations and cultural groups respond to the ongoing pandemic:

  1. General operating grants for organizations that are explicitly defined as humanities-based in terms of mission and core programming.
  2. Humanities project grants for organizations that plan to do humanities-based work but who may not be explicitly humanities-based organizations in mission and scope.

The main goals of the 2021 Illinois Humanities COVID-19 Emergency Relief and Recovery Grants are:

  1. To provide emergency relief support for humanities-based organizations throughout the state who are impacted by COVID-19.
  2. To help enable other nonprofit partners to provide humanities-based programs to help their communities recover and respond with resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  3. To help build the capacity of our grantee-partners through offering workshops that address their most pressing needs, networking opportunities within our sector, and a peer skill share program that compensates participants.

Application Deadline: Thursday, July 15, 2021, at 5:00 pm (CST). Additional information about these grants is available on the Illinois Humanities website. If you have further questions, reach out to Mark Hallett, Director of Grants Programs, at mark.hallett@ilhumanities.org.

Illinois Humanities 2021 COVID-19 Emergency Relief and Recovery Grants Information Session 

A 75-minute long information session for the 2021 COVID-19 Emergency Relief and Recovery Grants will be held on Wednesday, June 9, 2021. The session is free and registration is required. 

iREAD Summer Reading Programs

Since 1981, iREAD provides high quality, low-cost resources and products that enable local library staff to motivate children, young adults, and adults to read.

Visit the iREAD website »