Office of Challenge Grants

The goal of the NEH Challenge Grants program is twofold: to encourage donations to the humanities and to strengthen humanities institutions over the long term. Institutions of all kinds-museums, colleges and universities, libraries, research centers, scholarly organizations, and public broadcast stations-face many challenges in the new century. All seek to broaden the base of their financial support as they absorb the impact of the technological revolution on teaching, research, and public programming. Many seek to extend our knowledge of diverse cultures at home and around the globe. Most look for new forms of collaboration and new audiences. All are concerned about the preservation of humanities resources and programs. By encouraging donations for endowment and other capital improvements, the NEH Challenge Grants program helps cultural and academic institutions address these pressing needs. Through these matching grants, NEH extends a financial challenge to the nonfederal sector to join in providing long-term support for the humanities.

For example, in fiscal year 1999, the Appalachian College Association received a final $350,000 to endow fellowships for humanities research and teaching at private colleges throughout the Appalachian region. The total Challenge Grant of $600,000 has generated $1.8 million in nonfederal contributions, creating a total endowment of $2.4 million that will make permanent a highly effective program for dedicated faculty at often isolated teaching institutions. The Studio Museum in Harlem, a national resource for the interpretation of African American art and culture, is using its $320,000 Challenge Grant, matched by $1.28 million in nonfederal donations, to endow a curatorial position and to support internships, research fellowships, and public humanities programs in New York City's historic Harlem. New Mexico State University received in fiscal year 1999, $100,000 of its $450,000 Challenge Grant to endow a Southwest and Border Cultures Institute. The institute will bring together existing academic departments and new programs that focus on the rich multicultural heritage of the complex southwestern borderlands region of the United States. Also in fiscal year 1999, the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage received $200,000 toward its $300,000 Challenge Grant, which, matched with $900,000 in nonfederal funds, will support construction of a welcome house, outdoor village exhibition areas, and educational endowment for humanities programs about Alaska's Eskimo, American Indian, and Aleut peoples. The center addresses the cultural and educational needs of native peoples, educates the nonnative community about native traditions, and promotes cross-cultural understanding.

In fiscal years 1998 and 1999, the Challenge Grants program conducted a Special Initiative for Public Libraries. With grants of up to $150,000, matched by twice the amount in nonfederal donations, libraries were encouraged to establish endowments to support humanities programming. For example, New Britain Public Library in Connecticut was awarded a Challenge Grant of $25,000 to create a programming endowment that will enable the library to build collaborations with other local cultural and educational institutions and to expand humanities offerings such as the weekly program, Contadora de Cuentos, which introduce children to stories, legends, and traditions in both Spanish and English.

Challenge Grants can be used in a variety of ways, as these examples suggest. The most common is the augmentation or establishment of endowment funds; direct expenditures, often combined with endowment funds, can address such needs as acquisitions, construction and renovation, and technological enhancement. Because the purpose of a Challenge Grant is to strengthen the humanities over the long run, awards are made in light of careful institutional strategic planning and for the institutional humanities goals that the funds are intended to support. No matter the type of humanities activity, NEH Challenge Grants encourage potential donors to step forward and support institutions crucial to the educational and cultural life of their communities.

Stephen M. Ross
Director
Office of Challenge Grants

Abbe Museum
Bar Harbor, ME
$100,000* Endowment for Humanities Programmer/Educator and Capital Construction of Facility for Expanded Humanities Programming

Alaska Native Heritage Center, Inc.
Anchorage, AK
$200,000* Construction of Welcome House and Education Endowment

Albright Institute of Archaeological Research
Israel
$175,000* Centennial Campaign: Endowment for the Director and Library

Amarillo College Foundation, Inc.
Amarillo, TX
$20,000* Humanities Endowment for Students, Faculty, and Community Enrichment

American Center of Oriental Research
Boston, MA
$45,000* Endowment for the Position of the Director of ACOR

American School of Classical Studies
Princeton, NJ
$178,000* Gennadius Library Endowment and Modernization

Appalachian College Association
Berea, KY
$350,000* An Endowment to Support Humanities Faculty at Private Colleges of Central Appalachia

Athens-Clarke County Library
Athens, GA
$100,000* Legacy for the Future: Humanities Programming Endowment

Berea College
Berea, KY
$175,000* Endowment of Appalachian Studies at Berea College

Boston Athenaeum
Boston, MA
$100,000* Endowment for Cataloging and Automation

Bowdoin College
Brunswick, ME
$175,000* Library Initiative to Enhance the Humanities Curriculum through Information Technology

Brooklyn Children's Museum
Brooklyn, NY
$225,000* Collections Central: An Interactive Work/Display Space Supported by Technology and Humanities Staff and Scholars

Brooklyn Public Library
Brooklyn, NY
$75,000* BPL Humanities Endowment Fund

Brown University
Providence, RI
$175,000* Enhancing and Preserving the Humanities Collections at Brown University

California State University
Long Beach, CA
$50,000* Heritage Language and Culture Program

Chicago Historical Society
Chicago, IL
$150,000* Campaign to Endow the Research Collections

Decorah Public Library
Decorah, IA
$11,150* Library Expansion to Increase Library Services and Programming, and to Create Local History Archives

Dickinson College
Carlisle, PA
$100,000* Clarke Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary Issues

Folger Shakespeare Library
Washington, DC
$250,000* Capital Campaign for the Education Center

Fort Ligonier Association
Ligonier, PA
$75,000* The Fort Ligonier Archeology Endowment Program

Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library
St. Paul, MN
$50,000* Creation of a New Humanities Programming Endowment for the Saint Paul Public Library

Furman University
Greenville, SC
$150,000* The Humanities in the Digital Era

Hancock Shaker Village, Inc.
Pittsfield, MA
$133,333* Endowment for Research Director and Endowment/Capital Construction for Expanded Research and Programming

Heritage Harbor Museum
Providence, RI
$167,000* Base Building Construction for Heritage Harbor Museum

Honolulu Academy of Arts
Honolulu, HI
$200,000* Endowment for Education Programs, Humanities Scholars, and Education Staff Salaries

Hood College
Frederick, MD
$100,000* Endowing the Hood College Center for the Humanities

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Boston, MA
$200,000* Endowment to Support Curatorial and Conservation Programs in the Humanities

Kona Historical Society
Captain Cook, HI
$100,000* Challenge Grant for Historic Uchida Coffee Farm

Library Foundation, Inc.
Portland, OR
$50,000* Creation of a New Humanities Programming Endowment for the Multnomah County Library System

Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, CA
$130,000* Classics Endowment in Ancient Mediterranean Studies

Maine Historical Society
Portland, ME
$50,000* Completing the Center for Maine History: The Education Program

Minnesota Historical Society
St. Paul, MN
$400,000* Construction of St. Anthony Falls Heritage Center

Montgomery College
Rockville, MD
$175,000* Montgomery College Humanities Institute

Museum of the Cherokee Indian
Cherokee, NC
$75,000* Education Department: Museum of the Cherokee Indian

National Trust for Historic Preservation
Washington, DC
$246,000* Establishment of the Historic Sites Interpretation and Education Endowment

Nevada Public Radio Corporation/KNPR
Las Vegas, NV
$125,000* Future Fund Endowment Challenge Grant

New Britain Public Library
New Britain, CT
$7,000* Humanities Programming Endowment

New Hampshire Humanities Council
Concord, NH
$100,000* New Choices for Teachers: A Humanities Education Initiative

New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM
$100,000* Southwest and Border Cultures Institute

New York Public Library
New York, NY
$200,000* Enriching the Collections of the New York Public Library's Center for the Humanities

Newark Public Library
Newark, NJ
$22,824* Endowment for Public Humanities Programming

Newberry Library
Chicago, IL
$375,000* Securing the Future of Public Humanities Programming at the Newberry Library

Northeast Document Conservation Center
Andover, MA
$100,000* Endowing Preservation Services in the Northeast

Oglethorpe University
Atlanta, GA
$100,000* Endowing the Humanities Core Curriculum

Old Dartmouth Historical Society
New Bedford, MA
$300,666* Endowment for Senior Curator Position and Renovation of Exhibition, Education, and Collections Areas for the Museum

Old Salem, Inc.
Winston-Salem, NC
$360,000* Reconstruction and Restoration of St. Philip's Church and Endowment for the Director of African American Programs

Pace University
New York, NY
$125,000* Humanities Education Initiative

Peter White Public Library
Marquette, MI
$150,000* Peter White Public Library Renovation/Expansion Project

Queens Library Foundation
Jamaica, NY
$24,000* Endowment of Program: "Literature, History and Memory"

Rice University
Houston, TX
$160,000* Endowing New Fellowship Programs at Rice University's Center for the Study of Cultures

Rockland Memorial Library Foundation
Rockland, MA
$7,000* Rockland Memorial Library Foundation Humanities Endowment

Rosenbach Museum and Library
Philadelphia, PA
$166,000* Building Renovation and Expanded Humanities Programming

San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA
$150,000* Endowing the Jewish Studies Program at San Francisco State University

Society of Architectural Historians
Chicago, IL
$45,000* Buildings of the United States

South Dakota Humanities Council
Brookings, SD
$33,334* Endowment for Teacher Institutes in American Indian Cultures

Southwest Texas State University
San Marcos, TX
$150,000* Endowing the Center for the Study of the Southwest

Stanford University
Stanford, CA
$100,000* Endowment for Fellowship Program

Staten Island Botanical Garden, Inc.
Staten Island, NY
$150,000* Endowment for the New York Chinese Scholar's Garden

Studio Museum in Harlem
New York, NY
$110,000* Challenge Grant for Endowment

Susquehanna University
Selinsgrove, PA
$150,000* Endowment for Library Support of Global Humanities Programs at Susquehanna

Thomas D. Clark Foundation, Inc.
Lexington, KY
$50,000* Endowment for Publishing in the Humanities at the University Press of Kentucky

Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
Topeka, KS
$75,000* Humanities Endowment for Acquisitions and Programming

University of California
Berkeley, CA
$100,000* Endowment for Broad Accessibility to Humanities Programming, Exhibitions, and Collections

University of California
Oakland, CA
$100,000* Building Endowment for Fellowships

University of California
Riverside, CA
$33,000* English Short Title Catalogue: Past, Present, Future

University of Maryland
College Park, MD
$100,000* Maryland Institute of Technology in the Humanities (MITH)

University of Nebraska Foundation
Lincoln, NE
$100,000* Endowing the International Quilt Study Center

University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN
$150,000* Building Medieval and Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame

University of Scranton
Scranton, PA
$75,000* Library Acquisitions in the Humanities

University of Texas
Austin, TX
$83,334* Endowments for Humanities Publications and Publishing Fellowship

University of Texas
Medical Branch
Galveston, TX $175,000* Residential Faculty Seminar Program in the Medical Humanities

Walters Art Gallery
Baltimore, MD
$1,846* Endowment for Curatorial Position in Ancient Art, and Renovation of the Ancient Art Exhibition Galleries

Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC
$75,000* Endowing the Sequoyah Professor of Cherokee Studies

Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian
Santa Fe, NM
$150,000* Endowment for Humanities Programming

Wichita Public Library Foundation, Inc.
Wichita, KS
$85,510* Establishment of Humanities Endowment

Williamsburg Public Libraries
Williamsburg, MA
$30,000* Williamsburg Libraries Construction and Endowment Challenge Grant

Xavier University
Cincinnati, OH
$250,000* Endowed Chair in Ethics, Religion, and Society

*Federal Matching Funds