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Grants for Humanities Programs

Wisconsin Humanities awards grants to support locally-initiated public humanities programs. Grants for humanities programs are awarded to encourage greater public participation in humanities programming, spark imagination, and promote thoughtful conversation across the state. We especially encourage organizations in underserved communities to apply.

NEWS: For many decades, our Mini Grant Program has provided organizations of all sizes with small but impactful funding awards. The diversity, depth, and creativity of these projects has amazed us.

After careful review and input from focus groups with past applicants, consultants, and surveys of other funding agencies, we are poised to pilot a new type of accessible grant that better meets the needs of organizations and communities in Wisconsin today. To prepare for this exciting roll-out, we have suspended our former Mini Grant Program until further notice.

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We will begin offering the new pilot grant program in the summer of 2024. Please stay tuned to hear all about our new grantmaking pilot program by signing up for our e-newsletter here.

Major Grants:

Major Grants (with budget requests of $2,001 - $10,000) are awarded three times per year. Award decisions are made about two months after the deadline. The online application opens after the previous deadline closes.

Whether you are writing your first grant application or you are an experienced grant writer, check out these four steps on our GETTING STARTED page before beginning the online application.

GETTING STARTED ➔

Grant Application Deadlines

Applicants can begin the online application process after the previous grant round closes.

MAJOR GRANTS
DEADLINES

April 15 (DECISION in June)
August 15 (DECISION in Oct.)
December 15 (DECISION in Feb.)

 

Who We Are

What is a humanities program?

Humanities programs should be reflective experiences that engage the public. Programs can take many forms including exhibitions, performances, community discussions, guest speakers, workshops, oral history projects, panels, town halls, films, and more. Creativity is encouraged!

To be eligible for funding, the humanities must be central to your proposal. “The humanities” include archaeology, art history, cultural anthropology, ethics, ethnic studies, folklore, gender studies, history, jurisprudence, languages, law, linguistics, philosophy, and religious studies. Social sciences, such as political science and sociology, are also often part of the humanities. We offer further explanation, including some distinctions between the arts and the humanities, here. If you aren’t sure whether your project is a humanities program, contact us. We’d love to hear your ideas.

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Every year we give away
$200,000
in grants to support humanities programs
designed by communities

Can I see some examples
of programs that have been funded?

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