Challenge Grants

The summary for the Challenge Grants grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the National Endowment for the Humanities, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Challenge Grants: NEH challenge grants help institutions and organizations secure long-term improvements in and support for their humanities programs and resources. Awards are made to museums, public libraries, colleges, research institutions, historical societies and historic sites, public television and radio stations, universities, scholarly associations, state humanities councils, and other nonprofit entities. Because of the matching requirements, these NEH awards also strengthen the humanities by encouraging nonfederal sources of support. Challenge grants are offered only when NEH funds will help institutions carry out long-term plans and enhance their financial stability. Both federal and nonfederal funds must provide long-term benefits to the humanities. Challenge grant funds should not merely replace funds already being expended on the humanities, but instead should reflect careful strategic planning to improve and strengthen the institution's activities in and commitment to the humanities. Challenge grants most commonly augment or establish endowments. The income from invested funds may support ongoing humanities activities in education, public programming, scholarly research, and preservation. Examples include faculty and staff positions, fellowships, lecture or exhibition series, visiting scholars, publishing subventions, consultants, maintenance of facilities, faculty development, acquisitions, and preservation/conservation programs. Where the need is compelling and clearly related to improvements in the humanities, some direct expenditures from challenge grant awards may be allowable. Such expenditures, however, must be for items that have inherent longevity; for example, materials that enhance library or museum collections, construction or renovation of facilities, equipment, conservation of collections, and fund-raising costs (no more than ten percent of total grant funds). Grant funds may also be used for bridging support, where the challenge grant provides for endowment income to meet the same expenses in the future. All challenge grant funds, federal and nonfederal, must be raised and expended during the grant period. For the Challenge Grants program, deposit of funds into an interest- or dividend-bearing account constitutes expenditure.