Illinois Humanities connects Illinoisans through free public programs, grants, and events that make the public humanities accessible for all. 

250th Gifts (FY2026)

• African American History Museum, $5,000.00
• American Indian Center of Chicago, $5,000.00
• Bond County Historical Society, $5,000.00
• Bronzeville / Black Chicagoan Historical Society, $5,000.00
• Bureau County History Center, $5,000.00
• Cairo Historical Preservation Project, $5,000.00
• Calumet City Historical Society, $5,000.00
• Canton Area Heritage Center, $5,000.00
• Champaign County African American Heritage Trail, $5,000.00
• Chicago Collections Consortium, $5,000.00
• Chicago Cultural Alliance (CCA), $5,000.00
• DeKalb County History Center, $5,000.00
• Elgin History Museum, $5,000.00
• Fund for Innovative TV DBA Media Burn Archive, $5,000.00
• Haitian American Museum of Chicago, $5,000.00
• Historic Ellisville Restoration Organization (H.E.R.O.), $5,000.00
• Historical Preservation Society of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, $5,000.00
• Illinois Labor History Society, $5,000.00
• Illinois State Historical Society (ISHS), $5,000.00
• Lansing Historical Society, $5,000.00
• LaSalle County Historical Society, $5,000.00
• Lawrence County, Illinois, Historical Society, $5,000.00
• Livingston County Historical Society, $5,000.00
• Macoupin County Historical Society, $5,000.00
• Madison County Historical Society, $5,000.00
• MARSHALL PUBLIC LIBRARY, $5,000.00
• McHenry County Historical Society & Museum, $5,000.00
• National Cambodian Heritage Museum & Killing Fields Memorial, $5,000.00
• National Museum of Gospel Music, $5,000.00
• North Lawndale Historical and Cultural Society, $5,000.00
• Peoria Historical Society, $5,000.00
• Pike County Historical Society, $5,000.00
• Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (P.E.R.R.O), $5,000.00
• Project 15 Corp, $5,000.00
• Rapbrary, $5,000.00
• Rogers Park West Ridge Historical Society, $5,000.00
• Saline County Historical Society, $5,000.00
• Savanna Historical Society NFP, $5,000.00
• Shorefront Legacy Center, $5,000.00
• SI Achievers dba African American Museum of Southern Illinois, $5,000.00
• Sterling-Rock Falls Historical Society, $5,000.00
• The Historical Society of Brooklyn Illinois, Incorporated, $5,000.00
• Walls Turned Sideways, $5,000.00
• Western Illinois Museum, $5,000.00
• Winnebago Community Historical Society (WCHS), $5,000.00

Envisioning Justice Grants (FY2026)

• Bobby Price from Lawndale People, $5,000.00
• Build Communities Not Prisons, $10,000.00
• Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Foundation, $10,000.00
• Despertar Latino, $10,000.00
• Greater Rock Development Corporation, $10,000.00
• Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, $10,000.00
• Hannah Johnson, $5,000.00
• MAMAS Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition & Solidarity, $10,000.00
• Melissa Pavlik, $5,000.00
• Migrant Support Collective, $10,000.00
• Mud Theatre Project, $10,000.00
• Prison + Neighborhood Arts / Education Project, $10,000.00
• Stateville Speaks, $10,000.00

Healing Illinois Grants (FY2026)

• Adler University, $40,000.00
• Advocacy & Education Consulting PLLC, $15,000.00
• Affinity Community Services, $20,000.00
• Alternatives, Inc., $30,000.00
• American Indian Center of Chicago, $30,000.00
• Art for Healing Trauma, $38,500.00
• Asian Health Coalition, $40,000.00
• Ballet 5:8, $40,000.00
• Brightpoint, $40,000.00
• Chicago History Museum, $20,000.00
• Circles & Ciphers, $20,000.00
• DeKalb County History Center, $20,000.00
• Forefront, $40,000.00
• Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago & Northwest Indiana, $40,000.00
• Grupo Salto, $20,000.00
• H.O.P.E., Inx., $40,000.00
• Illinois Public Health Institute, $40,000.00
• League of Women Voters of Illinois Education Fund, $40,000.00
• Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago, $40,000.00
• School of Opulence, $40,000.00
• Shorefront Legacy Center, $20,000.00
• South Asian American Policy & Research Institute, $20,000.00
• TASC, Inc., $32,000.00
• Trickster Cultural Center NFP, $35,000.00
• University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, $40,000.00
• Western Illinois Dreamers, $40,000.00
• Women Initiating New Directions (WIND), $10,000.00

Project Grants (FY2026)

• About Face Theatre Collective, $10,250.00
• Chih-jou Cheng, $4,250.00
• Chicago Dance History Project, $10,250.00
• Chicago Poetry Center, $4,250.00
• The Community Archive, $4,250.00
• Community TV Network, $4,250.00
• Coulterville Historical Society, $1,500.00
• Toussaint Daniels, $4,250.00
• Dorrah Alharbi, $4,250.00
• The Freadom Road Foundation, $10,000.00
• The Friends of the Mount Carroll District Library, NFP, $4,250.00
• Tiffany M. Johnson, $4,250.00
• Kyn 43, $4,250.00
• Lucky Jefferson, $4,250.00
• Mud Theatre Project, $4,250.00
• NONop Arts and Humanities, $4,250.00
• Peoria Proud, $4,250.00
• Quincy Juneteenth Organization, $4,250.00
• The Realitea Project Inc., $9,190.00
• Reimagine Justice Illinois, $10,250.00
• Ten Thirty-One Pictures Foundation, $10,250.00
• Briana Thomas, $4,250.00
• Third City Studio, $10,250.00
• Warsaw Historical Society, $4,250.00