Below is a listing of Grantee Partners by County along with their award amount. Also, available is a pdf download of the Grantee Partners.

Totals

• In All: 254 Grantee Partners | $1,402,500 in Grants
• General Operating: 210 Grantee Partners | $1,182,500 in Grants
• Humanities Project: 44 | $220,000 in Grants

In all,  556 eligible applications were submitted (an additional 94 applications were deemed ineligible). Of the eligible application, 254 organizations, or 46%, were awarded funds. Of the awardees, 139 (or 55%) were new applicants, and 63 (26%) received a CARES Act grant in 2020.

• General Operating: With regards to general operating grant requests, Illinois Humanities first reviewed proposals to assure that applicants were in fact ‘humanities’ organizations. Because of the high number of legitimate requests, Illinois Humanities then used a formula based on need, to help in the decision-making process. This consisted largely of an organization’s answers regarding the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on their organization, fundraising, and programming, always with the goal of geographic distribution across the state.
• Humanities Projects: With regards to the humanities project grant requests, Illinois Humanities worked with a team of 18 reviewers and using a rubric that looked at five factors: the degree to which a project is humanities-based, the extent to which the applicant has a track record of doing public-facing work, the clarity of the plan of action, how compelling the project was, and the degree to which the project engages underserved audiences. The team looked at the geographic distribution of the overall portfolio of projects.

Ultimately, Illinois Humanities staff and reviewers came away from this process impressed with the rich humanities offerings available across the state of Illinois.

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

• To provide emergency relief support for humanities-based organizations throughout the state who are impacted by COVID-19.
• 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.
• To help build the capacity of our grantee-partners by offering workshops that address their most pressing needs, networking opportunities within our sector, and a peer skill share program that compensates participants.

The humanities are the examination of what it means to be human through the interpretation and discussion of all forms of thought, interest and expression. While we value traditional humanities disciplines, such as art history, literature, history, and philosophy, our emphasis is on the public humanities, which means that we look at the humanities as more than an academic discipline.
For us, the public humanities are a mode of inquiry and conversation that aims to engage, support, or challenge the ideals, beliefs, tensions, and prejudices of the communities in which we live. We believe that important thought can happen outside of the academy – in neighborhood institutions, schools, churches, and at kitchen tables across the country. We are especially interested in instances of the public humanities that promote civic engagement – in raising critical issues facing everyday people and conducted with the hope of increasing their thirst for staying engaged. Rather than being defined by rigid disciplinary boundaries, it is the humanistic lens, which emphasizes curiosity, questioning, and dialogue, that matters.

A humanities organization has a mission explicitly connected to the humanities along with a track record of specifically working in the humanities, as opposed to a group that occasionally tackles or delves into humanities-based themes or activities.

In order to apply for a general operating grant, you must be one of the following types of organizations:

• Cultural and Ethnic Organizations: This category includes organizations dedicated to the study, preservation, and/or dissemination of the history and culture of ethnic groups.
  Examples of past grantees in this category include: American Indian Center, Haitian American Museum, African American Museum of Southern Illinois, Ukrainian National Museum, etc.
• History Organizations: This category includes historical societies and their support organizations, historical preservation groups and their support organizations, historic houses, folklore/folklife organizations, place-based learning organizations, cultural sustainability organizations, and other organizations with a historical focus.
  Examples of past grantees in this category include: Bronzeville Historical Society, Bishop Hill Historic Site, Company of Folk, 1820 Col. Benjamin Stephenson House, etc.
• Humanities Museums: This category includes organizations that acquire, preserve, research, exhibit, and provide for the educational use of works of art or objects/artifacts that are related to the study of humanities content.
  Examples of past grantees in this category include: Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, Ray Bradbury Experience Museum, Atlanta Public Library and Museum, Alton Museum of History and Art, etc.
• Literature Organizations: This category includes organizations that promote the study or appreciation of books and/or literature.
  Examples of past grantees in this category include: Guild Literary Complex, American Writers Museum, 826CHI, Literature for Us All, etc.
• Humanities Education: Organizations that offer classes, seminar, and workshops in the humanities (which include but are not limited to literature, languages, history, philosophy, religious studies, art history, and interdisciplinary humanities programs – like ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies, and American studies). Literacy programs and English-language acquisition (ELL/ESL) programs are also eligible in this category.
  Examples of past grantees in this category include: Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project, Chicago Freedom School, etc.
• Media, Journalism, and Documentary Organizations: Organizations that are committed to covering humanities themes and/or telling the stories, happenings, or histories of communities that are informed by the members of those communities, challenge predominant narratives, and/or nurture critical analysis of media.
  Examples of past grantees in this category include: 60 Inches from Center, South Side Weekly, Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, Kartemquin Educational Films, etc.
• Libraries and Archives: These organizations include operating libraries and archives (excluding those that are purely science- and medicine-focused). Combination museum-libraries can be treated as museums or libraries.
  Examples of past grantees in this category include: Lithuanian Archives, Rebuild Foundation, Read/Write Library, Chillicothe Public Library, etc.
• Consortiums, alliances, collectives of above-named groups.
  Examples of past grantees in this category include: Chicago Cultural Alliance, Landmarks Illinois, Illinois Association of Museums, etc.

General operating support means funding that is unrestricted. This funding can be used as the applicant sees fit: for rent, administration, personnel, operating expenses, etc. There are, however, restrictions on how organizations can use general operating funds; for example, organizations cannot use these funds for alcohol, lobbying, international travel, or exclusively for equipment.

Illinois Humanities believes that the best way to increase access to the humanities is to help support as many nonprofit organizations as possible in carrying out meaningful humanities-based projects and programs. While we are dedicated to supporting the operations of explicitly humanities-based nonprofits, like cultural museums, libraries, and historical societies, we are also committed to funding other Illinois nonprofits to provide humanities-based programs to their communities. Examples of these include performing arts groups that include audience-based discussions of the work; park districts that host seminars or workshops on history, literature, or other humanities disciplines; visual arts groups or art museums that incorporate art history discussions or seminars; community-based organizations that host discussions with community members that promote civic engagement; etc.

The short answer is yes. However, in general terms, the general operating grants are meant strictly for humanities-based nonprofit organizations, and the humanities project grants are meant primarily for others, non-humanities-based organizations, that plan to carry out meaningful work in the humanities. Therefore, with the humanities project grants category, priority will be given to applicants that are not eligible for the general operating grants.
Due to the demand, in 2021, we were unable to fund multiple requests from any single organization.
Organizations that received 2021 COVID-19 Emergency Relief and Recovery grants can still apply to our Community Grants, Activate History microgrants, or Envisioning Justice grants programs.

Since these are emergency relief grants, Illinois Humanities will streamline the reporting process. We will ask groups to submit a report to us by September 30, 2022, that describes how they have been impacted by COVID-19 and how the Illinois Humanities grant has helped them. More details will be included in the grant award letter.

Yes! The remainder of 2021 is a busy year for our grants program. In addition to the COVID-19 Emergency Relief and Recovery Grants, we are continuing to provide support through: 1) the Community Grants program; 2) Activate History microgrants program; and 3) Envisioning Justice grants. If you’re interested in learning more, go to ilhumanities.org/grants.