The Ohio History Fund is a competitive matching grant program that annually awards grants for history-related projects.
Donor Name: Ohio History Connection
State: Ohio
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Matching Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 09/27/2022
Grant Size: $20,000
Grant Duration: 2 years
Details:
The Ohio History Fund was created to support the preservation and sharing of Ohio’s heritage by funding local, regional, and statewide projects, programs, and events related to the broad sweep of the state’s history and pre-history.
The Ohio History Fund seeks projects that will help the Ohio History Connection realize its core values and achieve the following:
- Be Objective and Fair: Grants will support projects that enrich our understanding of the context in which people, places, things, or events functioned historically. Projects using grant funds will not advocate a partisan political, social, or cultural agenda. The portrayal of the past must be based on thorough research-based credible sources. No grants will fund any project that discriminates against persons or groups.
- Strengthen Ohio History: Projects must include illumination, conservation, or perpetuation of Ohio’s history, including historical persons, places, things, or events.
- Demonstrate Community Support: Community support is demonstrated through cash and in-kind support for the project. All grants must be matched. See each grant category’s specific guidelines in this document for match requirements. Note that work or expenditures that begin before the grant period are not eligible to match activities or grant expenditures.
- Public Benefit: Applications must explain how History Fund projects will benefit their communities, including advanced understanding/appreciation for Ohio’s history and community or economic development. All History Fund projects must be undertaken without regard to race, creed, sex, national origin, age, or disability.
- Demonstrate a Measurable Impact: History Fund projects’ effect on their organizations or communities must be measured and, thus, demonstrated. Demonstration of effect can be measured qualitatively, quantitatively, and visually. Applications must include a clear explanation of how the effectiveness of the project will be measured in the project’s final report. Using these measures, a final report will explain the extent to which a project was effective.
- Foster Sustainability: History Fund grants will support projects that recipients can sustain after the grant ends or advance an organization’s sustainability. For example, if the purchase of museum collection management software is contemplated, what are the applicant’s plans to train people to use the software and maintain the collections management system after the grant ends? For a public program of limited duration, how will hosting the program help the organization reach its long-term goals? What resources will the organization dedicate to operate the building and uphold a maintenance agreement for a building rehabilitation project?
- Meet Applicable Professional Standards: It is expected that the applicant organization will have or will obtain the requisite professional expertise to carry out the proposed project. Projects will adhere to or help the organization to meet accepted professional standards. Currently, standards govern the practice of history in the areas below:
- Archaeology
- Archives
- Collections
- Digitization
- Genealogy
- Historical Societies and Museums
- Historic Preservation
- History Scholarship
- Museums
- Nonprofit Organizations
- Oral History
Funding Information
History Fund grants will support projects in three categories:
- Organizational Development
- Organizational Development grants focus on building capacity: providing the training and materials to help historical societies and like organizations help themselves. Grants in this category can include but are not limited to training for board and staff, professional assistance with organizational issues, improving governance structures, volunteer or membership program development, and assessments or strategic plans (including paid facilitators/consultants). Applications must explain the issue(s) faced by the organization and how the grant will address the issue(s). Solutions must align with the issues identified.
- Requirements:
- Grant Minimum: $1,000
- Grant Maximum: $4,000
- Project Length: 1 year
- Programs & Collections
- Programs & Collections encompass a variety of projects that further the study, recordation, interpretation, publication and dissemination of historical information, engagement of communities in history, or conservation of historical collections and archives.
- Requirements:
- Grant Minimum: $2,000
- Grant Maximum: $20,000
- Project Length: 2 years
- Brick & Mortar
- Brick and mortar projects can involve the following: rehabilitation, restoration, protection, or acquisition of historic properties and archaeological sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places or designated by local ordinance, building work related to the preservation of historical or archival collections regardless of the building’s historic status, or new construction dedicated to the preservation of historical or archival collections.
- Requirements:
- Grant Minimum: $2,000
- Grant Maximum: $20,000
- Project Length: up to 2 years
Eligibility Criteria
Non-profit organizations registered in Ohio and public entities, including, but not limited to, local historical societies and museums, public libraries, genealogical societies, university archives and special collections, historic preservation groups, archaeological societies, county records management offices, and township governments, as well as incorporated “friends” groups of any of the above. Individuals, for-profit businesses and the Ohio History Connection are not eligible for Ohio History Fund grants.
For more information, visit Ohio History Connection.
