The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Office of Challenge Programs is accepting applications for the Climate Smart Humanities Organizations program.
Donor Name: National Endowment for the Humanities
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/17/2023
Size of the Grant: $300,000
Grant Duration: 24 months
Details:
This program supports comprehensive assessment and strategic planning efforts by humanities organizations to mitigate physical and operational environmental impacts and adapt to a changing climate. Projects will result in climate action and adaptation planning documents or similar detailed assessments including prioritized, measurable actions and their expected outcomes. Proposals must address how strategic planning for climate change will increase the organization’s resilience and support its work in the humanities over the long term. Projects are financed through a combination of federal matching funds and gifts raised from third-party non-federal sources.
The Climate Smart Humanities Organizations program strengthens the institutional base of the humanities by funding organizational assessments and strategic planning that sustain and protect historical, cultural, educational, intellectual, and physical assets from the risks of climate change. As energy costs rise and natural disasters become more frequent, humanities organizations—such as museums, libraries, archives, historic sites, and colleges and universities—face an enormous task: to anticipate operational, physical, and financial impacts of current and future climate-related events on their institutions and the audiences they serve, while also reducing their own impacts on the environment.
Examples of climate smart projects might include:
- A university museum develops a strategic plan to meet campus-wide zero emissions targets and increase its resilience. The process includes an audit of current energy use, evaluation of building and mechanical systems, and calculating the carbon footprint of daily operations. Working with university facilities and outside contractors, the museum establishes a step-by-step plan that details operational and physical changes required to meet zero emissions, along with required resources.
- An archive located adjacent to a river analyzes the costs, risks, and benefits of adapting its current building to meet increasing flood hazards, renovating or relocating an existing building farther inland, or building a new, purpose-built structure outside of the local community. Activities include working with local experts to identify projected flood risk, pre-decisional cost estimates for renovation and new construction, and community listening sessions to evaluate the impact of a relocated archive.
- Five historic homes establish a consortium to coordinate resilience efforts through individual and joint strategic planning. Working with a shared consultant, each site identifies climate-related risks and opportunities that impact their humanities collections and programming and develops a comprehensive climate action plan specific to their buildings and operations. The group also engages in joint training exercises and establishes a formal partnership to develop a shared off-site collection storage space that is more energy efficient, reduces costs, and protects humanities collections from climate related hazards.
Funding Information
- Award Ceiling: $300,000
- Award Floor: $1
- You may request a period of performance up to 24 months with a start date of October 1, 2023
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible to apply, your organization must be established in the United States or its jurisdictions as one of the following types:
- The organization or its subunit must work primarily in the humanities and support research, education, preservation, or public programming in one or more fields of the humanities.
- If your organization is an eligible applicant, it may apply on behalf of a consortium of collaborating humanities organizations. Your organization will function as the recipient of the
- NEH award and will be programmatically, legally, and fiscally responsible for the award, including reporting and compliance requirements, financial transactions, certification of gifts to release federal matching funds, and subrecipient monitoring, if applicable. The recipient may not function solely as a fiscal sponsor; your organization must make substantive contributions to the success of the project.
- Individuals and other organizations, including foreign and for-profit entities, are ineligible.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
