RI Humanities

GRANTMAKING

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    Rhode Island Humanities’ Major and Mini Grantmaking Program funds individuals and organizations to stimulate new research in the humanities, spark thoughtful community exchange, build new audiences for the humanities, innovate new methods in the humanities, and advocate for the importance of the humanities for a lively and engaged democratic public.

    Updates to Major and Mini Grant Program for FY25

    In keeping with RI Humanities’ 2023 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Action Plan, we have made a number of updates to our FY25 major and mini grant program to increase clarity, transparency, navigability, and accessibility. These updates are summarized below, and are also reflected in our updated Major and Mini Grants Guidelines and throughout our grantmaking materials. Please contact grants@rihumanities.org with any questions or comments–we welcome hearing from you as we work to improve our program!

    • Policy revisions
        • Per federal revisions:
          • Grantees are now allowed to use grant funding to purchase up to $10,000 of A/V and technology equipment.
          • For organizational applicants without a Negotiated Indirect Cost rate (NICRA), the de minimis indirect cost rate has increased from 10% to 15%.
          • The Single Audit Threshold has changed from $750,000 to $1 million.
        • For documentary film and media research mini grants, grantees can choose to conclude their grant-funded project with EITHER a written or verbal report of research findings to Grants staff OR a public presentation of research findings. 
        • For major grants only, we have revised our previous Hiatus policy (after four consecutive years of funding, a grantee is ineligible to apply for a year) to a new Consecutive Funding Policy (after two consecutive years of funding, a grantee is ineligible to apply for a year). 
        • For both major and mini grants, we have introduced the “Funding Priority for Previously Unfunded Applicants” policy: If an application from an applicant who has not previously received funding from RI Humanities and an application from a prior grantee of RI Humanities are tied in funding priority following application review, the application from the previously unfunded applicant will be given funding priority.
    • Increased clarity and transparency
    • Increased navigability and accessibility 
      • We have simplified and condensed questions at the beginning of all project grant applications.
      • Updates to grant portal:
        • Individual users can now invite other users to join their existing organizational account (previously only Grants staff could assign individual users to existing organizational accounts). 
        • All users associated with a single organizational account can now see the entire application history from that organization (previously only an individual user could see an application they had submitted). 
        • Grantees can view and edit all assigned reports at the beginning of the grant period (previously the final report was only visible after the submission of the interim report). 
    FY25 Grants Information Session – Recording and Slides Available

    This recorded session includes information on RI Humanities’s grantmaking programs from Nov. 2024-Oct. 2025: our major and mini project grant programs and our THRIVE general operating support program. It is especially useful if you’re new to the application process or considering submitting a major grant application.

    Recorded September 2024.

    Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UhbcRXA1IAY

    Watch below:

    Timestamps:

    01:42: About RI Humanities

    08:26: About the Major and Mini Project Grant Program

    44:44: About the THRIVE General Operating Support Grant Program Recorded September 2024.

    PDF of slides from FY25 Grants Information Session: rihumanities.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/FY25-Grants-Info-Session-Slides.pdf

    Questions?

    If you are interested in learning more about the Major and Mini grantmaking program, please contact RI Humanities grantmaking staff–we would love to hear from you!

    If you have not applied for a RI Humanities grant in the last five years, we particularly encourage you to reach out at least two weeks before an application deadline. Staff can answer your questions, discuss your project, and potentially provide feedback on an application draft–all support options that can strengthen your application.

    Julia Renaud, Associate Director of Grants and Humanities Initiatives is standing by to help you.

    Contact us via email at grants@rihumanities.org or by phone at 401.273.2250.

    FUNDING AREAS
    PUBLIC PROJECTS
    Rhode Island Humanities supports public humanities projects that enrich and enliven the life of our state through a variety of formats including: community conversations, talks and lectures, new media technology, museum interpretations and exhibitions, workshops, panel discussions, book or film discussions, oral histories, and radio shows. Eligible individuals and organizations may apply for these grants at the mini grant level; only organizations may apply for major grants.

    For more information on how we think about public projects, please consult p. 13 of our Grant Guidelines.

    offered as:
    • major grant, annually
    • mini grants, quarterly
    DOCUMENTARY FILM AND MEDIA
    Rhode Island Humanities supports documentary film and media projects that preserve Rhode Island’s stories and bring its history to life. Eligible individuals and organizations may apply for these grants at the mini grant level; only organizations may apply for major grants.

    For more information on how we think about documentary film and media projects, please consult pages 6 and 13 of our Grant Guidelines.

    RI Humanities follows a three-phase approach to funding documentary films:

    offered as:

    Phase 1: Research (mini grant)
    Phase 2: Script Development (development level major grant)
    Phase 3: Production & Post Production (major grant)

    RESEARCH
    Rhode Island Humanities supports research projects that uncover Rhode Island’s untold stories and shed new light on established ones. Eligible individuals and organizations may apply for these grants at the mini grant level. We do not make research grants at the major grant level.

    For more information on how we think about research projects, please consult p. 12 of our Grant Guidelines.

    offered as:
    • mini grants, quarterly
    GRANT TYPES & DEADLINES
    MAJOR GRANTS (annually)
    The Major Grant Program, for requests over $2,000, invites eligible organizations to apply for funding in support of public projects and documentary film and media projects that will begin after April 1, 2025.

    Major Grant Deadlines
    • Register your Intent to Apply: October 1– December 2, 2024*
    • Submit Draft for Staff Review (optional): December 9, 2024*
    • Final Applications Due: January 15, 2025 
    • Award notifications: by March 21, 2025

    *Updated August 2024.

    All materials must be submitted to RI Humanities through the online grants portal by 11:59pm EST* on the day of the established deadline. Deadlines that fall on weekends or holidays are honored on the next business day. Please pay close attention to our grant deadlines. We want your proposal to be considered, but in fairness to other applicants, we cannot make any exceptions to our deadlines.
    For information on how to obtain a Unique Entity Identifier, a requirement for organizational applicants, please follow these instructions: https://bit.ly/UEIrich.
    Resources:
    You are welcome to download reference PDFs of our major grant Letter of Intent forms below. Please note that these PDFs are for reference only. To complete and submit these forms, you must log in to our grantmaking portal.
    MINI GRANTS (quarterly)
    The Mini Grant Program for requests up to $2,000 invites eligible individuals and organizations to apply for funding in support of public humanities projects and research projects.

    Mini Grant Deadlines
    • November 1, 2024
    • February 3, 2025
    • May 1, 2025
    • August 1, 2025

    *Updated August 2024.

    All materials must be submitted to RI Humanities through the online grants portal by 11:59pm EST* on the day of the established deadline. Deadlines that fall on weekends or holidays are honored on the next business day. Please pay close attention to our grant deadlines. We want your proposal to be considered, but in fairness to other applicants and to the process, we cannot make any exceptions to our deadlines.
    For information on how to obtain a Unique Entity Identifier, a requirement for organizational applicants, please follow these instructions: https://bit.ly/UEIrich.
    Resources:
    You are welcome to download reference PDFs of our mini grant resources below. Please note that these PDFs are for reference only.To complete and submit an application, you must log in to our grantmaking portal.