RI Humanities

GRANTMAKING

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    The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities 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.

    Announcement – FY24 Grantmaking Cycle Now Open with Program Updates! (September 2023)

    We are excited to announce the opening of our FY24 major and mini grantmaking program! Informed by best practices in grantmaking as well as feedback from our applicant and grantee communities, we have made some revisions with the goals of increased clarity, transparency, accessibility, and navigability. We will continue to evaluate our program with these goals in mind. The funding priorities, structure, and content of the program have remained constant.

    Please consult our updated Grants Guidelines for all the details on our revised program. You can also review PDFs of our current mini grant applications below, as well as access them live in our application portal.

    Some key highlights:

    • Eligible individuals can now apply for public project mini grants as well as research project mini grants. Eligible organizations can now apply for research project mini grants as well as public project mini grants and all major grants.
    • The deadline to submit the major grant Letter of Intent form is now Dec. 1 rather than Nov. 1, and all applications are now due at 11:59 pm EST on the day of the deadline.
    • The Grants Guidelines now contain a glossary of key terms and concepts, including the following: humanities, humanities content, humanities methods, public humanities, research projects, public projects, and civic health.
    • Mini and major grant application questions have been edited for clarity and organized into three main categories: Project Plan; Connection to the Humanities; and Community Engagement.
    • Each mini and major grant application now has questions about the humanities content and humanities methods for a project.
    • The required evaluation plan may now use any evaluation framework, rather than only the framework provided by the Council.
    • And other improvements to the application process, including conditional questions based on applicant type (individual or organization); suggested response lengths; and digital signatures.

    All of these updates, and an overview of our program, are covered in our virtual grants information session, which you can watch here and below. Additionally, for additional transparency, we will release the mini grant assessment rubric used by reviewers in the next few weeks.

    We look forward to supporting another season of rich, diverse, and impactful projects in the public humanities. And, we look forward to hearing your thoughts, feedback and questions!

    Questions?

    If you are interested in learning more about the Council’s grantmaking program, please contact the Council’s grantmaking staff–we would love to hear from you!

    If you have not applied for a Council 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.

    Our grantmaking staff, Julia Renaud, Associate Director of Grants and Strategic Initiatives and Melissa Wong, Grantmaking Program Coordinator, are 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 Council for the 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 Council for the 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.

    The Council 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 Council for the 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, 2024.

    Major Grant Deadlines
    • Register your Intent to Apply: October 2– December 1, 2023*
    • Submit Draft for Staff Review (optional): December 8, 2023*
    • Final Applications Due: January 16, 2024 
    • Award notifications: by March 20, 2024

    *Updated August 2023.

    All materials must be submitted to the Council 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 Letter of Intent forms below. The Letter of Intent form will become available on the Council’s grantmaking portal on Oct. 1, 2023. Please note that these PDFs are for reference only.
    Resources:
    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, 2023
    • February 1, 2024
    • May 1, 2024
    • August 1, 2024

    *Updated August 2023.

    All materials must be submitted to the Council 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 applications below. Please note that these PDFs are for reference only. To complete and submit these applications, you must log in to our grantmaking portal.

    Watch our 2023-24 Major and Mini Grants Information Session!

    Watch this 65-minute recorded session for information on RI Humanities’ major and mini grantmaking program from Nov. 2023 – Oct. 2024, including discussion of program updates: