Grants
NEW! Applications for Major Grants may now be submitted on-line using our new GovOnline application. Click on the link to the left to set up a user account and complete a grant application. Full instructions are available on the application page.
No postage costs and no copies required when you apply on-line!
The Council will soon be offering on-line applications for Quick/Planning Grants, Arts and Humanities Touring Grants and Prime Time Family Reading Program Library Grants as well. Check back for the latest on-line application news and updates!
Michigan Humanities Council grants emphasize collaboration among cultural, educational, and community-based organizations and institutions to serve the people of Michigan with public humanities programming. These grants play a vital role in defining our culture, our state, our community, and ourselves. Organizations are encouraged to explore and retrace our histories, roles in societies, advancements and changes, meaning in self-expression and fulfillment, commonalities and differences.
Please note that all the forms below require Microsoft Word or Excel unless otherwise noted.
Grant Archive Database
For examples of previously awarded grants, the Council invites you to review prior funded projects in our Grants Archive. The database presents a variety of examples of previously awarded major grants, quick grants, and touring grants.
Major Grants
(up to $15,000)
The Council’s major grants are available to non-profit organizations and are intended to connect people to Michigan’s rich cultural and historical resources. Eligible projects include humanities initiatives that encourage reasoning together and learning from each other through discussion and interpretation. A public programming element must be a major component of each humanities-based project that receives funding. Click here to view the major grant application and view the instructions. Click here for Major Grant Program Overview.
All grant forms have been updated for the March 2012 major grant cycle.
Quick Grants (up to $500) and Planning Grants (up to $1,000)
The Michigan Humanities Council provides support for public humanities programs that fall outside the design and deadline schedules of the major grants. To help meet these requests and to match humanities resources and professionals with local needs, the Council offers Quick Grants and Planning Grants. Quick Grants provide up to $500 and Planning Grants provide up to $1,000 to Michigan-based, nonprofit organizations for public humanities programs or services. Planning grants cover expenses involved in developing a public humanities program that will result in a non-profit applying for a Council major grant. Organizations may only receive one quick or planning grant per year and the project activities must be free or very low cost and open to the public.
PRIME TIME Family Reading Time® Library Grants
For all new PRIME TIME Family Reading Time® programs, the Council will provide $9,000 to selected libraries to cover the majority of program expenses. Any public library system in the state of Michigan is eligible to apply to host a six-week PRIME TIME® series. A library system must commit to hosting a minimum of three PRIME TIME® series over a two-year period.
- Deadline: May 15, 2012 for July 2012 training
- Questions? Contact Lisa Hoeh at 517-372-7770.
- For further information on becoming a site, link here.
PRIME TIME® Mini Grants for Repeat Programs
Mini grants of up to $2,000 are currently available to library systems that have previously implemented a Council-sponsored PRIME TIME® Family Reading Time® program and are in need of additional funds to support repeat programs.
Arts & Humanities Touring Program Grants
(up to 40% of expenses or $3,000)
Michigan’s Arts & Humanities Touring Directory represents 204 of our state’s most talented performing and visual artists and humanities presenters. It provides schools, libraries, museums, civic and service groups, festival organizers, and other Michigan nonprofits a wide variety of cultural programming in the fields of dance, music, storytelling, theater, and traditional and visual arts. The Touring Program grants are available to nonprofit organizations who may request up to 40 percent of presenters’/exhibitors’ fees and travel expenses. Request for a grant may not exceed $3,000 per application, and an organization may not submit more than four grant applications or request more than $4,000 in a fiscal year. Applications are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.
- The Council has awarded all grants for the current period. Organizations may apply for Touring Grants in September 2012.
- Deadline: Grants are first come-first served until funding is exhausted.
- Questions? Contact Phyllis Rathbun at 517-372-7770.
- Forms:Grantee Final Report Form.
Grant Publicity Requirements
The Michigan Humanities Council
requires each grant recipient include to reference support from the Michigan Humanities Council
and the National Endowment for the
Humanities in all of its press releases, publicity
materials, and discussion
with the media.
