Public Program Grants

Public Program Grants fund a wide variety of humanities programs, events, and activities that explore challenging questions and strive for just communities.

Some activities that are commonly funded by this grant include, but are not limited to: 

• Community dialogues
• Culturally specific and intercultural events
• Online engagements
• Storytelling formats that center undertold experiences
• Programming that connects exhibits to current experiences
• Activities that foster intergenerational connections and understanding
• Community-engaged interpretation of history, art history and theory, cultural history, philosophy

This grant can support program-related expenses that may include, but aren’t limited to:

• Honoraria for facilitators and featured participants (excluding audience members)
• Program/event planning costs, including project planning and management salaries
• Supplies and materials
• Event space rental costs
• Labor and technical support for online events
• Cleaning supplies and services
• Event advertising
• Printing and duplication
• Publication costs for electronic and print media, including distribution, promotion, and general handling (note: writing costs are not allowed)
• Equipment (maximum of 10% of grant award) purchased to specifically support the program being proposed for funding.
• ADA access (note: capital expenditures are not allowed)
• Applicants may request an indirect cost rate of up to 10 percent of the total award request. These costs may include but aren’t limited to payroll processing, audit fees, office equipment (for general office purposes), purchases, or maintenance not directly related to the program.
• Documenting the program through production of video, audio, digital/print publication
• Programs can be hosted online or in-person
• Programs can be in multiple languages or be in a language other than English. (Please note: grant reporting must be in English.)

This grant funding is from the National Endowment of the Humanities, and carries the restriction that these funds cannot be used to pay for the creation or performance of art. However, this grant can fund programs and events about “the history, criticism and theory of the arts” because these are commonly considered to be humanities activities. (Please visit the National Endowment for the Arts’ Grants page and the Oregon Arts Commission’s Grant page for funding opportunities that cover the creation and performance of art.) 

This grant does not fund humanitarian work.

Please read these documents for further info about eligibility, activity restrictions and compliance standards for organizations receiving this grant:

• Ineligibility, Restrictions and Compliance Standards for Grant Awards
• Frequently Asked Questions

Read the list of past OH grantees and short program descriptions that OH has funded since 2017. Please note that this list includes grantees awarded across all of our different grant opportunities.

To be eligible to apply for this grant your organization needs to:

• Be incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the state of Oregon or be a federally recognized tribe in Oregon. Nonprofit applicants must be registered as a 501(c)(3) organization located in Oregon and be registered with the State of Oregon as a charitable organization.
• Be able to complete an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) W-9 form in order to receive an award payment from Oregon Humanities.
• Have an organizational budget under $1.5 million (not including any federal emergency Covid-19 funding) for their most recently completed fiscal year if the applicant is not a federally recognized tribe.
• Have a current Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number at the time of grant application submission. Applications containing information showing that you’ve applied for a UEI number, but haven’t yet received one, will not be considered eligible grant applications.

IMPORTANT NOTE: As of April 4, 2022, the US federal government switched from requiring that our grantees have a DUNS number, to requiring that our grantees have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number issued by SAM.gov. It can take anywhere from a few days to months to receive your UEI number. We recommend applying for it when this grant opens for applications.

• Website for UEI registration and further instructions:  sam.gov/content/entity-registration
• Instructional video: Get A Unique Entity ID in Sam.gov. Please note that you do not have to do a full entity registration in order to get your UEI. If you do not already have an entity registration in SAM.gov and you simply want to obtain a UEI number, begin watching the short video at timecode 2:30 for instructions.
• If your organization’s UEI number on sam.gov is set to be private information, please either change the setting to make your UEI publicly viewable, or your organization will be required to upload a screenshot of your UEI number showing on sam.gov when you submit your grant application.

Requirements for applicants who have received prior funding from Oregon Humanities:

• Must be in good standing with past awards in order to be eligible to apply for funding.
• Must not have received Oregon Humanities’ Public Program Grants consecutively in the previous two cycles. Organizations awarded a Public Program Grant in both 2022 and 2023 are not eligible to apply for a 2024 Public Program Grant and must wait until the 2025 grant cycle to be eligible to apply again. (Note: this rule does not apply to any Oregon Humanities’ CARES and/or SHARP funding your organization received.)

Oregon Humanities Public Program Grant requests must not constitute more than fifty percent of your program’s/event’s budget. All grant award dollars must be matched at least 1:1 with earned, contributed, or in-kind support from the grant applicant. 

Common examples of how grantees often raise matching funds for their grant awards:

Raising matching funds through revenue

• Charging a reasonable admission or registration fee for your grant-funded event.
• Having your own organization or a partner organization contribute dollars to fund the program/event.
• Securing another grant to fund your program/event. (Please note that this OH grant funding is a subawarding of federal funds. Federal funding policies do not allow grantees to use federal grant award money to match other federal award grant money.
• Important note: federal laws prohibit organizations that receive this grant from making any profit off of the programs/events being funded by it. So if you plan on raising matching funds through revenue, please also be thinking about how you’ll need to fully spend all funds by the conclusion of your grant period. Please refer to the “Grant Timeline” section on this page to see the beginning and end dates of the grant period.)

Valuing in-kind support (dollar value of goods, services, and labor donated to your program by third parties) to meet your matching funds requirement:

• Donated goods/services: If a printer donates services, the dollar value of the donation should be included in your budget as an in-kind contribution.
• Donated labor: You can value the contributions of volunteers who donated their work to your program or event. This includes volunteer work done in preparation/planning and during programs and events. Volunteer time can be valued at $31.80/hour when calculating in-kind volunteer labor.

Matching funds are not required to be fully secured at the time you apply for this grant. However, matching funds that are secured at the time of application make your application stronger!

We only accept applications submitted through our website.

To watch a video about how to apply for a Public Program Grant, click here.

Organizations are limited to one application per annual grant cycle.

We accept applications for multilingual programs, but the grant application and reporting are required to be in English.

If you are in need of an accommodation or any assistance that would help you apply for this grant, we’ll do our best to help! Please reach out to Dawn Smallman, grants and programs coordinator, at grants@oregonhumanities.org.

We know that applying for a grant can be challenging, whether you’ve received grants in the past or if it's your first time applying!

Oregon Humanities offers many types of support to help grant applicants write their strongest application. We also offer support and assistance to our grantees, to help them manage the proper use of their funding and assistance with their grant reporting. 

To be notified of our online and in-person help and info sessions, please sign up here for our grants newsletter.

Instructional video

View our 2023 grant application assistance video here.

Online information sessions

We host online information sessions with grants program staff members to help applicants with questions and to discuss eligibility, program and grant alignment, and all aspects of applying for our grants. Please email grants@oregonhumanities.org to receive the zoom link for the sessions.

Tuesday, January 16, 2024, from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. PT

Online Info Session #1. This hour will cover general information about the grant: how to apply, what kinds of programs PPGs fund, etc. This will be an informal session, with an opportunity for attendees to ask questions.

Friday, January 19, 2024, from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. PT

Online Info Session #2. This hour will be an opportunity for applicants who are newer to applying to grants to bring their questions to our grants staff. This will be an informal session, mostly centered on the attendees’ questions. If you have a specific question you’d like covered during the session but would prefer not to ask it during the session, please send it in advance to grants@oregonhumanities.org.

Individual support

If you wish to have a phone consultation to get feedback on your program’s alignment with this grant, please email grants@oregonhumanities.org to request a call with our grants coordinator. 

Our grants team offers individual support to grant applicants who have questions or could use technical assistance. Please email grants@oregonhumanities.org to schedule a phone or Zoom meeting. Please note that individual meetings are not available during the week preceding the grant application submission deadline.

Organizations receiving grant awards will receive a notice of your award amount and a legal Grant Agreement via email. This email will be sent to the contacts named in your grant application as your Project Lead and Authorizing Official. 

Please fully read your Grant Agreement, reach out to us if you have questions about it, and have your Project Lead and Authorizing Official sign it promptly. After we receive the signed Agreement, we will release the awarded amount of funding to your organization. 

The email will also include the links to your grant reporting forms. You’re required to file the reports listed below. Please refer to your Grant Agreement for the reporting due dates. 

• Interim Report
• Two Final Reports: Narrative Report and Fiscal Expense Report

Oregon Humanities offers the following support to assist you in managing your grant-funded program or event:

Post-award grantee online meeting (attendance required)

All Public Program Grant awardees are required to attend one of our two post-award grant management online sessions that are held shortly after grantees receive their awards. Information and Zoom links for the online sessions will be emailed to grantees. If you are unable to attend either of the scheduled sessions, please email grants@oregonhumanities to schedule an individual session.

In this session, we’ll discuss the items that grant recipients need to understand, plan for, and track, as they apply the grant funding to their programs, including aspects such as the required matching funds and documenting your events and your volunteer labor. We’ll also cover the Interim and Final Report forms that grantees are required to submit. Sessions will include time for questions and discussion.

Preparing your final reports online training session (attendance optional)

In this session, we’ll help grantees prepare for doing their required Final Reports—the Final Narrative Report and the Fiscal Expense Report. All grantees will be emailed a zoom link for this optional-attendance session.

Grant management materials for grant recipients

• Grant management materials for Spring 2024 Public Program Grantees
• Grant management materials for Spring 2023 Public Program Grantees

Accessibility and inclusion

Check out the Oregon Humanities Accessibility and Inclusion Guide for tips to make your programs and events inclusive.

Review Committee

The Public Program Grants review committee is composed of members of Oregon Humanities staff and board as well as guest reviewers (people outside of the organization who have participated in past programs).

Scoring Rubric

The following scoring rubric will be used by the review committee:

#1: The applicant's intentions for their program (1–10 scale)

Relevant questions in the application: "Program short summary" and "Program description" 

#2: The proposed logistics for the creation of the program (1–10 scale)

Relevant questions in the application: "Program Planning Team" and "Program creation and its relationship to program participants/audiences."  

#3: The proposed program budget (1–10 scale)

Relevant questions/items in the application: the "Budget Narrative" question, the Budget form, the fiscal stability of the organization found in the most recent, board-approved budget, and the relationship between the organization and the program budgets

#4: The proposed program's alignment with OH and the grant’s purpose (1–10 scale)

Relevant question in the application: "Alignment with OH's mission and grant's purpose" 

#5: If the applicant answers the optional application question, "Is there other information you think our grant application reviewers should take into account in reviewing your application?" reviewers will consider the content of their answer in the most appropriate scoring category above.

Our review committee members individually score each application based on the merits of each proposal. After numerical scoring is completed, the applications are ranked according to the scoring. The committee meets to discuss proposals and rankings and determines which applications to fund. Then Oregon Humanities evaluates if the committee’s intentions for awards will allow the organization to reach our 60 percent awarding goal to our two Funding Priority Groups. Oregon Humanities may potentially adjust the award amounts and/or the number of awards in order to reach our goal, but the importance of the original scoring/ranking of applications remains intact throughout the process.

Note: Available funding for the 2024 cycle of Public Program Grants may be affected by the 2024 federal budget.

Oregon Humanities is committed to funding organizations across Oregon. Knowing that we have limited grant funds to award and are committed to funding organizations and communities that have historically been underserved, we prioritize funding to Oregon organizations that are based in and led by rural communities (using the Oregon Office of Rural Health’s definition of rural as locations in Oregon ten or more miles from the center of a population center of 40,000 people or more) and/or organizations led by Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color (BIPOC) communities.

Applications are welcome from all organizations that meet our eligibility requirements. Eligibility requirements are detailed on this page. We encourage any organizations new to Oregon Humanities to apply if they meet the eligibility requirements.