Foreground Rural Initiative Grants

The Foreground Rural Initiative is not offering grants to new partners at this time. Please check back for available funding opportunities in 2025.

The Foreground Rural Initiative is not offering grants to new partners at this time. Please check back for available funding opportunities in 2024.

Evaluation and documentation are important to us, and we are eager to see how grant applicants define success and plan to measure progress toward it. We ask grant applicants to describe in precise terms the project's desired outcome, and how they will know if it was successful. Within 30 days of the conclusion of a project or grant period, grantees must complete a final grant report.

We ask all Grant recipients to document their initiatives or events by taking photos, recording audio or video, and sharing their experience with us. We want to share with others the great work that grantees are doing and frequently feature stories of grantee partners in our news and on social media @ILHumanities.

1. Complete your final report via our grantee portal.
2. Official IH Logo (August 2021 version "Illinois Humanities" is bolded)
3. Grant Acknowledgement Language: This program was made possible in part by a grant from Illinois Humanities.
4. Resources for grantee partners and grant seekers.

For the purposes of this initiative, Illinois Humanities considers an organization “rural” if it meets at least two of the following four criteria:

1. It is located in a county with a population density of 150 or fewer residents per square mile;
2. It is located either in an unincorporated area or in a village, town, or city with a population of 7,500 or fewer residents;
3. It is located at least 20 miles from the nearest city with a population of 75,000 or more;
4. It has an explicit mission to serve rural communities or people who reside in rural locations.

We will continue to develop these criteria based on input from partner organizations and consultants.

In many historically under-resourced communities, there is a strong need to bring people and organizations together to help shore up history–and help people imagine what a culturally and civically vibrant future might look like. This often requires bringing people together from across generations, ethnic differences, and disciplines. We are interested in these areas, and the role that cultural work–in the arts, in the humanities–plays in furthering this creative work.

Broadly, the humanities help us understand and interpret what it means to be human; participating in the humanities equips us to form a diverse society. In academic settings, the humanities encompass studies of art, art history, communications, culture, ethnic and gender studies, ethics, folklore and folk culture, literature, languages, music, dance, theatre, history, and philosophy. At Illinois Humanities, our focus is the public humanities that happen (most often) outside of academic institutions. We create — and support — programs, and modes of engagement that emphasize curiosity, questioning, and dialogue.

• Public humanities programs feature the following practices:
• The public humanities create a public. Gathering is designed with intentionality, and the people who gather may not already know each other.
• People are talked with, not talked at. People are learning “with,” not just learning “from.”
• People are encouraged to ask questions to better understand their own — as well as others’ — experiences and points of view.

Regardless of the mode of practice, public humanities support people to employ capacities we inherently hold as humans — being curious, listening closely, changing our minds, and embracing complexity and nuance. The public humanities call upon us to use, practice and develop ways of engaging with one another that help us discern our own beliefs, expand our understanding of what is possible, and appreciate that differences make us stronger. These particular human abilities are like any other skill: they get better with practice and, when underdeveloped or underattended, they atrophy.

Does your organization have a working definition of the public humanities? Share it with us–we’re eager to explore how others are addressing this complex question.

Illinois Humanities supports public humanities programs, initiatives, and organizations. We do not fund:

• Activities that promote a specific political position or ideology
• Alcoholic beverages
• Businesses, for-profits
• Capital projects (i.e., renovation or purchase of buildings or land)
• Endowment contributions
• Foreign travel
• Lobbying
• Major equipment purchases (though equipment to assist a specific program is admissible)
• Out-of-state programs that have no specific relevance or thematic connection to people in Illinois (though technically a grant recipient or fiscal agent can be located elsewhere in the U.S.)
• Programming that falls outside of the humanities
• Social services (though a social services agency may apply for funding of a humanities project)

In general, grantees may have one open Vision, Action, Multiplier, or General Operating grant at a given time.  Before applying for a new grant, current grantees should be sure to conclude their open grant by submitting a final report.

A grantee may have an open Vision, Action, Multiplier, or General Operating grant and still receive an Activate History microgrant, Envisioning Justice, or Foreground Rural Initiative grant.

Note: If your organization acts as a fiscal agent for another, you may have an open grant and still receive funding for any grant offered by Illinois Humanities.

Nonprofit organizations in good standing can apply for Illinois Humanities grants. This includes 501(c)3 organizations and nonprofits under state law, as well as libraries, schools, faith-based organizations, and universities. We do not accept grant applications from individuals (unless otherwise indicated) or for-profit companies. If you are unsure about whether you can apply, reach out to us.

Illinois Humanities has been making grants since its inception in 1973 with over 3,000 awards given, totaling over $22 million. We are proud to have helped support dozens of documentary films, conferences, exhibits, training programs, oral history projects, and scores of other activities. We are firm believers in the many organizations and individuals throughout the state of Illinois that value the humanities, culture, and dialogue as community-building activities, and wish to help them fulfill their missions, carry out high-quality programming, and grow their organizations. We are indebted to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Illinois General Assembly for the support that allows this grantmaking program to exist.