Deadline: 17-Mar-25
Illinois Humanities is pleased to announce the Vision Grants to support nonprofit organizations in their pursuit of planning, evaluation, and diversity, accessibility, and equity initiatives.
Through research, workshops, and more, these vision-driven projects help steer organizations to make a positive impact. As a funder and partner, they provide the resources and support to help your organization grow more equitable while strengthening your programs and initiatives.
Planning plays a critical role in smaller groups’ ability to successfully carry out humanities initiatives. Especially for groups that wish to delve into more interactive public humanities programming or target new audiences, planning grants can help develop a series, explore collaborations, or look into harnessing digital technology or other tools. They believe that better planning leads to stronger programming and that stronger programmatic initiatives can lead to stronger organizational vitality. Vision grants can also be used for succession planning.
Working with consultants to conduct research, provide training, and help develop evaluation tools is entirely acceptable. Projects can include convening scholars, bringing together or surveying audience members, traveling around the state to research an initiative, and other activities to help groups plan.
In addition, Vision grants can be used for groups to go through workshops and trainings meant to help them become more effective as anti-racist organizations and more intentional in holistically addressing gender, class, sexuality, disability/ability, and other issues.
Funding Information
- Amount: Up to $2,000
- Additional Funding:
- Optional Accessibility Fund: An additional stipend of up to $150 for services such as American Sign Language interpretation or captioning to help make events more accessible to everyone.
- Optional Media Fund: An additional stipend of up to $100 for services such as documentation, photography, videography, etc.
Ineligible Activities
- Illinois Humanities supports public humanities programs, initiatives, and organizations. They 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)
Eligibility Criteria
- Must be a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization in good standing or have a fiscal sponsor
- Organizations or projects must be Illinois-based
- Priority given to organizations with an annual budget of $1 million or less
- Can not have an open Vision, Action, or General Operating grant
- Be up-do-date on reporting for any previous grants from Illinois Humanities
For more information, visit Illinois Humanities.
