With the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence next year, the National Endowment for the Humanities is offering programs designed to help organizations and communities strengthen programming about the American Revolution and Founding Era. Support is also available to public scholars working on books about American history. 

Public Impact Projects Celebrating America’s 250^th Anniversary support projects that focus on public interpretation of the Founding Era and the lasting impact of the people and events that propelled the Revolution. Supported activities must be designed to connect audiences to the ideas of the American Revolution through the synthesis of scholarship and may include:

• Collaborating with scholars and consultants to develop new interpretive plans
• Implementing tours, exhibitions, or other public-facing programs
• Assessing the opportunities presented by your collections and other resources to tell compelling stories of the legacy of the Declaration of Independence
• Training staff and volunteers in new methods and best practices for public interpretation

NEH encourages proposals from first-time applicants and those who have not received NEH funding.

More information and the notice of funding opportunity is available here. 

Maximum award amount: $200,000

Celebrate America! will award 250 challenge grants of up to $25,000 each for projects that focus on the founding of the American nation, key historical figures, and milestones that reflect the exceptional achievements of the United States. NEH welcomes applications that include activities including but not limited to: 

• Speakers, screenings, discussion series
• Community events and family programs
• Exhibits (permanent or temporary) including interpretation
• Meetings, conferences, and symposia
• Professional development and training
• Digital projects resulting in virtual exhibitions, web content, or virtual tours
• Educational materials and curriculum development for K-12 and higher education purposes
• Research leading to documentary films, exhibits, books, or other products that reach the general public

Awards will be made using federal matching funds. As part of your application, you will need to certify that your organization has secured third-party, nonfederal gifts equal to the amount requested from NEH. 

More information and the notice of funding opportunity is available here.

Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis.

The Public Scholars program offers grants to individual authors for research, writing, travel, and other activities leading to the creation and publication of well-researched nonfiction books in the humanities written for the broad public. Writers with or without an academic affiliation may apply, and no advanced degree is required. The program encourages non-academic writers to deepen their engagement with the humanities by strengthening the research underlying their books, and it encourages academic writers in the humanities to communicate the significance of their research to the broadest possible range of readers. NEH especially encourages applications from independent writers, researchers, scholars, and journalists.

The 2026 Public Scholars competition will only accept projects that promote a deeper understanding of our nation’s extraordinary heritage, including our record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing. Competitive applications will focus on topics in American history, culture, and government in any period from the Colonial Era to the present that increase public knowledge of the 250th anniversary of American Independence and American exceptionalism. Projects might explore the origins of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy, or how its founding ideals have been met over time, or examine significant individuals, events, books or documents, artworks, objects, music, places, traditions, or ideas that have shaped America, its role in the world, or the experiences of its people.

NEH particularly encourages projects focused on American military history; projects that explore the concept of the American Dream through the lens of economic freedom, entrepreneurship, and innovation; and projects the elucidate the historical and ongoing role of the United States as a leader in global affairs, emphasizing themes of American exceptionalism, moral leadership, and constructive diplomacy.

More information and the notice of funding opportunity is available here. 

Application deadline: August 6, 2025

To apply for an NEH grant, your organization needs to register with a series of websites that will make you part of the federal grantmaking ecosystem. If you are a first-time applicant, we recommend you start the registration process immediately; it can take up to several weeks for the entire process. If you’ve applied with us before, please be aware that there are some changes to the process.   

REGISTER NOW!

If you have not already done so, you must create a Login.gov user account. Login.gov is a secure sign-in service used by the public to sign in to participating government agencies. Your Login.gov account will be used to register and log in to SAM.gov and Grants.gov. Create and link your account now.   

Your organization must also register with the System for Award Management (SAM) and maintain an up-to-date SAM registration while you have an application under consideration or have an active award with NEH or another federal agency. Previous applicants should confirm that their registration is current. Check the status of your SAM.gov registration here. Through SAM, you must also obtain a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). Remember that DUNS numbers have been discontinued.  

Before applying, your organization must register with Grants.gov using your Login.gov credentials. You must submit your application using Grants.gov Workspace or a Grants.gov system-to-system solution. Workspace is a shared, online environment where team members may simultaneously access and edit forms within a grant application.  

APPLYING FOR A NEH GRANT IS ALWAYS FREE   

Applicants have reported problems with companies that charge money to register their organization with SAM.gov and Grants.gov. It is always FREE to register with both websites—and FREE to submit an application to NEH. Companies charging fees to handle your registration have no power to expedite the process. Starting your application early is the best insurance against last-minute problems.   

SUBMIT EARLY TO GRANTS.GOV  

Give yourself a generous window of time to upload your application and fix any last-minute problems. We recommend you submit your application 48 hours before the deadline to allow time to correct any technical issues.

After you submit your application, check your email and spam folder frequently for a series of messages from Grants.gov tracking your application through the process of validation and transmission to NEH. At each stage in the process, Grants.gov will send you either a confirmation message that your application has successfully advanced to the next step or an error, incomplete, or ineligible message. Applications will not be accepted if you do not correct the error before the deadline, so allow time to fix them. If your application is successfully submitted, you will receive a total of five messages from Grants.gov.  

If your application is rejected by Grants.gov or NEH, you can fix it up until the deadline at 11:59 PM EST, just one minute before midnight, on the day of the deadline.  

If your application is rejected by Grants.gov or NEH after the deadline, your application will not be reviewed by NEH.   

EVERY DOCUMENT HAS TO BE PDF  

The most common reason for an application to be rejected by NEH is the presence of documents that are not in the PDF file format.   

NEED TECH HELP?  

For questions about Login.gov or SAM.gov, contact the Federal Service Desk, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Federal Service Desk / U.S. calls: 866-606-8220 / International calls: +1 334-206-7828  

For assistance in registering with or submitting your application through Grants.gov: Grants.gov Applicant Support / U.S. calls: 1-800-518-4726 / International calls: +1-606-545-5035 / support@grants.gov  

Always obtain a case number when calling for support in case NEH needs documentation of your issue.