ORN-2025-34

NEH Announces Reorganization of its Grantmaking Offices, Programs, and Personnel

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced an agency-wide reorganization to consolidate its grantmaking programs and divisions. NEH will merge the functions and staff of seven grantmaking offices and divisions into four new divisions to support projects that advance humanities research, education, public programs, infrastructure, and cultural preservation.

Effective immediately, NEH’s new divisions will be:

Division of Federal/State Partnership

NEH’s Division of Federal/State Partnership is charged with carrying out the Congressional mandate of establishing and maintaining humanities councils in the 56 states and U.S. jurisdictions and coordinating the partnership between NEH and the councils. The Division is responsible for administration and oversight of statutory federal operating support funding for the 56 humanities councils and managing collaborative projects and initiatives between NEH and the nonprofit state and local humanities councils. 

Division of Collections & Infrastructure

NEH’s Division of Collections & Infrastructure makes grants to organizations that seek to address the physical deterioration of their humanities collections as well as to provide access to them, including through the latest digital and other technologies. The Division’s programs focus on the twin goals of ensuring the long-term and the wide availability of primary resources in the humanities for scholars, teachers, students, and the public. The Division also supports the nation’s humanities infrastructure through “challenge” programs that enable humanities organizations to strengthen their financial stability. Challenge awards typically require the recipient to raise one to four dollars in new donations from non-federal sources for each federal dollar received.

Division of Lifelong Learning

NEH’s Division of Lifelong Learning provides humanities programming for the public as well as humanities programming geared towards the K-12 and postsecondary education sectors. The Division supports humanities projects in museums, historical and cultural organizations, libraries, K-12 classrooms, and colleges and universities, as well as for television, radio, and digital media. By developing quality humanities programs that foster public engagement in and appreciation for the humanities, the Division of Lifelong Learning delivers the best in the humanities for all Americans.

Division of Research

NEH’s Division of Research supports advanced humanities research by making grants to scholars, teachers and writers, and to educational and research organizations. These grants support individuals and collaborative teams of scholars and researchers in exploring archives, interpreting humanities texts and materials, developing and using digital tools, discovering new knowledge or rediscovering truths. The Division of Research also supports the humanities by commissioning studies on the state of the humanities to assess Americans’ engagement with the humanities and monitor trends within individual fields of study. 

National Endowment for the Humanities: The National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at neh.gov.