NEH Grant Programs
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS: PICTURING AMERICA SCHOOL COLLABORATION PROJECTS Receipt Deadline: October 1, 2008 (for projects beginning April 2009)
Guideline Overview
I. Program Description
II. Endowment-Wide Programs and Initiatives
III. Award Information
IV. Eligibility
V. Application and Submission Information
VI. Application Review
VII. Award Administration Information
VIII. Points of Contact
IX. Other Information
Resources
• Sample Budget (PDF)
• Definitions of types of funding
Program Resources
• DUNS Number Requirement
• Sample Projects
• Frequently Asked Questions

Grants.gov Help
• Registration Checklist
• Download the current version of Adobe Reader
• How to convert documents into PDFs
• Tips for Creating PDF Files in Grants.gov Applications
• Grants.gov FAQs
• Grants.gov customer support

To obtain a printed version of these
guidelines, call 202-606-8446, send
an e-mail to info@neh.gov, or write
to NEH, Office of Communications
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW,
Washington, DC 20506.
Date posted: June 13, 2008
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 45.163
Draft proposals (optional): Applicants may obtain NEH staff comments on draft proposals submitted no later than August 15, 2008.
Questions?
Contact Barbara Ashbrook, Carol Peters, or Robert Sayers of NEH’s Division of Education Programs at 202-606-8380 and education@neh.gov. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930.
Grant Program Description
The National Endowment for the Humanities invites proposals for projects that foster collaboration between K-12 educators and humanities scholars to encourage engagement with the rich resources of American art to tell America’s story. The Picturing America School Collaboration grant opportunity is designed to help teachers and librarians whose schools display the Picturing America images form connections with courses in the core curriculum. These projects will be grounded in the great works of art included in Picturing America, which is part of the Endowment’s We the People program. Information about Picturing America, including a Teachers Resource Book, can be found by visiting the Picturing America Web site.
The images in Picturing America reflect a variety of media and talents spanning several centuries, ranging from the work of early American Indian artists to painters such as Mary Cassatt and Jacob Lawrence, from photographers such as Dorothea Lange to architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright. These images will help students better understand America’s diverse people and places and connect them to our nation’s travails and triumphs. Half of the initial distribution of high-quality reproductions (through NEH’s partner, the American Library Association) has gone to schools and school libraries in communities with a population of up to 25,000.
Goals of the Picturing America School Collaboration Projects grants are:
In order to provide a forum for exploring and deepening students’ understanding of art, American history, government, social studies, literature, language arts, civics, and other core subjects, funded projects should:
Successful proposals will present a conference schedule of plenary and concurrent sessions in engaging formats that provide opportunities for participants to:
Successful applicants will also provide plans for post-conference support for participants as well as for Picturing America portfolio recipients unable to attend the onsite activities. Post-conference activities will include:
Conference organizers will invite applications from Picturing America recipients and make selections according to criteria they establish to determine the quality of proposed school initiatives and the appropriateness of follow-up plans, both for the grade level(s) and any relevant learning frameworks.
Proposals to provide opportunities for teachers with limited access to professional development in the humanities are encouraged. These conferences may include public school teachers, teachers at charter schools, members of home school consortia, and faculty of private license schools. Host institutions should arrange adequate housing for the participants, who will pay for it from the stipends.
Projects must have a plan for evaluation that will provide firm evidence of each participant’s success in accomplishing proposed instructional goals. Projects must require a product as evidence of each participant’s or team’s new knowledge or increased skills, such as new lesson plans, course materials, library enhancements, or a research paper. Master teachers may be involved to assist participants in carrying out school projects or the construction of new learning resources.
Funds may be used to pay for consulting scholars, books and other materials, logistical support, and appropriate released time for project staff.
Types of projects not supported
Picturing America School Collaboration Projects grants do not support:
Providing Access to Grant Products
As a taxpayer-supported federal agency, the NEH endeavors to make the products of its awards available to the broadest possible audience. Our goal is for scholars, educators, students, and the American public to have ready and easy access to the wide range of NEH award products. For the Picturing America School Collaboration program, such products may include websites and other digital resources. For projects that lead to the development of Web sites, all other considerations being equal, the NEH gives preference to those that provide free access to the public. Detailed guidance on access and dissemination matters can be found in the dissemination section below.
II. Endowment-Wide Programs and Initiatives
The Endowment currently sponsors two agency-wide programs—We the People and Digital Humanities—and one special initiative, Rediscovering Afghanistan. Below is information on each. The NEH encourages applications in these three areas of special interest. Proposals will be evaluated through NEH’s established review process and will not receive special consideration.
We the People
To help Americans make sense of their history and of the world around them, NEH established the We the People program. NEH encourages applications that explore significant events and themes in our nation’s history and culture and that advance knowledge of the principles that define America. To learn more about We the People, visit the program’s Web site.
Digital Humanities
NEH welcomes applications for humanities projects that use digital technology or study its impact. Digital technologies offer humanists new methods of conducting research, conceptualizing relationships, and presenting scholarship. Digital humanities projects deploy these technologies and methods to enhance our understanding of a topic or issue. NEH also is interested in projects that study the impact of digital technology on the humanities—exploring the ways in which it changes how we read, write, think, and learn. Learn more about the NEH Office of Digital Humanities.
Rediscovering Afghanistan
NEH invites applications for projects that focus on Afghanistan’s history and culture. The special initiative is designed to promote research, education, and public programs about Afghanistan and to encourage United States institutions to assist Afghanistan in efforts to preserve and document its cultural resources. Learn more about the initiative.
Award Information
Picturing America School Collaboration Projects can be funded up to $350,000 in outright funds for projects involving at least two conferences. The grant period will be eighteen months.
When two or more institutions or organizations collaborate on an application, one of them must serve as the lead applicant and administer the project on behalf of all participating units.
Cost Sharing
Cost sharing is not required.
Eligibility
Any U.S. nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) tax exempt status is eligible, as are state and local governmental agencies and tribal governments. Grants are not awarded to individuals.
NEH generally does not award grants to other federal entities or to applicants whose projects are so closely intertwined with a federal entity that the project takes on characteristics of the federal entity’s own authorized activities. This does not preclude applicants from using grant funds from, or sites and materials controlled by, other federal entities in their projects.
Ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
How to Prepare an Application
How to Prepare your Application
Application advice and proposal drafts:
Prior to submitting a proposal, applicants are encouraged to contact program officers who can offer advice about preparing the proposal, supply samples of funded applications, and review draft proposals. These comments are not part of the formal review process and have no bearing on the final outcome of the proposal, but previous applicants have found them helpful in strengthening their applications. Program staff recommend that draft proposals be submitted six weeks before the deadline. Time constraints may prevent staff from reviewing draft proposals submitted after that date. Draft narratives must be submitted by e-mail attachment to education@neh.gov.
You will prepare your application for submission via Grants.gov just as you would a paper application. Your application should consist of the following parts:
  1. Table of Contents
    List all parts of the application and, beginning with the summary, number all pages consecutively.
  2. Summary
    Provide a one-page, single-spaced summary of the narrative.
  3. Narrative Description
    Limit the narrative to fifteen double-spaced pages with one-inch margins and 12-point, Times New Roman font. Use appendices to provide supplementary material.
    Provide a detailed description of the project consisting of the following sections:
    • Intellectual Rationale
      Explain the significance of the project for Picturing America. Place the project in its scholarly and educational context, and identify the intended impact on school teachers and their students.
    • Content of the Project
      Explain the content and structure of the conferences to be offered and how they will encourage educators to incorporate Picturing America images into the school curriculum. Describe conference sessions, including presentation and discussion topics, and what will be expected of participants. In an appendix, provide a detailed work plan. Describe plans for mentoring individual school projects, such as lesson plans, new curricula, or library enhancements.
    • Project Faculty and Staff
      Identify key resource personnel for the conferences and follow-up activities. Describe the qualifications and responsibilities of principal scholars, session leaders, museum and library professionals, keynote speakers, master teachers, and support staff, and the role that each member of the project team will have in ensuring successful completion of project goals. Enumeration of personnel should be supported in an appendix by up-to-date letters of commitment and brief résumés or biographies (one or two pages). The persons bearing primary intellectual responsibility for the grant activities should submit full résumés in an appendix.
    • Institutional Context
      Briefly describe how the resources (e.g., relevant programs and assets, hosting facilities, options for meals, capacities for outreach) of the participating institution(s) support the project. Applicants should describe the ways in which the conference site will enhance the program, including any plans to take advantage of local collections, architectural heritage, or museum resources as a means of encouraging educators to use and interpret art that can be found in their own communities.
    • Eligibility and Selection of Participants
      The NEH will help grant winners identify schools that have already received the Picturing America images. Include information on how these eligible participants will be recruited and selected. A strong recruitment plan should aim to ensure that participants come from diverse geographic areas and include librarians and school teachers from public, independent, religious, and charter schools, as well as home educators, and that there are no more than two participants from each school or home-school group.
    • Professional Development of Participants
      Describe how the project will help teachers integrate Picturing America into their core subjects. Describe follow-up plans, including listservs, e-newsletters, or Web sites, to support participants in accomplishing their school-based projects. Provide information, if applicable, about the potential for conveying professional development credit equivalency for teachers interested in obtaining such credit from their school district or state. Note how the project will meet curriculum frameworks or other learning standards.
    • Dissemination and Evaluation
      Describe post-conference efforts to extend the community of inquiry by dissemination of project materials and activities. This competition requires dissemination of project information to those who are unable to participate in grant activities. Applicants will provide a detailed plan for how conference materials (such as online audio and video) will be made available on a public Web site after the conference.
      Describe how the project will be evaluated. Features of a strong evaluation plan should include, but would not be limited to:
      • A post-conference participant survey; and
      • A quantitative and qualitative evaluation performed three to nine months after the conference and based on classroom application of Picturing America.
      Directors should conduct their own assessment of project accomplishments without the involvement of an outside evaluator.
      All other considerations being equal, NEH will give preference to projects that provide free, online access to materials produced with grant funds.
  4. Project Budget
    Provide a budget. A sample budget is available for guidance. All of the items listed must be reasonable, necessary to accomplish project objectives, allowable in terms of the applicable federal cost principles, auditable, and incurred during the grant period. Charges to the project for items such as salaries, fringe benefits, travel, and contractual services must conform to the written policies and established practices of the applicant organization. When indirect costs are charged to the project, care should be taken that expenses included in the organization’s indirect cost pool are not charged to the project as direct costs.
    Review the following budget instructions in preparing your budget. If you wish, you may attach separate pages with notes to explain any of the budget items in more detail.
    1. Participants’ Stipends
      Stipends for conference participants should be listed here. Stipends not to exceed $400 should be awarded to participants. For information on participant travel allowances, see Item 6 below. Stipends should be commensurate with the time commitment expected of the participants. (College or university credit may be awarded to participants seeking it at the discretion of the applicant institution. If any filing fee or tuition is charged, it should be charged directly to those participants wishing to receive credit and should be fixed at the lowest possible rate. Such fees may not be deducted from the participant’s stipend.)
    2. Operating Costs
      Item 1: Salaries and wages
      Include all project personnel except participants and consultants who are not employees of the applicant institution. NEH funds may not be used to hire replacement teachers or compensate faculty members for performing their regular duties. Participants and consultants not employed by the applicant institution should be listed respectively under Other Costs and Consultant Fees.
      Item 1a: Project directors are compensated for the time required to conduct the project including the conferences and follow-up activities. Calculations for compensation should be based on a percentage of academic year or annual salary.
      Item 1b: List other project faculty or lecturers or professional administrative staff employed by the applicant institution. Depending on their assignments and duties, their compensation may be calculated on the basis of an appropriate percentage of their full-time academic year or administrative salary or on a per diem basis. The role and duties that the project staff performs should justify the costs charged to the workshop budget.
      Item 1c: List clerical and secretarial support, as well as any support graduate assistants will provide. Compensation for support staff may be calculated as a percentage of salary or based on an hourly rate.
      Item 2: Fringe Benefits
      Calculate fringe benefits for those individuals employed by the applicant institution and listed on lines 1a, 1b, or 1c. Fringe benefits may include contributions for such items as social security, employee insurance, and pension plans. Only those benefits that are not included in an organization’s indirect cost pool may be shown as direct costs. Also, fringe benefits for clerical, administrative, and part-time personnel may be calculated at different rates than for employees on academic year appointments. The breakdown shown in the budget form should reflect these calculations.
      Item 3: Supplies and materials
      A request may be made to cover reasonable administrative and project charges for consumable supplies (e.g., computer CDs, instructional materials, educational software, etc.) and expendable equipment (i.e., equipment items costing less than $5,000 and with an estimated useful life of less than one year). Please note that these costs may be included only if they are not part of the indirect cost pool.
      Item 4: Services
      Services include the cost of duplication and printing, long-distance telephone charges and postage, rental of films and equipment, and subcontracts of any kind. All charges must be essential to the project. (See the section on inadmissible budget items.) Justify these modest requests in the budget narrative. Include an itemization of subcontract costs.
      Note. The budget should include sufficient funds for duplicating and mailing information and materials about the project for those persons who do not wish to receive them electronically. If a grant is awarded, NEH will publicize the slate of Picturing America School Collaboration Projects on its Web site. To supplement this general publicity, project budgets should include a modest amount of funds (up to $1,000) for publicity efforts to constituencies unique to the specific project.
      Item 5: Consultants
      List individuals contributing to the project as speakers, resource scholars, session leaders, master teachers, and school mentors. The typical honoraria for visiting scholars range from $350 to $750 per person per day. (Travel and subsistence costs should be entered in budget section 6.)
      Item 6: Professional Travel and Subsistence
      Travel and subsistence costs, including consultant, staff, and participant travel, should be calculated in conformity with institutional policy. Calculate the total participant travel allowance based on an average of $300 per conference participant.
      Item 7: Total direct costs
      Direct costs calculated by adding items 1 through 6.
    3. Indirect costs (overhead)
      These costs are incurred for common or joint objectives and therefore cannot be readily identified with a specific project or activity of an organization. Examples of indirect cost items are the salaries of executive officers, the costs of operating and maintaining facilities, local telephone service, office supplies, and accounting and legal services.
      Calculate indirect costs by applying a negotiated indirect cost rate to a distribution base (typically a portion of the direct costs of the project). Organizations that wish to include overhead charges in the budget but do not have a current federally negotiated indirect cost rate or have not submitted a pending indirect cost proposal to a federal agency may choose one of the following options:
      1. NEH will not require the formal negotiation of an indirect cost rate, provided the charge for indirect costs does not exceed 10 percent of direct costs, less distorting items (e.g., capital expenditures, participant stipends, major subcontracts), up to a maximum total project charge of $5,000 per year. (Applicants who choose this option should understand that they must maintain documentation to support overhead charges claimed as part of project costs.)
      2. If your organization wishes to use a rate higher than 10 percent or claim more than $5,000 in indirect costs per year, provide an estimate of the indirect cost rate and the charges on the budget form. If the application is approved for funding, you will be instructed to contact the NEH office of Inspector General to develop an indirect cost proposal.
    4. Amount requested from NEH
      Amount requested includes items A, B, and C.
    Budget narrative (optional): If needed, include a brief budget narrative explaining projected expenses or other items in the financial information provided on NEH's budget form.
    Inadmissible budget items: The following costs are not allowable and may not appear in project budgets:
    • cost of substitute teachers or compensation for educators performing their regular duties;
    • costs related to the regular activities of the institution;
    • rental of recreational facilities and costs related to social events such as banquets, receptions, and entertainment;
    • tuition fees for participants (See “Participant Stipends” above);
    • travel associated with independent scholarly research; or
    • development of education technologies or materials that are solely pedagogical.
  5. Appendices
    Include only relevant supplementary materials, such as:
    • Detailed agendas and workplans;
    • Reading lists;
    • Full résumé(s) from project director(s);
    • Brief résumés or biographies (one or two pages);
    • Letters of commitment from core team members, consulting scholars, library and museum professionals, and administrators from collaborating institutions.
    Each appendix should be identified clearly, listed in the table of contents, and numbered consecutively. The proposal narrative should refer to items included in the appendices.
How to Submit Your Application via Grants.gov
Register or Verify Registration with Grants.gov
Applications for this program must be submitted via Grants.gov. Before using Grants.gov for the first time, each organization must register with the Web site to create an institutional profile. Once registered, your organization can then apply for any government grant on the Grants.gov Web site.
If your organization has already registered and you have verified that your registration is still valid, you may skip this step. If not, please see our handy checklist to guide you through the registration process. We strongly recommend you complete your registration at least two weeks before the application deadline, as it takes time for your registration to be processed. If you have problems registering with Grants.gov, call the Grants.gov help desk at 1-800-518-4726.
Download the Free Adobe Reader software
To fill out a Grants.gov application package, you will need to download and install the current version of Adobe Reader. The latest version of Adobe Reader, which is designed to function with PCs and Macintosh computers using a variety of popular operating systems, is available at no charge from the Adobe Web site (www.adobe.com).
Once installed, the current version of Adobe Reader will allow you to view and fill out Grants.gov application packages for any federal agency. If you have a problem installing Adobe Reader, it may be because you do not have permission to install a new program on your computer. Many organizations have rules about installing new programs. If you encounter a problem, contact your system administrator.
Download the Application Package
To submit your application, you will need to download the application package from the Grants.gov Web site. You can download the application package at any time.
(You do not have to wait for your Grants.gov registration to be complete.) Click the button at the right to download the package.
Save the application package to your computer’s hard drive. To open the application package, select the file and double click. You do not have to be online to work on it.
You can save your application package at any time by clicking the “Save” button at the top of your screen. Tip: If you choose to save your application package before you have completed it, you may receive an error message indicating that your application is not valid if all of the forms have not been completed. Click “OK” to save your work and complete the package another time. You can also use e-mail to share the application package with members of your organization or project team.
The application package contains three forms that you must complete in order to submit your application:
  1. Application for Federal Domestic Assistance - Short Organizational (SF-424 Short)—this form asks for basic information about the project, the project director, and the institution.
  2. Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs—this form asks for additional information about the project director, the institution, and the budget.
  3. NEH Attachment Form—this form allows you to attach your narrative, budget, and the other parts of your application.
How to Fill Out the SF-424 Short Form
Select the form from the menu and double click to open it. Please provide the following information:
  1. Name of Federal Agency: This will be filled in automatically with “National Endowment for the Humanities.”
  2. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number: This will be filled in automatically with the CFDA number and title of the NEH program to which you are applying.
  3. Date Received: Please leave blank.
  4. Funding Opportunity Number: This will be filled in automatically.
  5. Applicant Information: In this section, please supply the name, address, employer/taxpayer identification number (EIN/TIN), DUNS number, Web site address, and choose the “type” that best describes your institution (you only need to select one).
    If your institution is located, for example, in the 5th Congressional District of your state, put a “5.” If your institution doesn’t have a congressional district (e.g., it is in a state or U.S. territory that doesn't have districts or is in a foreign country), put a “0” (zero).
    All institutions applying to federal grant programs are required to provide a DUNS number, issued by Dun & Bradstreet, as part of their application. Project directors should contact their institution’s grant administrator or chief financial officer to obtain their institution’s DUNS number. Federal grant applicants can obtain a DUNS number free of charge by calling 1-866-705-5711. (Learn more about the requirement.)
  6. Project Information: Provide the title of your project. Your title should be brief, descriptive, and substantive. It should also be informative to a non-specialist audience. Provide a brief description of your project. The description should be written for a non-specialist audience and clearly state the importance of the proposed work and its relation to larger issues in the humanities. List the starting and ending dates for your project.
  7. Project Director: Provide the Social Security Number, name, title, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone and fax numbers for the project director.
    Disclosure of Social Security Numbers is optional. NEH uses them for internal application processing only.
  8. Primary Contact/Grants Administrator: Provide the contact information for the official responsible for the administration of the grant (e.g., negotiating the project budget and ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions of the award). This person is often a grants or research officer or a sponsored programs official. Normally, the Institutional Grants Administrator is not the same person as the Project Director. If the project director and the grant administrator are the same person, skip to item 9.
  9. Authorized Representative: Provide the contact information for the Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) who is submitting the application on behalf of the institution. This person, often called an “Authorizing Official,” is typically the president, vice president, executive director, provost, or chancellor. In order to become an AOR, the person must be designated by the institution’s E-Business Point of Contact. For more information, please consult the Grants.gov user guide, which is available at: www07.grants.gov/applicants/app_help_reso.jsp.
How to Fill Out the Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs
Select the form from the menu and double click to open it. Please provide the following information:
  1. Project Director: Use the pull-down menu to select the major field of study for the project director.
  2. Institution Information: Use the pull-down menu to select your type of institution.
  3. Project Funding: Enter your project funding information. Note that applicants for Challenge Grants should use the right column only; applicants to all other programs should use the left column only.
  4. Application Information: Indicate whether the proposal will be submitted to other NEH grant programs, government agencies, or private entities for funding. If so, please indicate where and when. NEH frequently cosponsors projects with other funding sources. Providing this information will not prejudice the review of your application.
    For Type of Application, check “new” if the application requests a new period of funding, whether for a new project or the next phase of a project previously funded by NEH. Check “supplement” if the application requests additional funding for a current NEH grant. If requesting a supplement, provide the current grant number (applicants should discuss their request with a NEH program officer before submitting such an application).
    For Project Field Code, use the pull-down menu to select the humanities field of the project. If the project is multidisciplinary, choose the field that corresponds to the project’s predominant discipline.
How to Use the NEH Attachment Form
You will use this form to attach the various files that make up your application.
Your attachments must be in Portable Document Format (.pdf). We cannot accept attachments in their original word processing or spreadsheet formats. If you don't already have software to convert your files into PDFs, there are many low-cost and free software packages available. To learn more, go to http://www.neh.gov/grants/grantsgov/pdf.html.
When you open the NEH Attachment Form, you will find 15 attachment buttons, labeled “Attachment 1” through “Attachment 15.” By clicking on a button, you will be able to choose the file from your computer that you wish to attach. You must name and attach your files in the proper order so that we can identify them. Please attach the proper file to the proper button as listed below:
ATTACHMENT 1: To this button, please attach your table of contents. Please name the file “contents.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 2: To this button, please attach your one-page summary. Please name the file “summary.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 3: To this button, please attach your narrative description. Please name the file “narrative.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 4: To this button, please attach your budget. Please name the file “budget.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 5: To this button, please attach your appendices. Please name the file “appendices.pdf”.
Use the remaining buttons to attach any additional materials (if appropriate). Please give these attachments meaningful file names and ensure that they are PDFs.
Uploading Your Application to Grants.gov
When you have completed all three forms, use the right-facing arrow to move each of them to the “Mandatory Documents for Submission” column. Once they have been moved over, the “Submit” button will activate. You are now ready to upload your application package to Grants.gov.
During the registration process, your institution designated one or more AORs (Authorized Organization Representatives). These AORs typically work in your institution’s Sponsored Research Office or Grants Office. When you have completed your application, you must ask your AOR to submit the application, using the special username and password that was assigned to him or her during the registration process.
To submit your application, your computer must have an active connection to the Internet. To begin the submission process, click the “submit” button. A page will appear asking you to sign and submit your application. At this point, your AOR will enter his or her username and password. When you click the “sign and submit application” button, your application package will be uploaded to Grants.gov. Please note that it may take some time to upload your application package depending on the size of your files and the speed of your Internet connection.
After the upload is complete, a confirmation page, which includes a tracking number, will appear indicating that you have submitted your application to Grants.gov. Please print this page for your records. The AOR will also receive a confirmation e-mail.
NEH suggests that you submit your application no later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the day of the deadline. That way, should you encounter a technical problem of some kind, you will still have time to contact the Grants.gov help desk for support. The Grants.gov help desk is open Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time at 1-800-518-4726. You can also send an e-mail to support@grants.gov.
Deadlines
Draft proposals: Program staff recommend that draft proposals (optional) be submitted no later than August 15, 2008. Time constraints may prevent staff from reviewing draft proposals submitted after that date.
Applications must be received by Grants.gov by October 1, 2008. Grants.gov will date- and time-stamp your application after it is fully uploaded. Applications submitted after that date will not be accepted.
Application Review
Proposals for Picturing America School Collaboration Projects are evaluated according to the following criteria:
  1. Intellectual Quality and Significance
  2. Design and Feasibility
  3. Impact
All other considerations being equal, preference will be given to projects that provide free access to digital materials produced with grant funds.
Late applications will not be reviewed.
Review and Selection Process
Knowledgeable persons outside NEH will read each application and advise the agency about its merits. The Endowment’s staff comments on matters of fact or on significant issues that otherwise would be missing from these reviews, then makes recommendations to the National Council on the Humanities. The National Council meets at various times during the year to advise the NEH chairman on grants. The chairman takes into account the advice provided by the review process and, by law, makes all funding decisions.
Award Administration Information
Award notices
Applicants will be notified by mail of the decision by April 2009. Institutional grants administrators and project directors of successful applications will also receive at that time award documents by mail. Applicants may obtain the reasons for funding decisions on their applications by sending a letter or e-mail to:
NEH, Division of Education Programs
Room 302
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20506
or education@neh.gov
Administrative requirements
Before submitting an application, applicants should review their responsibilities as an award recipient .
Award conditions
The requirements for awards are contained in the General Terms and Conditions for Awards to Organizations, any specific terms and conditions contained in the award document, and the applicable OMB circulars governing federal grants management.
Reporting requirements
A schedule of report due dates will be included with the award document.
Interim and final performance reports will be required. Further details can be found in Performance Reporting Requirements (formerly enclosure 2).
A Federal Cash Transactions Report (2-page PDF) will be due within 30 days after the end of each calendar quarter. A final Financial Status Report (2-page PDF) will be due within 90 days after the completion date of the award period. Further details can be found in Financial Reporting Requirements (formerly Enclosure 1).
Points of Contact
If you have questions about the program, contact:
Picturing America School Collaboration Projects
Division of Education Programs
National Endowment for the Humanities
Room 302
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20506
202-606-8380
education@neh.gov
If you need help using Grants.gov, contact:
Grants.gov: http://www.Grants.gov
Grants.gov help desk: support@Grants.gov
Grants.gov customer support tutorials and manuals: http://www.Grants.gov/applicants/applicant_help.jsp
Grants.gov support line: 1-800-518-GRANTS (4726)
Other Information
Privacy Policy
Information in these guidelines is solicited under the authority of the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 956. The principal purpose for which the information will be used is to process the grant application. The information may also be used for statistical research, analysis of trends, and Congressional oversight. Failure to provide the information may result in the delay or rejection of the application.
Application Completion Time
The Office of Management and Budget requires federal agencies to supply information on the time needed to complete forms and also to invite comments on the paperwork burden. NEH estimates the average time to complete this application is fifteen hours per response. This estimate includes time for reviewing instructions, researching, gathering, and maintaining the information needed, and completing and reviewing the application.
Please send any comments regarding the estimated completion time or any other aspect of this application, including suggestions for reducing the completion time, to the Office of Publications, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C. 20506; and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (3136-0134), Washington, D.C. 20503. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB number.