• Program Description • Award Information • Eligibility • How to Prepare an Application • How to Submit an Application • Application Review • Award Administration • Points of Contact • Other Information • Sample Financial Summary (2 pages) • Definitions of types of funding • Frequently asked questions • DUNS number requirement • 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.

• materials that enhance library or museum collections,
• construction or renovation of facilities,
• equipment, and
• fund-raising costs (totaling no more than ten percent of grant funds).

1. Table of contents
   List all parts of the application with page numbers.
2. Abstract
   Summarize the proposal, including the activities to be supported and the plans for raising matching funds. Applicants should describe the significance to the humanities of what they are proposing. This summary may be single-spaced and should not exceed one page.
3. Challenge grant budget
   Do not use the standard NEH budget form. Instead, provide an itemized one-page budget describing all challenge grant funds and indicate:
• the number of prior NEH challenge grants held by the institution,
• the portions of the total NEH funds being requested in years 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the grant period, and
• how all challenge grant funds—federal and nonfederal combined—will be expended.
For purposes of expenditure, there is no distinction between federal and nonfederal funds. Even if part of a larger campaign, the challenge grant budget should be limited to requested NEH funds plus the minimum required match of nonfederal funds. Planned annual expenditures from endowment yield should be broken down by specific cost categories. Challenge grants do not include indirect cost recovery.
The following example is for a grant of $300,000 plus $900,000 of nonfederal funds.

Sample challenge grant budget No prior NEH challenge grants   Total NEH funds requested:    $300,000 Year 1:         $25,000 Year 2:       $100,000 Year 3:       $100,000 Year 4:         $75,000   Total nonfederal contributions    $900,000   Total Grant Funds (NEH plus Match) $1,200,000   Planned Expenditures:   Direct (Specify,* if any. For example, "Library Renovation")    $200,000   Endowed Invested in Endowment $1,000,000   Annual expendable endowment income (5 percent)     $50,000   Additional humanities staff*      (40,000) Acquisitions*        (5,000) Computer Maintenance*        (5,000)

*In the proposal narrative, provide details about these expenditures, and justify the amounts allotted for the various expenditures in terms of the plans for the humanities. Also, please include a brief explanation of your institution's endowment spending policy.
NOTE: If the challenge grant includes support for any part of a construction or renovation project, the entire project is subject to Davis-Bacon requirements, and applicants must take into account the effect of the Davis-Bacon Act on costs. For purposes of compliance with the Davis-Bacon Act, there is no distinction between federal funds and nonfederal donations raised for matching.
4. Institutional fact summary Provide in a one-page outline:
   • Relevant facts and statistics about the institution or organization, such as its:
     • history,
     • mission,
     • governance and administration,
     • physical facilities,
     • staff size and composition (including percentage) in the humanities,
     • collections (including percentage) in the humanities, and
     • accreditation or affiliation (if applicable).
   • Data on recent humanities activities, such as the:
     • types and numbers of enrollments, programs, exhibitions, courses, and/or degrees awarded in the past two years;
     • percentage of total offerings in the humanities;
     • size and nature of enrollment, audience, or population served;
     • cost to participants (if any);
     • number of publications produced (if applicable); and
     • evidence for the success of these activities or offerings.
5. Financial summary
   Include a one or two-page summary of the institution's finances. Please refer to the Challenge Grants Sample Financial Summary Form (2-page PDF) for a suggested format. Where the application concerns a sub-unit of a larger whole (e.g., a library on a university campus), include summaries for both the larger and smaller units. The purpose of the summary is to give a clear picture of the financial status of the institution during the most recent three-year period. The information should pertain to annual operating budgets, exclusive of capital campaigns or other special income and exclusive of capital project expenditures. Figures should be compatible with figures cited elsewhere in the proposal. Significant operating surpluses or deficits should be explained.
6. Narrative
   Narrative descriptions are limited to twenty-five double-spaced pages. The font size should be no smaller than eleven-point. All pages should have at least one inch margins and be numbered consecutively throughout. Statistical and other supporting materials may be relegated to appendices. The narrative should provide a clear, logical, and concise description of the activities the challenge grant will support and the humanities significance of the proposed activities.
   In the narrative, the applicant should do the following:
   • Describe the significance and intellectual quality of the humanities activities, programs, or holdings the challenge grant would support. Explain why these activities are important, and to whom.
   • Describe the institution's long-range plans for intellectual development in the humanities. Explain how the institution, through its mission, personnel, governance, facilities, and resources is capable of sustaining outstanding humanities endeavors. Identify any collaborators or partners and provide evidence, such as letters of support, of institutional commitment to the long-range plans and the challenge grant.
   • Explain how challenge grant funds would strengthen and improve the humanities at the institution. Delineate clearly and in detail the planned challenge grant expenditures (federal and nonfederal combined). Explain how the NEH challenge grant will sustain and enhance significant humanities activities over the long term. Provide a plan for assessing, in both qualitative and quantitative terms as appropriate, the impact of the grant.
   • Describe the plans for raising funds to meet the NEH matching requirement. Offer evidence of long-term financial stability at the institution, and detail resources, leadership, staff, and experience for conducting a successful campaign. Give details of the fund-raising strategy; explain its feasibility and how it will broaden the base of institutional support.
   Applicants should also briefly describe, when relevant, any recent NEH or state humanities council grants received by the institution, as well as any pending NEH applications related to the activities that the challenge grant would support.
   If the applicant holds or is currently applying for any NEH grants that include a matching component, these must be described (including the amount of the match) in the section of the narrative that discusses the feasibility of fund-raising. Applicants who held a prior NEH challenge grant should briefly discuss the fund-raising experience and the benefits to the humanities resulting from the grant(s).
7. Lists of trustees and staff
   Provide a list of the institution's board of governors or trustees with their professional affiliations and a list of staff and/or faculty members principally involved with the challenge grant, and indicate their professional qualifications.
8. Résumés
   The project director is primarily responsible for implementing the humanities activities described in the narrative proposal. Attach this person's abbreviated (two-page) résumé as an appendix to the application. Résumés or job descriptions for any position being endowed should also be attached.
9. Letters of support
   Include in an appendix letters of commitment or support from appropriate institutional officials, faculty members, staff, collaborating institutions, and constituents or recipients of the humanities activities for which support is sought.
10. Optional Appendices
    Copies of printed brochures, flyers, or other descriptive materials may be sent separately and referred to in the text of the narrative.
    A single copy of bulky ancillary materials, such as catalogs, journals, or books, may also be submitted but are neither required nor encouraged. See How to Submit Supplementary Materials.

Section 106 Review Process and Letter from the State Historic Preservation Office

Applicants requesting support for the construction of a free-standing structure, for building renovations, or for additions to buildings of any age are required to consult with their state historic preservation officer (SHPO) to determine if a property or site is listed, or is eligible for listing, in the National Register of Historic Places. The SHPO's eligibility determination should be included in an appendix to the application. If a property is eligible for or listed in the National Register, the applicant should, if possible, also include in an appendix to the application the SHPO's written comments as to the effect of the project on the building or site, in accordance with the guidelines set forth in the Secretary of the Interior's “Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.”

Additionally, applicants who receive NEH challenge grant funds for renovation and construction projects on property or sites listed, or eligible for listing, in the National Register of Historic Places must provide NEH with assistance in carrying out its responsibilities under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, 16 U.S.C. Section 470f, as amended. For all funded renovation or construction projects, Section 106 requires NEH to conduct a review to determine whether historic properties will be affected. If historic properties will be adversely affected by a project, Section 106 requires that NEH consult with the State Historic Preservation Officer and the applicant to avoid, minimize, or mitigate the adverse effect.

The Section 106 review process is initiated once NEH makes a decision to fund an application for renovation and construction projects on property or sites listed, or eligible for listing, in the National Register of Historic Places. If such an application is selected for funding, the NEH Office of Grant Management will contact the applicant with a request for any additional information about the project that might be needed for Section 106 review. Once this information is received, NEH will conduct a review and determine whether further action is needed in order to comply with Section 106. The length of the Section 106 review process varies for each project. However, applicants can minimize the length of the review process by familiarizing themselves with Section 106 and by submitting required documentation with the Challenge Grant application. NEH is not permitted to release any grant funds until the Section 106 process has concluded.

For more information on the Section 106 review process, the required documentation, and the responsibilities of an applicant prior to and during the Section 106 review, please read the Section 106 FAQs, or contact the NEH Federal Preservation Officer by e-mail at FPO@neh.gov, by phone at 202-606-8309, or by mail sent to Federal Preservation Officer, Office of Challenge Grants, Room 420, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506.

Wage Rates for Renovation and Construction

Institutions using NEH challenge grant funds, federal or nonfederal, for renovation and construction projects must comply with the Davis-Bacon Act.

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.

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 congressional district of the institution. Also 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: http://www.grants.gov/CustomerSupport.

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 applications 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.

1. The significance of humanities activities
   What is the evidence that the current and planned activities—particularly those that will be affected by the challenge grant—are significant and that their intellectual quality is excellent? Why are these activities important, and to whom?
2. The appropriateness of resources and plans
   What evidence is there of realistic long-range institutional planning for intellectual development? Is the institution, through its mission, personnel, governance, facilities, and resources, capable of sustaining outstanding endeavors in the humanities? What evidence (such as letters of support) is there of sufficient institutional and community commitment to the long-range plans?
3. The impact of challenge grant funds
   Are the planned challenge grant expenditures (federal and nonfederal combined) clearly identified and described? Are the benefits to the humanities described clearly and in detail? How will the NEH challenge grant sustain and enhance significant humanities activities over the long term? How will the applicant assess the impact of the challenge grant?
4. The feasibility of fund-raising
   Does the institution provide evidence or promise of long-term financial stability? What are the applicant's resources, leadership, staff, and experience for conducting a successful campaign to meet the NEH matching requirement? What evidence is offered that the fund-raising plan is feasible? Will the fund-raising strategy broaden the base of institutional support?