Challenge grants help institutions and organizations secure long-term support for, and improvements in, their humanities programs and resources. Challenge grant recipients are required to match NEH funds on a three-to-one or four-to-one basis. Challenge grants can be used to:

The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia has received two We the People challenge grants, one (for $500,000 in federal funds) to renovate the museum's Changing Exhibits Gallery space and the second (for $1 million) to endow staff positions and programming in the Changing Exhibits Program.

Using a $500,000 We the People challenge grant (plus $1.5 million in non-federal match), the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, is endowing staff positions and other costs of managing the digital Walt Whitman Archive, a database containing accessible virtual versions of Whitman's oeuvre, including all versions of Leaves of Grass and Whitman's commentary on the American polity in works such as Democratic Vistas.

The Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) is leading a consortium of research libraries in building an endowment to support the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, an online scholarly resource that can be constantly updated and supplemented without losing the original version. An NEH award of $500,000 is combined with $1.5 million to form a $2 million endowment.

Hawaii’s Kona Historical Society received a challenge grant of $300,000, to be matched by $900,000 in nonfederal donations, to support purchase and renovation of Uchida Coffee Farm, a typical Japanese-American coffee farm of the 1930’s.

The Art Institute of Chicago received a $200,000 NEH challenge grant to raise $800,000 to build an endowment for acquisitions and preservation in its renowned Ryerson Library and Burnham Library of Architecture.

The Decorah Public Library in Iowa has raised over $960,000 in donations to match its $320,000 NEH challenge grant for construction and renovation of a historic building for expanded space and collections storage, furnishings, and equipment.

At the Makah Cultural and Research Center in Neah Bay, Washington, a $275,850 challenge grant leveraged over $1 million in gifts to preserve 50,000 artifacts dating from 1000 to 1450, and to build a classroom for public use.

Assist institutions in improving teaching, expanding educational resources, and promoting life-long learning.

The Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is using a $100,000 challenge grant to raise $300,000 in donations to endow educational programming for grade- and highschoolers, for landowners, and the general public.

A $100,000 challenge grant to the South Dakota Humanities Council will help the Council raise $300,000 to endow its Speakers Bureau Programs and Teacher Institutes on Native American Cultures.

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian in North Carolina received a challenge grant of $300,000 that, coupled with $900,000 in private donations, will endow educational programming and support construction of a new education wing.

The New Hampshire Humanities Council received a $200,000 challenge grant to raise $600,000 in private funds to support professional development for humanities teachers in the state’s schools.

Children in the Washington, D.C., area experience Shakespearean drama first-hand through educational programming by the Folger Shakespeare Library. A $625,000 NEH challenge grant, matched with $2.5 million in nonfederal donations, will provide permanent support for the Folger’s "Shakespeare in the Schools" programming.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation received a $625,000 NEH challenge grant to raise $1.9 million for endowment to support the position of Director of Interpretation and Education to improve the ability of staff to interpret for public audiences the historic significance of Trust properties.

A $600,000 challenge grant will help the Appalachian College Association raise $1.8 million in nonfederal donations to support fellowships for humanities research and teaching at private colleges in central Appalachia.

The Wisconsin Historical Society was awarded a challenge grant of $500,000, to be matched by $2 million, toward an endowment to support the library's senior conservator position, temporary assistants, equipment purchases, and training programs for the library staff.

Help humanities organizations look to the future by strengthening their capacity to use digital technology for the humanities.

KNPR, Nevada Public Radio, is using a challenge grant of $375,000 plus $1,125,000 in donations to create an endowment in support of humanities programming, technology upgrades, and maintenance.

The University of Virginia received a NEH digital humanities challenge grant for $750,000 to be matched by $2,250,000 in nonfederal donations in order for the university to endow acquisition of technology equipment and computer hardware and software, as well as to support staff salaries and training and bridge funding.

A challenge grant of $500,000 is being matched by $2 million in private donations in order for the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia to create an endowment for library technology, which will include preservation, access and outreach, and technology management.

Help museums and other institutions expand their facilities, acquire needed expertise, and develop public programs.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center in Fairbanks is using its $300,000 challenge grant to raise $900,000 in private donations to support construction of a Welcome House and outdoor village exhibition area and creation of an education endowment for humanities programs about Eskimo, Indian, and Aleut peoples.

With $900,000 in private donations leveraged by its $300,000 challenge grant, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City is renovating a 19th-century tenement building for programs interpreting immigrant life and culture.

Michigan State University is endowing its programs of the Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy, thanks to a $500,000 challenge grant that is being matched with $1.5 million in nonfederal donations.

Ogden Museum of Southern Art was awarded an NEH challenge grant for $500,000 to be matched by $1.5 million in private donations in order for the museum to restore a historic library and to help complete the Ogden Museum of Southern Art's three-building complex in New Orleans.

In Kansas City, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art received a challenge grant for $500,000 which it is matching with $1.5 million in nonfederal dollars, to create an endowment which it will use to support the position of Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art, a position that had been vacant for some time.

Help colleges, universities, and libraries expand their collections, create new reference materials, and encourage research.

With a $1 million challenge grant, Arkansas State University will raise $3 million in nonfederal donations to aid in the restoration of the 1858 Lakeport Plantation near Lake Village and the 1930s Mitchell-East Building in Tyronza.

The University of California Press received a $400,000 challenge grant to be matched by $1.6 million in private donations that will create a new endowment for publications in history, literature, and film studies, and an augmented endowment for publications in music history and general humanities.

In Florida, Broward County Public Library's exciting new African-American Research Library and Cultural Center is being supported by a $600,000 NEH challenge grant, which will generate $1,800,000 in additional donations.

The Athens Regional Library System in Georgia is using its $150,000 challenge grant, coupled with $300,000 in nonfederal donations, to endow an expanded roster of humanities programs and related collections development.

Oglethorpe University in Atlanta is raising $900,000 to match its $300,000 NEH challenge grant, which will endow faculty development and library acquisitions for the university's core curriculum.

With its $450,000 NEH challenge grant, matched by $1.8 million in private donations, the Chicago Historical Society is creating an endowment to support the research collections and the position of Deputy Director of Research.

With $2.4 million in private donations leveraged by its challenge grant of $600,000, Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania will establish an endowment for faculty positions in the teaching of Modern Standard Arabic.

Wichita Public Library is using its $500,000 challenge grant to raise
$1.5 million in donations to create an endowment to support acquisitions of new humanities materials and educational programming in the humanities.

The Isis Fund received a $575,000 NEH challenge grant, to be matched by $1,725,000 in private donations, for construction and endowment of the Thoreau Institute, an educational and research center at Walden Woods.

Western Carolina University is using its $250,000 challenge grant and $750,000 in nonfederal gifts to endow a professorship and programming in Cherokee Studies.

Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsyvlania, will raise $1.2 million in private gifts with the help of a $300,000 challenge grant that will support a center for the humanities.