Frequently Asked Questions

How many awards has the NEH made since its inception, and for how much money?

Number of awards and accepted offers to date: 69,501
Approved total (outright + matching) to date: $6,720,987,645
Awarded total (outright + matching) to date: $6,413,842,719

When the NEH makes awards, the approved amount is the amount approved by the National Council on the Humanities and the NEH Chair; it repesents the maximum amount of the award. For most awards, all the approved funds are awarded during the period of performance, in which case the awarded amount equals the appoved amount. In some cases, however, not all the approved funds are awarded. In these cases the awarded amounts will be lower than the approved amounts. Federal matching funds require an awardee to secure gift funds from third parties before federal funds are awarded. Except for Challenge Grants, NEH matching awards are made on a one-to-one basis.

Can I re-use the information I get from this search?

Yes, please do! The data returned by this form is intended for public access and use. It is in the public domain and is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons CCZero license.

Can I save my my searches and share them with others?

Yes. Once you submit a search and see the list of funded projects matching your criteria, you will see a link near the top of the screen labeled Permalink for this Search. You can copy that link for later use, or share the search with others by sending the link to them.

In addition, you can save the results of your search as an Excel spreadsheet by clicking the Export to Excel button at the upper right-hand corner of the search results grid.

Finally, you can construct your own search strings and send them to the search form; see the Web API documentation for details. Those searches can be saved and shared as well.

Is there a way for me to do a bulk download of your award data for research purposes?

Yes. All our public award- and evaluator data can be downloaded in bulk in XML format or as comma-separated-value (CSV) files. See our datasets page where you can download the files and documentation.

Are all of your awards included in this search form?

Yes. Prior to the agency's first electronic storage system, information about NEH awards was stored on edge-notched "McBee" cards. This information has been added to the NEH's electronic grants management system database (eGMS). So information about all NEH awards, from fiscal year 1966 onward, is accessible using this search tool. In most cases the available metadata for older grants is sparser than for more recent awards.

There is a 30-day waiting period after an award is made before it is visible to the public via this form.

To prevent errors, no search will return more than 5000 records.

Are the results of these searches accurate?

Information about NEH awards is stored in the electronic Grants Management System database (eGMS) used by the NEH staff. That data is updated regularly as the NEH receives new applications and makes new offers and awards. The categories you can use here to construct searches about funded projects are used in the day-to-day work of the NEH, so the results are quite accurate. Any large database will contain errors and anomalies, but we work to ensure the quality and accuracy of eGMS data. One goal is to improve the descriptive metadata (that is, the fields on the form that you can search, such as project director's last name, key words, field of project, etc.) about each award to support better searching. If you find any errors or have any comments, please contact us. See the questions or suggestions section below.

Is there a way to see projects that were funded by the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act?

Yes. To find these awards, expand the Advanced search options section toward the bottom of the form, and check the box next to CARES Act grants. Specify any other criteria. The search results will include projects satisfying your criteria that were funded by the 2020 CARES Act. To see all CARES Act-funded projects, check this box and do not provide any other criteria.

Is there a way to see projects that were funded by the 2021 American Rescue Plan?

Yes. To find these awards, expand the Advanced search options section toward the bottom of the form, and check the box next to American Rescue Plan grants. Specify any other criteria. The search results will include projects satisfying your criteria that were funded by the 2021 American Rescue Plan. To see all ARP-funded projects, check this box and do not provide any other criteria.

What is the difference between awards to individuals and awards to institutions?

A small number of NEH programs make awards to individuals: the fellowships and summer stipends programs, the Public Scholars program, and the Awards to Faculty program. Many of the recipients of these awards are affiliated with institutions, but the award is made to the individual. For most NEH grants, however, the recipient is an institution, and the individuals associated with the award are affiliated with the institution. The search form allows you to specify whether you want to see awards to individuals, to institutions, or to either. (The latter is the default.)

How is the field of project selected?

Applicants for NEH awards select fields of project from lists of humanities-related fields and subfields (e.g. Philosophy, British Literature, History of Science, etc.). By including this field in your queries, you can search for projects using the humanities fields provided by the applicants. Keep in mind that many projects fit into more than one field; you may therefore wish to conduct more than one search, using related project fields. In addition, over the years the names of some fields have changed.

Project fields are hierarchical: there are parent fields (e.g. history or philosophy or literature), and there are children that belong to those parents (as diplomatic- or military history belong to history; or aesthetics and metaphysics to philosophy; or British- and German literature to literature). You can search by either child or parent. For the former, select one of the child categories from the Field of project list; for the latter, select 'History: All' or 'Philosophy: All' or 'Literature: All'.

You may select more than one project field on the form by checking multiple boxes in the list of fields. If you specify ANY of the fields, the software will search for grants with any of the fields you select: field #1 or field #2 or field #3. If you specify ALL of the fields, you will get results matching all of the fields: field #1 and field #2 and field #3.

In the drop-down lists, why are some programs and divisions/offices marked with an asterisk?

Over the years, NEH programs and divisions/offices have evolved; some have been replaced by others. Currently-active programs and divisions/offices are marked with an asterisk. So if an NEH program's name has changed over the years and you want to see all of the grants funded by that program over time, you must search using each of those names. For example, the currently-active Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program used to be known as Preservation/Access Projects. If you have questions about current and former program names, please let us know. (See the questions or suggestions section below.)

In addition, some programs have been moved from one division to another. For example, the Seminars for School Teachers and Seminars for College Teachers originally belonged to the Division of Fellowships and Seminars. In the mid-1990s they were reassigned to the Division of Education Programs. At the same time all the fellowships programs were reassigned to the Division of Research Programs. All grants made in these programs have also been reassigned to their new divisions.

Some awards have something called "funding details" where two or more years and amounts are listed. What's that?

Some NEH awards are funded in stages: an original award is made, then in a subsequent year an amendment is made supplementing the original amount. This is common in multi-year awards, especially those made to state humanities councils. The "funding details" area provides the details for such awards.

Can I search on multiple fields at the same time?

Yes. This form allows you to search in any number of fields simultaneously. For example, if you want to know what grants were made in the field of History of Science by the Division of Research Programs to Wisconsin applicants in the years from 1970 to 1990, here is how you would find that information:

1. Select History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Medicine from the drop-down list of project fields;
2. Select Research Programs from the drop-down list of divisions;
3. Select Wisconsin from the drop-down list of states;
4. Select 1970 and 1990 from the drop-down lists of years; and
5. Click or tap the Show results button.

What advice do you have for using the Key Words section of the search form?

If you select Key Words and supply some words (for example, "Battle of Waterloo" or "Plato's Republic"), the software will search the project title supplied by the grantee, as well as the grantee's project description and the brief "to support" statement that NEH staff adds to describe a project, if they are available.

You can use the radio buttons to tell the software to look for any of the words that you supply (either "Plato's" OR "Republic"), all of the words (both "Plato's" AND "Republic"), or the exact phrase ("Plato's Republic"). The first option will obviously yield the most matches, and the third the fewest.

Unless you select the This phrase option, the software will ignore "noise" words like a, an, of, in, or, and, not, and the. So if you enter "the ancient city of Atlantis" and specify ALL of these words or ANY of these words, you will get the same results as if you'd searched only for the three words "ancient," "city," and "Atlantis." But if you choose This phrase, the software will search for the whole string of words that you've supplied.

The ANY of these words option can be useful when a word takes multiple forms. For example, to find grants related to Argentina, you should also search for Argentine and Argentinian.

If you check the Whole words only box, the software will ignore grants where your search words appear as substrings of longer words. If you provide Asia as one of your key words, you might be surprised to find that your results include grants having to do with the translation of Anastasian sermons or with ethical aspects of euthanasia. To exclude such unexpected results, simply check the Whole words only box on the form. If you'd like to find grants on Plato but not on Platonism or Neoplatonism, check the box and enter Plato as a key word. To include grants on Platonism, etc., leave the box unchecked.

When you do a key word search, the software looks in fields that may not be included in the results you see. Most NEH programs expose the applicants' project descriptions. Many programs provide short one- or two-sentence grant summaries ("to support" statements). For some programs, only the project titles are available. Snce key word searches limited only to project titles would omit many relevant results, the software looks in all of the aforementioned fields, even if they are not displayed in the results returned by your queries.

Finally, all key word searches, regardless of the options you specify, are case-insensitive.

What advice do you have for using the Date Range section of the search form?

If you specify a Date Range, the years are inclusive: the software will look for grants that were made beginning at the start of the Date range beginning year and ending at the conclusion of the Date range ending year. So, to see only one year's worth of grants, make both years the same. (For example, to search only for grants made in 2017, you should select 2017 from both the Date range beginning and Date range ending drop-down lists.) To find grants made in more than one year, make sure that the ending year, specified in the Date range ending field, is later than the beginning year, specified in the Date range beginning column -- if the ending year is earlier than the beginning year, you won't get any matches. Also, bear in mind that the years in this form correspond to federal fiscal years (which begin on October 1 and end on September 30), not to calendar years. For that reason, a grant made in December 2010 will show up on the form as a 2011 grant, not as a 2010 grant.

Note also that the year in which a grant was made is reflected in its grant number. The last two digits refer to the fiscal year in which the award was made. So, for example, grant number CH-20976-98 was made during fiscal year 1998.

If you provide no search criteria besides Date range beginning and Date range ending, the form will not accept ranges of more than six years. This is to prevent timeout errors. If you provide other criteria, the form allows for longer date ranges.

In the grid displaying the results of my search, what is the difference between "approved" amounts and "awarded" amounts?

When a grant is made, an amount is specified, the approved amount. This is the maximum amount of the grant, and it usually does not change during the life of the grant. The awarded amount represents the amount actually awarded to date, which often does change during the life of the grant, e.g. if the grant is funded over multiple years. In most cases when a grant is finished or closed out, the awarded amount equals the approved amount; but in some cases the awarded amount is less than the approved amount.

What's the purpose of those options to search for grants with products, coverage, prizes, white papers, and supplements?

For nearly fifteen years, the NEH has been getting data from grantees about "products" resulting from their awards -- books, articles, films, exhibitions, courses, conferences, blog posts, etc. In addition, we ask grantees to provide information about "coverage" their grants may receive -- media coverage, book- and article reviews, etc. -- and prizes their products may win. Any grants for which we have information about products, coverage, or prizes will include links to that information. And when you do key word searches, the software will look for your key words in product-, coverage-, and prize data as well as the other fields mentioned in the answer to the previous question.

The various checkboxes enable you to limit your queries to grants with products, coverage, or prizes. For example, if you leave the Products box unchecked, the results will include all grants that satisfy your criteria, whether or not they have products; if you check the box, the results returned will include only grants having products associated with them. Likewise for the other options.

Several grant programs in the Division of Preservation and Access and the Office of Digital Humanities require grantees to submit "white papers" describing technical issues encountered and solutions developed during the course of their grants. These white papers are solicited with the understanding that they will be made available to the public. As with products, coverage, and prizes, you can limit your search to only grants for which we have white papers. White papers (most often PDF files) can be viewed via links in the search results.

As mentioned above, some NEH grants include and original award and then one or more supplements awarded in subsequent years. As with products, coverage, prizes, and white papers, you can limit your search to only grants which include such supplements.

What other advice do you have for understanding the results of a search?

Records matching your criteria will appear in a table listing the grantee, the project title, the application number and year, and other details. If there are no matches, you will receive a message to that effect.

You will receive an error message if you do not supply any search criteria. You must either provide some text in one of the textboxes or make a selection from one of the drop-down lists.

What if I have questions or suggestions?

We welcome your feedback. If you spot errors in the software or in the data returned, or if you simply have questions or comments, please contact the NEH Chief Information Officer at cio@neh.gov.

If you are working on a report examining NEH grants and would like assistance in compiling data, please contact the NEH Office of Planning and Budget at opb@neh.gov.