Humanities Council gets $450,000 grant

The Nebraska Humanities Council in 2001 was awarded a $450,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support its community-building efforts through the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

“This is one of NEH's most competitive grant programs, funding only about twenty-five percent of applications,” said Edythe Manza, who is director of the NEH office of federal-state partnership. The NHC is one of just two state humanities councils to receive a challenge grant from the NEH in 2001.

The three-to-one grant requires a match of $1.35 million, which must be raised by the end of July 2005. If the annual grant timetable is met, $75,000 will be available from the NEH in fiscal 2002, $150,000 in fiscal 2003 and $225,000 in fiscal 2004.

The Nebraska Legislature established the cultural endowment in 1998 by appropriating $5 million, with a match of private funds to come from the NHC and the Nebraska Arts Council. Under the legislation, the NHC would get 30 percent of the earnings, with 70 percent going to the NAC, making it the first state endowment to support both the arts and the humanities.
NHC earnings on the endowment already have been used to increase council grants and programming statewide.

Funds from the NEH grant will enable the NHC to support its “Building Nebraska Communities” initiative, which will help the council move from being a source of statewide cultural programming to an active participant in shaping the civic life of Nebraska. The goal is to help towns and neighborhoods draw upon their history and cultural heritage to plan for the future through council-conducted projects and grants. 

The NHC has the fundraising track record necessary to meet the requirements of the challenge grant. The council and its Nebraska Foundation for the Humanities have increased the annual campaign from $40,000 in 1992 to a projected goal of $380,000 in fiscal 2001.

Jack Campbell and Gail Yanney are co-chairs of the endowment campaign, and former state Sen. LaVon Crosby is the honorary chair. It is the campaign’s goal to raise the $5 million in private funds needed to match the Legislature’s $5 million appropriation.

“This challenge grant will be a great stimulus to complete our endowment goal, and it constitutes a resounding endorsement of our public-private partnership through the State of Nebraska, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and business, foundations and individuals throughout the state,” said Bob Nefsky, president of the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.