The New Jersey Council for the Humanities has received a grant of emergency stabilization funds by the The Federation of State Humanities Councils with support from the Mellon Foundation. This funding has been made available to all state humanities councils, which were previously funded by Congressionally apportioned, statutory operating grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Each council will receive $200,000 outright, with an additional $50,000 made available as a challenge grant. That means, to unlock the potential total of $250,000, NJCH will need to raise $50,000 in donations from other sources.

NJCH is profoundly grateful for this generous gift to support state councils across the country. These emergency stabilization funds will buy our council precious time as we develop long-term strategies for survival in the absence of our $1.5 million federal operating grant and seek to preserve the public humanities in New Jersey.

We thank our friends and partners for stepping in to help!

The emergency funding was announced by the Mellon Foundation and has been reported by the New York Times and other outlets.

A few important notes:

• This extraordinary gift is NOT a replacement of our federal funding, either in the short- or long-term.
• No councils are out of the woods as a result of this emergency funding. Painful cuts to vital programming will still be forced.
• Statutory support for the arts and humanities neither can nor should be completely replaced by private philanthropy.
• In addition to the $200,000 outright grant, the supplementary $50,000 of funding is in the form of a challenge grant. That means, all donations you make up to $50,000 will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the The Federation of State Humanities Councils with support from the Mellon Foundation. (This is huge!)

To ensure we unlock the maximum matching funds, please donate at https://njhumanities.org/donate/.