Spotlight 2024.pdf

Notice of Funding Opportunity Spotlight on Humanities in Higher Education

Funding Opportunity Number: 20241001-ASA-ASB

Funding Opportunity Type: New

Federal Assistance Listing Number: 45.162

Application Deadline: October 1, 2024

Applicants to NEH for awards with expected issuance dates on or after October 1, 2024, should be aware of revisions to the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit

Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR Part 200) effective from that date. All NEH awards issued on or after October 1, 2024, will be subject to the revised regulations. You may incorporate these changes into your applications now. Additional information is available at https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/2024-Revisions-to-2-CFR-200.

Ensure your SAM.gov and Grants.gov registrations and passwords are current.

It may take several weeks to register with SAM.gov and Grants.gov.

NEH will not grant deadline extensions for lack of registration.

Division of Education Programs Email: spotlight@neh.gov Telephone: 202-606-8236 Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1

OMB control number 3136-0134, expiration date October 31, 2024 https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/2024-Revisions-to-2-CFR-200 mailto:spotlight@neh.gov

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Executive Summary The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Education Programs is accepting applications for the Spotlight on Humanities in Higher Education program. This program supports small projects that help students from underserved populations gain access to and benefit from the humanities. Projects must enhance the teaching and study of the humanities at one or more colleges and universities that enroll fewer than 10,000 undergraduate students and that belong to at least one of the following categories: community colleges, minority-serving institutions, rural colleges and universities, or colleges and universities with more than 40% of students receiving Pell grants. These institutions, nonprofit organizations, and state, local, or Native American Tribal governments aiming to advance the humanities at these institutions are eligible to apply.

Funding Opportunity Title Spotlight on Humanities in Higher Education Funding Opportunity Number 20241001-ASA-ASB Federal Assistance Listing Number 45.162 Deadline for Optional Draft August 20, 2024, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time Application Deadline October 1, 2024, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time Anticipated Award Announcement April 2025 Anticipated FY 2025 Funding Approximately $1,000,000 Estimated Number and Type of Awards Approximately 25 grants Award Amounts Exploration: up to $30,000

Development: up to $60,000 Cost Sharing/Match Required No Period of Performance Exploration: up to one year

Development: up to two years

Projects must start between June 1, 2025, and September 1, 2025.

Eligible Applicants • nonprofit organizations recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

• accredited institutions of higher education (public or nonprofit)

• state and local governments and their agencies

• federally recognized Native American Tribal governments

See C. Eligibility Information for additional information.

Program Resource Page https://www.neh.gov/program/spotlight-humanities-higher-education https://www.neh.gov/program/spotlight-humanities-higher-education

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Pre-Application Webinar A pre-recorded webinar will be posted to the program resource page by 5:00 p.m. Eastern July 23, 2024.

Live Q&A Session: July 31, 2024, at 2:00 p.m.

Eastern Time. Click here to participate, or call in (audio only): +1 202-606-8430, Meeting Code: 166 165 098#

Published July 15, 2024 https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZjUxNWJkMTEtZGRhNC00NjhjLWEyN2EtMWMyYzA4ZDE3OGUw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2293b06459-c77d-44b6-af7f-e813cddcdcc3%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f28c01cd-bca1-4980-b35a-b9102b345024%22%7d

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary ................................................................................................ i Table of Contents ................................................................................................. iii A. Program Description

1. Purpose

2. Background

B. Federal Award Information

1. Type of Application and Award

2. Summary of Funding

C. Eligibility Information

1. Eligible ApplicantWs

2. Cost Sharing

3. Other Eligibility Information

D. Application and Submission Information

1. Application Package

2. Content and Form of Application Submission

3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management

4. Submission Dates and Times

5. Intergovernmental Review

6. Funding Restrictions

E. Application Review Information

1. Review Criteria

2. Review and Selection Process

3. Assessment of Risk and Other Pre-Award Activities

4. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates

F. Federal Award Administration Information

1. Federal Award Notices

2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements

3. Reporting

G. Agency Contacts H. Other Information

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A. Program Description

1. Purpose The Spotlight on Humanities in Higher Education program supports small projects that help students from underserved populations gain access to and benefit from the humanities. Projects must enhance the teaching and study of the humanities at one or more colleges and universities that enroll fewer than 10,000 undergraduate students and that belong to at least one of the following categories: community colleges, minority-serving institutions, rural colleges and universities, or colleges and universities with more than 40% of students receiving Pell grants.

These institutions, nonprofit organizations, and state, local, or Native American Tribal governments aiming to advance the humanities at these institutions are eligible to apply. See C.1 Eligible Applicants.

Because humanities programs vary greatly among institutions, NEH encourages you to propose a project that fits your specific institutional needs. For example, you might use a Spotlight award to:

• develop new humanities courses, or enhance existing ones

• align humanities teaching with students’ career needs, create humanities-related opportunities to prepare students for the workforce, or help students understand how their humanities courses relate to their professional goals

• expand humanities curricula or integrate humanities learning into curricula outside humanities departments

• enrich students’ humanities experiences, such as through undergraduate research;

hands-on, place-based, or experiential learning projects; campus-wide or community programs such as a “common read”; or student mentorship programs

• enhance faculty members’ ability to teach humanities concepts, such as through professional development workshops or shared reading programs

• facilitate collaboration among humanities faculty, including introducing faculty and/or students from partner institutions to humanities teaching practices at the host institution or organization, or working with academic departments, institutions, or nonprofit organizations to create shared resources

• develop community relationships, including partnerships with museums, libraries, or other nonprofit organizations to enhance the teaching and study of the humanities

Your project must focus on the humanities but may also include writing and composition, foreign languages, workforce development, and/or programs of study that lie outside traditional humanities disciplines.

If you are a nonprofit or a state, local, or tribal government, you must include Attachment 2, explaining how you will partner with one or more eligible colleges or universities. If you know them in advance, you will list the partner(s) in the attachment. If you have not yet determined the specific partners (for example, if you plan to hold a workshop or symposia for faculty), explain how you will select institutions and how you will ensure that project partners meet Spotlight’s eligibility criteria.

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Funding levels You may request support at one of two levels: Exploration or Development. You should apply for the level appropriate to your project. If you have not yet begun working on the project and would use a Spotlight award to get started, you should apply at the Exploration level. If you have taken steps (even small steps) to begin your project and would use a Spotlight award to make additional progress, you should apply at the Development level.

Exploration If you apply at this level, you may request up to $30,000 and have a period of performance of up to one year. Awards support faculty, administrators, community members, and/or humanities nonprofit organizations in planning for a project that would significantly enrich humanities teaching and learning at colleges or universities.

Development If you apply at this level, you may request up to $60,000 and have a period of performance of up to two years. Awards support divisions, departments, programs, and/or humanities nonprofit organizations in advancing a single, well-defined project (or one stage of a larger project) that would significantly enrich humanities teaching and learning at colleges or universities.

Consult the Spotlight program website for sample proposals. The NEH website also includes a complete list of past Spotlight awards.

Program Outcomes and Outputs The outcome of a Spotlight project will be planning for or advancement of a project that would significantly enrich humanities teaching and learning at colleges and universities.

The output of an Exploration award should be a coherent plan for developing a curriculum, initiative, community or faculty partnership, or teaching resource that improves student understanding of and access to the humanities.

The output of a Development award should be a curriculum, initiative, community or faculty partnership, or teaching resource that improves student understanding of and access to the humanities, with significant progress towards implementation.

You will describe your project outcomes and outputs, and how they would support the overall purpose of the Spotlight program, in Attachment 1: Narrative. If you receive an award, NEH will assess your performance based on the outputs you identify in the proposal. See F.3 Reporting.

See D6. Funding Restrictions for unallowable activities. Applications unrelated to the purpose of this program or that include unallowable costs or activities may be judged nonresponsive and returned without review.

See E1. Review Criteria for the standards NEH will use to evaluate applications under this notice.

2. Background NEH offers this funding opportunity under the authority of 20 U.S.C. § 956. Awards are subject to 2 CFR Part 200 Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit https://www.neh.gov/program/spotlight-humanities-higher-education https://apps.neh.gov/publicquery/main.aspx?q=1&a=0&n=0&o=0&ot=0&k=0&f=0&s=0&cd=0&p=1&pv=340,339&d=0&at=0&y=0&prd=0&cov=0&prz=0&wp=0&sp=0&ca=0&arp=0&ob=year&or=DESC https://apps.neh.gov/publicquery/main.aspx?q=1&a=0&n=0&o=0&ot=0&k=0&f=0&s=0&cd=0&p=1&pv=340,339&d=0&at=0&y=0&prd=0&cov=0&prz=0&wp=0&sp=0&ca=0&arp=0&ob=year&or=DESC https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?hl=false&edition=prelim&req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title20-section956 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=236bb02f01d2e050f7a5b60c88a67066&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5

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Requirements for Federal Awards, and the General Terms and Conditions for Awards to Organizations (for grants and cooperative agreements issued January 1, 2022 or later).

Under Section 3(a) of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, as amended, “The term ‘humanities’ includes, but is not limited to, the study of the following:

language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy;

archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of the social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods;

and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life.”

Use the Funded Projects Query Form to find examples of NEH-supported projects.

Learn more about NEH.

NEH Areas of Interest NEH is especially interested in supporting projects that advance humanities-related work in the following areas. NEH will give all applications equal consideration in accordance with the program’s review criteria.

NEH encourages projects that include Native American organizations and communities as applicants and project partners.

American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future is a wide-ranging special initiative at NEH that leverages the humanities to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time: strengthening our democracy, advancing equity for all, and addressing our changing climate. The initiative encourages humanities projects that elevate the role of civics in schools and public programs, advance knowledge of the country’s history and political institutions, and examine threats to its democratic principles. The initiative also encourages projects that explore the untold stories of historically underrepresented groups and build capacity at cultural and educational institutions to benefit underserved communities. Finally, the initiative welcomes projects that promote research into the historical roots and cultural effects of climate change and support the cultural and educational sectors in building climate resilience. By supporting humanities projects that align with these three themes – strengthening our democracy, advancing equity for all, and addressing our changing climate – the American Tapestry initiative seeks to tell our country’s history in all its complexity and diversity.

United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture Hate must have no safe harbor in America – especially when that hate fuels the kind of violence we’ve seen from Oak Creek to Pittsburgh, from El Paso to Poway, and from Atlanta to Buffalo.

When ordinary Americans cannot participate in the basic activities of everyday life – such as shopping at the grocery store or praying at their house of worship – without the fear of being targeted and killed for who they are, our security as well as democracy are at risk. In coordination with the White House “United We Stand” Summit in September 2022, NEH launched a new initiative titled United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture that uses the humanities to combat hate-motivated violence and promote civic engagement, social cohesion, and cross-cultural understanding. As a part of this initiative, NEH encourages humanities projects that further our understanding of the nation’s racial, ethnic, gender, and religious https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=236bb02f01d2e050f7a5b60c88a67066&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5 https://www.neh.gov/general-terms-and-conditions-awards-organizations-grants-and-cooperative-agreements-issued-january-2022 https://www.neh.gov/general-terms-and-conditions-awards-organizations-grants-and-cooperative-agreements-issued-january-2022 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-1998-title20/pdf/USCODE-1998-title20-chap26-subchapI-sec952.pdf https://securegrants.neh.gov/publicquery/main.aspx https://www.neh.gov/about https://www.neh.gov/news/american-tapestry-weaving-together-past-present-and-future https://www.neh.gov/unitedwestand

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diversity; examine the sources of hate and intolerance in the United States; and explore progress towards greater inclusiveness. NEH especially welcomes projects that explore the Muslim American and/or the Jewish American experience, including the history of Islamophobia and/or antisemitism.

NEH’s Support for the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative As a part of NEH’s partnership with the Department of the Interior on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, NEH encourages projects that further public understanding and knowledge of the Federal Indian boarding school system. From 1819 through the 1970s the government of the United States operated a system of schools for Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children premised on a policy of coerced cultural assimilation. Native children were forcibly separated from their families and sent to attend federal Indian boarding schools, where they were frequently subject to harsh treatment and abuse. A number of these students died, and others never returned to their families and communities. Many were also deprived of their cultural inheritance. NEH encourages projects that document and explore the history of the federal Indian boarding schools as well as projects that contribute to Native and Indigenous cultural and language revitalization.

B. Federal Award Information

1. Type of Application and Award NEH seeks new applications in response to this notice.

NEH will provide funding in the form of grants.

2. Summary of Funding

Award amounts You may request up to $30,000 at the Exploration level and $60,000 at the Development level.

This includes the sum of direct and indirect costs. See A1. Funding levels for specific information and project-specific limitations.

NEH anticipates awarding approximately $1,000,000 among an estimated 25 recipients.

NEH will award successful applicants outright funds, which are not contingent on additional funding from other sources.

NEH will not determine the exact amount available for funding until Congress makes official appropriations for FY 2025. NEH will issue awards subject to the availability of appropriated funds. NEH is publishing this notice as a contingency to ensure that NEH can process applications and issue awards in a timely manner, should sufficient funds become available.

Period of performance You may request a period of performance up to one year at the Exploration level and up to two years at the Development level. Your project must start between June 1, 2025, and September 1, 2025.

https://www.neh.gov/bsi https://www.neh.gov/bsi

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The period of performance is the time during which you may incur expenses to carry out the work under the award. It must start on the first day of the month and end on the last day of the month.

C. Eligibility Information

1. Eligible Applicants To be eligible to apply, your organization must be established in the United States or its jurisdictions as one of the following:

• a nonprofit organization recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

• an accredited institution of higher education (public or nonprofit)

• a state or local government or one of their agencies

• a federally recognized Native American Tribal government

If your institution is a college or university, the undergraduate enrollment must be less than 10,000. In addition, your institution must meet at least one of the following criteria. You must:

• be a community college

• be a Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) as defined by the U.S. Department of Education.

Eligible MSI categories include Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI); Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions (ANNH); Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI); Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTI); Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI); Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU); and Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCU).

• have an enrollment of more than 40% Pell grant recipients. You may use either the percentage of full-time beginning undergraduate students or the percentage of all undergraduate students.

• be a rural college or university. You meet this criterion if your NCES locale classification (“campus setting”) is “rural,” “town: remote,” or “town: distant.”

If your institution is a nonprofit or a state, local, or tribal government, you must include Attachment 2, explaining how you will partner with one or more eligible colleges or universities.

NEH will use data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), obtained at the application deadline, to determine eligibility. You should consult the NCES College Navigator to determine undergraduate enrollment, locale, and percentage of Pell grant recipients. If the NCES data does not accurately reflect your institution’s size, campus setting, or percentage of Pell grant recipients, provide an explanation in Attachment 6.

NEH will confirm your MSI status using the Department of Education’s Eligibility Matrix. The Eligibility Matrix is a read-only Excel worksheet that lists data for postsecondary institutions.

Because the matrix is updated annually and some designations change from year to year, you should confirm your institution’s MSI status before applying. To verify your institution, select from the options at the bottom of the screen. Find your institution and then look at column J (“Meets the [year and MSI] Definition”). If the column states “yes,” your institution is an eligible https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/search-for-tax-exempt-organizations https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/search-for-tax-exempt-organizations https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/01/28/2022-01789/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of https://nces.ed.gov/programs/edge/Geographic/LocaleBoundaries https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/ https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/idues/eligibility.html

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MSI. If your institution is an eligible MSI but is not listed on the eligibility matrix, provide an explanation in Attachment 6.

Individuals and other organizations, including foreign and for-profit entities, are ineligible.

If your organization is eligible, you may apply on behalf of a consortium of collaborating organizations. If NEH selects your proposal for funding, you will be programmatically, legally, and fiscally responsible for the award.

The recipient may not function solely as a fiscal agent but should make substantive contributions to the success of the project.

2. Cost Sharing NEH does not require cost sharing in this program.

Cost sharing refers to project costs that are covered with non-NEH funds. You may contribute voluntary cost share if the total project costs exceed the amount awarded by NEH. Voluntary cost share includes:

• cash contributions made to the project by you or a third party

• your unrecovered indirect costs

• in-kind contributions (non-cash contributions, such as property or services, that benefit the project and are contributed without charge) by you or a third party

While you may describe voluntary cost share in your budget justification, you should not include it on your Research and Related Budget. The Research and Related Budget should only include funds you are requesting from NEH.

Peer reviewers will not consider any voluntary cost share in their evaluation of applications.

You must maintain auditable records of the source and use of cost share. See 2 CFR § 200.306.

Learn about types of funds NEH offers.

3. Other Eligibility Information You may submit multiple applications for separate and distinct projects under this notice. An individual may serve as project director for multiple proposed projects under this notice.

You may revise and resubmit previously rejected applications. Submissions are subject to the application requirements and review criteria of the current competition.

If NEH has previously made an award in support of your project, you may apply for a new or subsequent stage or element of the project, which NEH will assess using the review criteria of the current competition.

Per 2 CFR § 200.403(f), you must not include the same project costs in more than one application for federal funding or approved federal award budget. If one application to NEH is pending, a second application for the same project costs, even if to a different program, may be ruled ineligible. However, you may submit multiple proposals for complementary aspects of the same overall project. If you are submitting complementary proposals to other NEH https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=3aeab4e3a836f5b6807999701e518c94&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1306 https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/types-funding https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200/subpart-E/subject-group-ECFRea20080eff2ea53/section-200.403

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programs or government agencies, specify when and to whom in the Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs. NEH may disallow costs or reject applications that include overlapping project costs. An individual’s level of effort cannot exceed 100% across multiple active federally funded awards.

NEH does not issue awards to other federal entities. If your project is so closely intertwined with a federal entity that the project takes on characteristics of the federal entity’s own authorized activities, it is ineligible. You may use funds from, or sites and materials controlled by, other federal entities in your project.

NEH does not provide financial assistance to foreign institutions or organizations. If you are an eligible domestic entity, you may apply for collaborative projects involving foreign organizations provided you do not use NEH funds for the purpose of issuing subawards to any foreign organization, as defined in 2 CFR §§ 200.1 and .331(a). You may obtain the services of foreign individuals and consultants to carry out programmatic activities on a fee-for-service basis, as specified in 2 CFR § 200.459. You may obtain goods and services from foreign vendors, such as in-country transportation services, in accordance with 2 CFR § 200.331(b). If you plan to submit an application involving international collaboration, contact program staff at spotlight@neh.gov.

Except for the rare cases covered by its late submission policy, NEH will not consider applications submitted after the deadline.

NEH will not consider incomplete, nonresponsive, or ineligible applications for funding.

NEH will not consider applications that exceed mandatory page limits or deviate from formatting instructions. See the Application Components Table.

D. Application and Submission Information

1. Application Package You must apply using Grants.gov Workspace or a Grants.gov system-to-system solution. You can find this funding opportunity in Grants.gov under number 20241001-ASA-ASB. There is also a link on the program resource page.

This funding opportunity includes two application packages, which you can find under the “Package” tab. Select the appropriate one based upon your project type (Exploration or Development). Each package includes a series of required and conditionally required forms. You will upload additional application components using the Attachments Form.

• Exploration: ASA2024

• Development: ASB2024

You must complete a multistep registration process prior to submitting your application. See D3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management.

Contact spotlight@neh.gov to request a paper copy of this notice.

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If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

2. Content and Form of Application Submission Your application will include a narrative, budget, and other forms and attachments. You will complete the forms within Grants.gov Workspace and upload other components into the Attachments Form. See the Application Component Table.

Application formatting Your application components must conform to the following formatting requirements, unless otherwise indicated:

• pages no larger than standard letter (8 ½" x 11”)

• at least one-inch margins on all sides for all pages

• a font no smaller than 11 points

In addition, NEH encourages you to format your components consistent with the following:

• single-spacing

• a readable font such as Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, or Times New Roman

• any standard citation style (include citations in page counts)

Application Component Table NEH has assigned each application component one of the following designations:

• Required: You must submit this component.

• Conditionally Required: You must submit this component if your proposal meets the specified conditions.

• Conditionally required for recipients: You are encouraged but not required to submit this component when you apply. You must submit it if you receive an award if your proposal meets the specified conditions.

NEH will not review applications missing any required documents or relevant conditionally required documents.

Do not include attachments other than those listed in the table in this notice. If you do, NEH will reject your application.

In addition, NEH has established page limits for some application components:

• Mandatory: You must not exceed the page limit.

• Suggested: NEH encourages, but does not require, you to abide by the page limit.

Note page limits and formatting instructions in this notice. NEH will not review applications that exceed mandatory page limits or deviate from formatting instructions.

https://nehemail.sharepoint.com/teams/nofo/Shared%20Documents/General/Templates/Organizations/Disclosure#_Standard_Form-LLL,_

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Application Component File Name Designation Page limit Attachments 1: Narrative narrative.pdf Required 5 pages

(mandatory) 2: List of higher education partners partners.pdf Required for nonprofits and state, local, and tribal governments

1 page (suggested)

3: Work plan workplan.pdf Required 2 pages (suggested)

4: Key personnel personnel.pdf Required 5: Letter of institutional support letters.pdf Required 6: Eligibility clarification eligibility.pdf Conditionally required

7: Subrecipient budget subrecipient.pdf Conditionally

8: Federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement agreement.pdf Conditionally

9 Explanation of delinquent federal debt delinquentdebt.pdf Conditionally

Grants.gov forms SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance - Short Organizational

Required

Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs

Required

Project/Performance Site(s) Location Form

Required

Research and Related Budget and Budget Justification

Required

Attachments Form Required

Application Components: Attachments Each attachment must be a single PDF file. See the Attachments Form instructions for further guidance about file requirements. Read those instructions carefully, as Grants.gov will not accept files that do not meet the requirements.

Attachment 1: Narrative (required) Compose a comprehensive description of your proposed project. Your narrative should be succinct, well organized, and free of technical terms and jargon so that peer reviewers can understand the proposed project.

You must limit the narrative to five single-spaced pages. Do not include an executive summary, cover page, or a table of contents. You may include images, charts, diagrams, footnotes, or endnotes if they fit within the page limit.

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Organize your narrative using the following headings. Each section aligns with one or more review criteria NEH will use to evaluate your proposal.

Project description

• Briefly describe your project and how it would benefit your institution. We recommend limiting this section to 1,000 characters, so that you may also include it in the project description on the SF-424 form, which will appear on the cover page of the application.

Humanities content and activities (aligns with review criteria “Intellectual quality” and “Design quality”)

• Identify the core humanities content your project will address.

• Explain how your project would enhance the teaching and study of the humanities at your institution or the institution(s) with which you are partnering. Describe your intended audience for the project, including its estimated size or reach (for example, the number of students, faculty members, stakeholders, partner organizations, etc.).

• Summarize the activities and resources (including texts, if relevant) you will use and explain why you chose them. If you will create supplementary resources for an existing curriculum or program, explain how you will use them.

• For nonprofit organizations that support humanities education, explain how your project will strengthen the programming and/or humanities work of the academic institutions, students, and/or faculty your organization serves.

Project personnel (aligns with review criterion “Design quality”)

• Identify key personnel, including the project director(s), members of the project team, and any external contributors, such as visiting scholars and consultants.

• Describe how they will contribute to the project and how they are qualified to make those contributions.

Institutional context and benefit (aligns with review criteria “Institutional context and benefit”)

• Describe the mission of your institution or organization. Demonstrate its commitment to underserved populations by describing, as relevant, student and faculty demographics, previous partnerships with colleges and universities, and the types of curricula and/or programming currently in place. If you plan to collaborate with other institutions, organizations, or community and affiliated partners, describe their roles, contributions, and any prior collaboration(s).

• For nonprofits and state, local, and tribal governments, describe the institutions or faculty members with whom you plan to collaborate and explain how you would ensure that they meet the Spotlight eligibility criteria (see C.1 Eligible applicants).

• Explain how the proposed project would help students from underserved populations gain access to and benefit from the humanities at your institution or partner institutions.

Describe how the project would enhance existing programs or create new ones; how it would fit into organizational structures or curricular contexts; and how it would benefit students and faculty. If relevant, explain how humanities resources (libraries, archives, museums, digital materials, publications, conferences, etc.) would support the project.

This attachment must not exceed five pages. Name the file narrative.pdf.

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Attachment 2: Higher education institution partners (required for nonprofits and local and tribal governments) If your institution is a nonprofit or a state, local, or tribal government, explain how you will partner with one or more eligible colleges or universities.

If you already know the partner institutions, list them and explain how they meet the criteria in C.1 Eligible Applicants. You may also include letters of support in Attachment 5.

If you have not yet determined the specific partners (for example, if you plan to hold a workshop or symposia for faculty), explain how you will select institutions to partner with and how you will ensure that project partners meet Spotlight’s eligibility criteria.

This attachment has a suggested length of one page. Name the file partners.pdf

Attachment 3: Work plan (required) Your work plan should reflect the major activities you describe in your narrative, the project dates on your SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance - Short Organizational, and your Research and Related Budget.

Describe the activities that will take place during the period of performance to achieve each of the proposed objectives. Use a timeline that includes each activity and identifies the project team members involved. Explain how outcomes from one activity will carry over into the next.

For multi-institutional collaborative projects, discuss the distribution of responsibilities across each institution. As appropriate, identify meaningful support and collaboration with key stakeholders in planning, designing, and implementing activities.

This attachment has a suggested length of two pages. Name the file workplan.pdf.

Attachment 4: Key personnel (required) Provide a brief biography or short résumé for the project director and other key personnel. The résumés or biographies should convey each individual’s qualifications to fulfill their responsibilities on the project. Each biography or résumé should be less than two pages.

Name the file personnel.pdf.

Attachment 5: Letter of institutional support (required) Provide a letter from a member of the leadership at your institution or organization, such as the president, a provost, dean, or executive director, demonstrating institutional or organizational support for the project and explaining its significance for the institution’s approach to humanities education and its overall mission.

You may also include letters from other project partners. Reviewers use these letters to evaluate the feasibility of the project. For example:

• You may include letters from faculty, librarians, department chairs, or other university personnel who will participate in the project.

• If you are a nonprofit or state, local, or tribal government, and you know the colleges or universities with which you will partner, you should include letters of support from those institutions.

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• You may also include additional letters from community, organizational, or other institutional partners, if they are relevant to the project.

Elected government officials, NEH staff, and current members of the National Council on the Humanities may not serve as letter writers.

Name the file letters.pdf.

Attachment 6: Eligibility clarification (optional) You do not need to include this attachment if the Department of Education’s College Navigator and MSI Eligibility Matrix accurately demonstrate your institution’s eligibility. See C.1 Eligible applicants.

If the College Navigator does not provide accurate data about your institution’s enrollment size, locale, or percentage of Pell grant recipients, you may use this attachment to explain the discrepancy. For example:

• if the undergraduate enrollment listed for your community college in College Navigator overcounts dual enrollment students, you may use this attachment to explain your specific student demographics.

• Pell grant recipients are determined by FAFSA submissions. If a large portion of your undergraduate population does not or cannot complete the FAFSA form, you may use this attachment to explain why your institution’s percentage of Pell grant recipients in College Navigator does not accurately reflect your student demographics.

You may also include this attachment if your institution is an eligible Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) but is not listed on the Department of Education’s Eligibility Matrix. You must specify which MSI category your institution meets and submit documentation confirming that your institution meets the relevant criteria. That documentation may include a letter from the U.

S. Department of Education certifying Title III or Title V eligibility.

Providing this attachment does not guarantee your eligibility, but NEH staff will consider your explanation when determining eligibility. NEH will notify you if your application is rejected.

Name the file eligibility.pdf.

Attachment 7: Subrecipient budget(s) (conditionally required) If your project includes subawards, you must provide a separate Research and Related Budget and budget justification for each subrecipient.

Download a fillable PDF of the Research and Related Budget form from the NEH website for each subrecipient. You must open and complete this form in Adobe Reader 8.0 or higher rather than in your web browser.

Prepare a budget and budget justification for each subrecipient using the same instructions in this notice, with a few exceptions:

• Enter the subrecipient’s Unique Entity Identifier, organization name, and period of performance start and end date (these fields will not prepopulate).

• For “budget type,” check “Subaward/Consortium.”

https://www.neh.gov/about/national-council-on-the-humanities https://www.neh.gov/about/national-council-on-the-humanities https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/ https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/idues/eligibility.html https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/idues/eligibility.html https://www.neh.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/RR_Budget10_3_0-V3.0.pdf

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If your subrecipients have a federally negotiated indirect cost rate, you must honor it. If they do not have a federally negotiated indirect cost rate, they may negotiate a rate with you consistent with 2 CFR § 200.414 or use the de minimis rate.

Rather than attaching related documents (budget justification, additional personnel, additional equipment) to the form itself, you will separately convert each document into a PDF and combine all subrecipients’ budget forms and related documents into a single document. Do not attach portfolios containing multiple PDFs.

NEH cannot accept security-enhanced PDFs (e.g., XFA files, PDFs that include password-protection, encryption, digital signatures). Remove these features (or “flatten” these files) before merging them into a single PDF and uploading it to the Attachments Form.

Name the file subrecipient.pdf.

Attachment 8: Federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (conditionally required) If your organization is claiming indirect costs and has a current federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement, provide a copy of the agreement. If applicable, provide the indirect cost rate agreements for subrecipients claiming indirect costs. If you and your subrecipients are requesting the de minimis rate, you do not need to submit this attachment.

Name the file agreement.pdf.

Attachment 9: Explanation of delinquent federal debt (conditionally required for recipients) If your organization is delinquent in the repayment of any federal debt, explain why. Provide evidence that you have entered into a repayment agreement with the Internal Revenue Service, if applicable, and that you are current on all payments due. Examples of relevant debt include delinquent payroll or other taxes, audit disallowances, and benefit overpayments. See OMB Circular A-129.

Name the file delinquentdebt.pdf.

Application Components: Grants.gov Forms

SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance – Short Organizational (Grants.gov form) This form requests basic information about your institution, the proposed project, and key contacts. Items 1, 2, and 4 will be automatically filled in; leave item 3 blank.

5. Applicant Information a-d. Provide your organization’s legal name, address, and web address. Select the applicant type that best describes your organization from the drop-down menu.

e-f. Provide your organization’s employer/taxpayer identification number (EIN/TIN), and Unique Entity Identifier assigned by the System for Award Management. If you do not know your identifier, contact your grant administrator or chief financial officer. See D3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management.

https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=d22b09774a679ad264cf0098635dabb8&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1414 https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/circulars_a129_rev2013 https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/circulars_a129_rev2013

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g. Provide your congressional district with your two-character state abbreviation followed by your three-character district number. For example, if your institution is located in the 5th congressional district of Alabama, enter “AL-005.” If your institution is in a state or U.S.

jurisdiction that does not have districts, enter “000” in place of the district number. If your institution is outside the U.S., enter “00-000.”

6. Project Information

a. Provide your project’s title. It should be brief (no more than 125 characters, including spaces), descriptive of the project, and easily understood by the general public. If NEH funds your project, the agency may retitle your project for clarity in internal and external communications, including the public announcement of awards. Regardless, you may use your preferred title when carrying out the project.

b. Provide a brief description of your project (no more than 1,000 characters, including spaces).

You should write the description for a nonspecialist audience, clearly stating the importance of the proposed work and its relation to larger issues in the humanities. This description will appear on the cover sheet of your application and will serve as a project abstract during the review process. If funded, this description will also appear in NEH’s database of funded projects.

c. State your project’s period of performance start and end dates. Your project must start on the first day of a month and end on the last day of a month. See B2. Summary of Funding for allowable periods of performance.

7. Project Director Provide the project director’s name, title, and contact information. The project director is responsible for the programmatic aspects and day-to-day management of the proposed project.

You must notify the NEH Office of Grant Management immediately if you need to change project directors.

If the project director is not employed by the applicant organization, you must have a formal written agreement with the project director that specifies an official relationship between the parties even if the relationship does not involve a salary or other form of remuneration.

8. Primary Contact/Grant Administrator Provide the name, title, and contact information for the official responsible for the administration of the award (e.g., negotiating the budget and ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions of the award).

As a matter of NEH policy, the project director and primary contact/grant administrator must not be the same person.

The grant administrator (also called the “institutional grant administrator”) functions as the representative of the recipient organization. This individual should have authority to act on the organization’s behalf in matters related to the administration of the award. The institutional grant administrator must sign or countersign financial reports and prior approval requests such as budget revisions, extensions to the period of performance, and changes in key personnel.

NEH will address official correspondence (for example, the offer letter or Notice of Action) to the institutional grant administrator and copy the project director.

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

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9. Authorized Representative Provide the name, title, and 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 someone from the Office of Sponsored Projects, or the institution’s president, vice president, executive director, or board chair. The institution’s Grants.gov E-Business Point of Contact must designate the AOR. The AOR’s signature must match the contact’s name. See the Grants.gov Online User Guide.

Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs (Grants.gov form)

1. Project Director Select the project director’s major field of study from the drop-down menu.

2. Institutional Information Select your institution type from the drop-down menu.

3. Project Funding Enter the amount requested under “Outright Funds.” Do not enter anything under “Federal Match” or “Cost Sharing.”

Learn more about the types of funding NEH offers.

4. Application Information Indicate whether you or others will submit complementary proposals to other NEH programs, government agencies, or private entities. If so, specify when and to whom. NEH will not consider this information when evaluating the merits of your proposal. See C3. Other Eligibility Information for restrictions regarding overlapping costs.

For type of application, check “new.”

Select the project’s primary discipline from the drop-down menu. If applicable, select the project’s secondary and tertiary disciplines.

Project/Performance Site Location(s) Form (Grants.gov form) Provide the primary location and any other locations where you will conduct project activities during the period of performance.

Enter congressional districts using the two-letter state abbreviation followed by your three-character district number. For example, if your institution is in the 5th congressional district of Alabama, enter “AL-005.” If your institution is in a state or U.S. jurisdiction that does not have districts, enter “000” in place of the district number. If your institution is outside the U.S., enter “00-000.”

The form has space for 300 sites. If your project includes additional locations, list them in a separate document. Save the document as a PDF named additionallocations.pdf and attach it under “Additional Locations.”

Research and Related Budget (Grants.gov form) You must submit a project budget using the Research and Related Budget form included in the Grants.gov application package and attach a budget justification. Complete the SF-424 https://apply07.grants.gov/help/html/help/index.htm?callingApp=custom#t=GetStarted%2FGetStarted.htm https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/types-funding https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

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Application for Federal Assistance - Short Organizational form prior to completing your Research and Related Budget.

Complete a separate detailed budget for each 12-month span of the period of performance. The form will generate a cumulative budget.

The form indicates required fields in yellow.