Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative

The Library of Congress is funding digitally-enabled educational curricula that integrate the Library's music and creative arts primary sources into history, civics, and democracy instruction for high school students under CFDA 42.015 (Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative), with a new-awards solicitation due September 28, 2026.

The program funds organizations to develop project-based curriculum, teaching materials, and tools that center the Library's digitized music and creative arts collections in classroom instruction targeting high school civics and history education. Funded activities include designing comprehensive, assessable educational products that use rights-free Library materials to build student literacy, critical thinking, and original research skills while connecting underrepresented communities to the Library's collections.

The program operates exclusively through Cooperative Agreements. The Library of Congress is the sole funding agency. Individual grants reach up to $100,000 per award for 12-month project periods.

Two grant opportunities are currently active or recently closed. The new-awards solicitation (030ADV26R0050, posted August 7, 2026, due September 28, 2026) invites education-focused organizations to submit applications; applicant eligibility is restricted to "Other" category organizations as defined in the NOFO. The continuing-awards opportunity (030ADV26R0020, posted April 20, 2026, due date May 18, 2026) is restricted to existing Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative partners who have received prior Library awards directly and meet stated eligibility requirements. A prior solicitation (030ADV23R0047) posted in May 2023 accepted applications from nonprofits, government entities, tribal governments and organizations, school districts, higher education institutions, small businesses, and for-profit organizations; that cycle closed June 30, 2023.

The program was established by Congress in the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act of 2023 (Pub. L. 117-389) as a pilot initiative. Awards are subject to Library of Congress Regulation 7-310 and selective provisions of 2 CFR 200. Grant applications must be submitted to tps-grant@loc.gov.