Grant & Funding Resources
Chicago Agencies
- Arts Work Fund
- Chicago Community Trust
- City of Chicago DCASE City Arts
- Donnelley Foundation
- Driehaus Foundation
- Field Foundation of Illinois
- Illinois Arts Council
- Illinois Humanities
- Joyce Foundation
- MacArthur Foundation
- Terra Foundation for American Art
National Agencies
- Institute for Museum & Library Services
- National Archives
- National Endowment for the Arts
- National Endowment for the Humanities
Conservation & Collections
- American Institute for Conservation
- Archival Professional Development Scholarships
- Historical Records Grant Program
- Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board (ISHRAB)
- Inspire! Grants for Small Museums
- Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Preservation Assistance Grant (PAG)
Oral Histories
- Collaborate with a larger institution → If you are focused on a particular community, see if there is a local university with a department, institute, or archive interested in that community. They may consider collaborating and helping to store the recordings and make them available to the public.
- Connect with the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation to learn more about the Broadening Narratives grant, which aims to fund specific collections projects that bring forward underrepresented stories.
- Illinois Humanities Activate History micro-grants
- ISHRAB – Illinois States Humanities Records Advisory Board: historical records grant program.
Toolkits
- “Is Your Organization Grant-Ready?” Check List from Illinois Association of Museums
- Grant Ideas Check List from Illinois Association of Museums
- Forefront (formerly Donors Forum)
- Arts & Business Council
Volunteers/Interns/Local Support
- The Arts Intern Program provides fully paid summer and academic year internships at museums. All you have to do is provide a substantive internship experience and mentorship and youʼll have a full time intern getting paid $20/hr. The deadline for this summer just passed, but try reaching out and see if you can still get in, they tend to accept late entries.
- Chicago Area Archivists: Note the annual CAA day of service.
- Lawyers for the Creative Arts
