• Applications are closed. Applications will reopen on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Applicants will be notified of the status of their proposals within 6 weeks of the deadline.
• Individuals can apply for grants of up to $5,000. No matching funds are required.
• Accessibility Fund: Applicants may choose to request an additional stipend of up to $150 for services such as American Sign Language interpretation or captioning to help make events more accessible to everyone.
• Media Fund: Applicants may choose to request an additional stipend of up to $100 for services such as documentation,
  photographer, videographer, etc.
• Please use the location-specific application. Select the proposal that aligns with where your organization is based, regardless of where programming takes place. Illinois Humanities is committed to geographic diversity and equitably serving the entire state.

• Grants will be awarded to individuals for projects anywhere in Illinois. In order to continue strengthening partnerships developed through Envisioning Justice programming, individuals from the following areas are particularly encouraged to apply: East St. Louis, Decatur, Carbondale, Galesburg, Urbana-Champaign, and the Bloomington-Normal Metro Area. However, grants will not be limited to these communities. All individuals across the state are encouraged to apply.
• Applicants for this category include, but are not limited to: artists, humanists, community organizers, policy makers, journalists, and community advocates.
• Organizations must be non-profits with either 501(c)3 status or as designated by the State of Illinois. For-profit groups are not eligible. However, a for-profit organization might be a partner in a collaboration
• Priority will be given to projects that are regional or statewide in scope, or that focus on communities that are a) the site of a prison or jail, b) include communities that are experiencing significant incarceration, and/or c) that have experienced significant demographic change as a result of the criminal legal system.
• All selected grantees will be asked to report to Illinois Humanities on grant-funded activities; provide text, photos, audio, and/or video reporting; let Illinois Humanities know of grant-funded events at least a week in advance; be willing to participate in a survey during the grant period; and to work with Illinois Humanities on evaluation, if requested.

This grant application is closed. It will reopen on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. 

Complete the online application

Preview of the online application as a PDF. This PDF is for preview purposes only, please apply using this online application link.

Request an interview

If you are new to the world of proposal writing and would like to conduct an application by interview with an Illinois Humanities staff member, reach out to Tyreece Williams via email at tyreece.williams@ilhumanities.org no later than Monday, June 26th to arrange a time to talk.

We ask that anyone choosing this option come to the interview with developed thoughts on the project they’d like to propose, down to details regarding the timeline, budget, etc.

• This application is closed. It will reopen on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Applicants will be notified of the status of their proposals within 6 weeks of the deadline.
• Organizations can apply for grants up to $10,000. No matching funds are required.
• Accessibility Fund: Applicants may choose to request an additional stipend of up to $150 for services such as American Sign Language interpretation or captioning to help make events more accessible to everyone.
  Media Fund: Applicants may choose to request an additional stipend of up to $100 for services such as documentation,
  photographer, videographer, etc.
• Please use the location-specific application. Select the proposal that aligns with where your organization is based, regardless of where programming takes place. Illinois Humanities is committed to geographic diversity and equitably serving the entire state.

• Grants will be awarded to projects led by organizations anywhere in Illinois. In order to continue strengthening partnerships developed through Envisioning Justice programming, organizations from the following areas are particularly encouraged to apply: East St. Louis, Decatur, Carbondale, Galesburg, Urbana-Champaign, and the Bloomington-Normal Metro Area. However, grants will not be limited to these communities. All organizations across the state are encouraged to apply.
• Applicants for this category include, but are not limited to: humanities, arts, and cultural organizations, community-based organizations, social-service agencies, support-service providers who work with currently and formerly incarcerated individuals, and youth media groups.
• Organizations must be non-profits with either 501(c)3 status or as designated by the State of Illinois. For-profit groups are not eligible.
• While there are no budget restrictions, organizations with budgets under $1,000,000 will be given precedence.
• Priority will be given to: initiatives that are regional or statewide in scope, or that focus on communities that are a) the site of a prison or jail, b) include communities that are experiencing significant incarceration, and/or c) that have experienced significant demographic change as a result of the criminal legal system.
• All selected grantees will be asked to report to Illinois Humanities on grant-funded activities; provide text, photos, audio, and/or video reporting; let Illinois Humanities know of grant-funded events at least a week in advance; be willing to participate in a survey during the grant period; and to work with Illinois Humanities on evaluation, if requested.

The application deadline is 5:00 p.m. CST on Friday, July 14, 2023.

Complete the online application

Preview the online application as a PDF. This PDF is for preview purposes only, please apply using this online application link.

Request an interview

If you are new to the world of proposal writing and would like to conduct an application by interview with an Illinois Humanities staff member, reach out to Tyreece Williams via email at tyreece.williams@ilhumanities.org no later than Monday, June 26th to arrange a time to talk.

We ask that anyone choosing this option come to the interview with developed thoughts on the project they’d like to propose, down to details regarding the timeline, budget, etc.

Lawndale Quilt Flag Installation

Artist Sonja Henderson facilitates the Mother’s Healing Circle (MHC), an arts-based community restorative and celebratory resource that reconnects lost histories and legacies affected by inequity, racism, and violence. MHC serves and supports Chicago Lawndale Mothers who have lost children to state violence, mass incarceration, and poverty through weekly arts-based communal workshops using holistic ancestral health and wellness practices. MHC will collect stories and imagery through journaling, collage, photographs, and historic images. These powerful local and universal stories will be transferred to fabric through applique and various collage techniques to create a series of community quilts that give voice to the dynamic history and healing of Lawndale.  After completing the quilts MHC, the School of the Art Institute: Homan Square and Kevin Sutton will fly them on a series of flagpoles in Lawndale’s historic Sunken Garden as an art installation for broader community engagement, storytelling, pride and as a tourist site destination.

Pre Trail-Fairness Act Campaign

The Chicago Community Bond Fund (CCBF) pays bond for people charged with crimes in Cook County, Illinois. In collaboration with local artists and collectives, the Chicago Community Bond will create art, infographics, and print materials to raise awareness and public understanding of the Pretrial Fairness Act. These pieces will be used on social media platforms; physical handouts; press conferences; and as part of a traveling art exhibit on pretrial justice.

Simply submit an application using the form using the Foundant portal. Select the Envisioning Justice grant category you are interested in applying for: individual or organization. You will be asked to describe who you are, what you plan to do, how you plan to carry it out, and how support from Illinois Humanities would help make it possible. If you’d like feedback in advance, we encourage you to contact us with questions or ideas no later than 2 weeks before the stated grant deadline. We plan to notify applicants of funding decisions by Friday, September 1, 2023.

Individuals, non-profit/tax-exempt organizations, and collectives seeking funding for projects addressing mass incarceration and/or various topics that bring forth possibilities for a more just society. This is intentionally open-ended as we understand the complexity of mass incarceration and the compounding issues that expand its reach and ongoing harm to marginalized communities. For-profit entities are not eligible for these grants. While there are no budget restrictions, organizations with budgets under $1,000,000 will be given precedence.

Grant opportunities are available for projects that take place in Illinois. Illinois Humanities is committed to equity in how funds are dispersed across the state, and geographic diversity will be a priority in our selection process.

No. Illinois Humanities is actively working to ensure that Envisioning Justice is an ongoing program offered through our organization with grantmaking as a critical component.

Yes, you can apply to more than one category. However, you can only be awarded one Envisioning Justice grant at any given time. If you currently have an open Envisioning Justice grant, you must submit your final report form for your current grant prior to submitting a new proposal. Recipients of Community Grants, Activate History, Foreground Rural Initiative (FRI), and COVID-19 Emergency Relief and Recovery grants are eligible.

Illinois Humanities is overseeing this grants program, and an advisory committee consisting of staff and outside advisors from across Illinois has been assembled to assess applications.

The humanities are the examination of what it means to be human through the interpretation and discussion of all forms of thought, interest and expression. While we value traditional humanities disciplines, such as art history, literature, languages, law, history, and philosophy, our emphasis is on the public humanities, which means that we look at the humanities as more than an academic discipline.

For us, the public humanities are a mode of inquiry and conversation that aims to engage, support, or challenge the ideals, beliefs, tensions, and prejudices of the communities in which we live. We believe that important thought can happen outside of the academy – in neighborhood institutions, schools, churches, and at kitchen tables across the country. We are especially interested in instances of the public humanities that promote civic engagement – in raising critical issues facing everyday people and conducted with the hope of increasing their desire for staying engaged. Rather than being defined by rigid disciplinary boundaries, it is the humanistic lens, which emphasizes curiosity, questioning, and dialogue, that matters most to us.