AHA receives emergency funding from Mellon Foundation

April 29, 2025 — Today, the Mellon Foundation announced a $15 million emergency funding commitment to the Federation of State Humanities Councils in response to federal funding cuts that have devastated state humanities councils, including the Alabama Humanities Alliance here. This emergency funding will help provide up to support to all 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils across the United States.

AHA will receive an immediate $200,000 gift, plus the opportunity to access an additional $50,000 challenge grant. Any donations that AHA receives, starting today, will count as matching funds to unlock that additional support.

Individuals, corporations, and foundations can donate to AHA now by visiting alabamahumanities.org/support.

“For more than 50 years, humanities councils have served as the backbone of American cultural life, connecting people through programs that illuminate, honor, and celebrate our shared history at the local level,” said Phillip Brian Harper, Mellon’s program director for higher learning. “The work of these councils touches every aspect of communities across our country. This grant ensures that these irreplaceable institutions can continue their mission.”

Mellon’s investment comes at a critical moment when $65 million in federal support for state humanities councils has been eliminated as a result of cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) — cuts enacted by the Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

On April 2, each humanities council nationwide, including AHA, received notice that all grant funding through the NEH had been cancelled, effective immediately, a loss of $1.2 million here in Alabama. The loss represents two-thirds of AHA’s annual budget and has a trickle-down impact on AHA’s grantees and partners — local libraries, museums, historic sites, historical societies, colleges and universities, arts and culture organizations, literary and literacy groups, towns and chambers of commerce, and more statewide.

“The places where American communities come together to read, learn, and engage with the humanities’ vast and varied forms of knowledge and creativity are often those supported by these Councils,” says Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation. “At stake are both the operational integrity of organizations like museums, libraries, historical societies in every single state, as well as the mechanisms to participate in the cultural dynamism and exchange that is a fundamental part of American civic life. While Mellon’s grantmaking will not cover the entirety of these cuts, we stand side by side with the 56 Humanities Councils across the United States and remain deeply committed to the work they lead on behalf of us all.”

What Mellon’s support means for Alabama Humanities

“This generous donation from our friends at the Mellon Foundation keeps the lights on here at AHA,” says Chuck Holmes, executive director of the Alabama Humanities Alliance. “Combined with donations from AHA’s supporters in all corners of the state, we can also now look at programming we might be able to reactivate this year.

“This investment isn’t a silver bullet for our long-term viability, of course. But it does buy us precious time to continue advocating for the restoration of our federal funding, and to seek out new sources for sustainable, year-over-year operational support.”

This is not the first time the Mellon Foundation has supported AHA’s efforts here in Alabama. Mellon’s other contributions include a recent grant to fund Democracy and the Informed Citizen, a podcast series produced by AHA. The series explores community journalism in rural Alabama, and highlights how citizen-produced newspapers can help build community, preserve local history, and strengthen our democracy. Project partners included Alabama A&M’s WJAB-FM, PACERS Rural Community News Network, Auburn University’s School of Communication and Journalism, the University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences, Auburn University’s Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, and the David Mathews Center for Civic Life.

To help the Alabama Humanities Alliance access Mellon’s additional $50,000 matching challenge grant, donate today at alabamahumanities.org/support.  

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning and impactful storytelling that lifts up our state. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us all see each other as fully human. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

About the Federation of State Humanities Councils
Founded in 1977, the Federation of State Humanities Councils (Federation) is the membership organization of the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils. The Federation supports, connects, and amplifies the work and voices of our members, demonstrating councils’ value for communities and their collective impact on civic health and cultural vibrancy. The Federation envisions a fully resourced, inclusive, and thriving humanities council network.

About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. We believe that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty and empowerment that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and guided by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.