From Maryland Humanities:
Last night, we received a letter from Michael McDonald, Acting Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), detailing the unlawful termination of our General Operating Support grant agreement at the recommendation of DOGE. Currently, hundreds of previously awarded grants, including our statutory state council operating support grant, are being terminated and rescinded.
NEH funding accounts for more than 50% of Maryland Humanities' general operating budget. Through the funding we received for 2024, we were able to:
- Distribute over 7,000 books to 117 partners, including 23 library systems, 14 school districts, and individual community and cultural centers.
- Support our Veterans Book Groups, purchasing 180 books for 163 participants.
- Support 28,845 students participating in History Day which included professional development for teachers and the creation of 234 inquiry kits encouraging students' use of primary source materials. These kits have been used nationally and are available online on Thinkport Education thanks to our partnership with MPT.
- In addition, we hosted a Media Literacy and Mental Health Summit featuring workshops, panel discussions, and presentations geared toward equipping over 100 attendees on the correlation between their mental health and their media use.
The NEH has supported the costs of our general operating expenses as well as our programming. Substantially reducing NEH staff, grant-funded programming, and rescinding grants already awarded to us will have a catastrophic impact on our organization, detrimentally affecting our ability to serve Marylanders.
NEH was created by an act of Congress in 1965 and has been reaffirmed by Republican and Democratic Presidents and legislators for the past 60 years. DOGE’s reductions to the NEH budget and workforce will block the agency’s ability to carry out Congressional intent.
The loss of NEH funding to humanities councils will decimate the ability of nonprofits like ours to serve communities across our state, eliminating programs that are essential to our region’s cultural infrastructure. Should these cuts come to pass, we wouldn't be able to continue serving every county including Baltimore City with the far-reaching, high quality programming we have been bringing for more than 50 years.
CALL TO ACTION: HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO!
SHARE - Share this call to action throughout your networks and on your social media platforms.
CONTACT - Contact your members of Congress to demand restored funding for the state and territorial humanities councils. You can use the following link to send a generated email to your representatives or compose an original message: https://p2a.co/DdtlGIT
SUBMIT - Submit testimonies detailing the impact of Maryland Humanities on you personally or on your organization to Claudia Allen, our Director of Advancement, at callen@mdhumanities.org.
DONATE - This funding termination is detrimental, but we at Maryland Humanities are committed to community-centric fundraising. We believe that in order to be community-based we must be community-backed. Now more than ever do we need our community's support. If everyone receiving this email gave $100, we could surpass the funding received from the federal government. Send us a donation of support today!
Donate: https://form-renderer-app.donorperfect.io/give/maryland-humanities-council/donation-form