Early Thursday morning, Mass Humanities learned that our current grants with the National Endowment for the Humanities have been terminated. The result is a loss of more than $1.3M in funding, nearly 35% of our annual revenue. The message arrived via an email account affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency.
This news was followed by reports that the NEH budget will be dramatically reduced. Like their colleagues at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the agency’s staff will be placed on administrative leave. These moves effectively shutter NEH and deal a powerful blow to our operations at Mass Humanities.
The damage from these cuts will be widespread. NEH grantees across the commonwealth received similar notifications reneging on the agency’s commitments. In 2024 alone, organizations in Massachusetts received grants totaling $7.4 million. While information is still forthcoming, we believe all of these grants were eliminated this week.
In the face of these unprecedented circumstances, we remain committed to our mission. Mass Humanities, along with the other 55 state humanities councils, will exhaust every resource available to us to fight against these cuts. We plan to continue with our 2025 grantmaking schedule and programs, but your assistance is vital to ensuring we can do this.
We hope that you will take a moment today to take three steps to fight for the humanities in Massachusetts.
- Write to your representatives in Congress. We are fortunate to be supported by our delegation. Now they need to hear from you about the importance of restoring NEH. You can find helpful links and humanities-focused scripts on the Federation of State Humanities Councils website.
- Reach out to a local humanities organization to see how you can help. These cuts will impact people and households. Do whatever you can to support educators, museums, libraries, and cultural organizations in your neighborhood.
- Donate to Mass Humanities. We need your contributions to sustain our staff and our service to the more than 149 organizations we funded in 2024. Thank you to the donors who stepped up in recent days.
We know that the devastation of federal funding cuts continues to ripple across all sectors of our society. Our thoughts are with the many Americans whose lives are affected by these decisions. As humanists, we believe that each of us deserves dignity, fairness, and the truth. Mass Humanities is committed to finding a way through this dangerous moment in our history.
Please take good care of yourselves and remember to be human. We need you.
