$3 Million Gift from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Contribution to Endow Fellowships for Scholars
News Release Date: October 20, 2011
Research Triangle Park, N.C. The National Humanities Center has announced the public launch of a capital campaign to raise $13 million and increase the resources available for its fellowship, education, and outreach programs.
This announcement marks the beginning of the public phase of Where The Humanities Take Root: The Campaign for the National Humanities Center. The Center has been quietly raising funds since last year and has currently received nearly $9.7 million in gifts and pledges. Among those gifts is a donation of $3 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of the Center's fellowship programs. Funds from this gift will be matched with contributions from other donors to create four new endowed fellowships for advanced study at the Center.
"We are honored to receive this gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which is historically very selective in the contributions it makes," said Geoffrey Harpham, president and director of the National Humanities Center. "The Foundation has been a generous supporter of the Center throughout our history and its participation in this capital campaign represents a strong vote of confidence in our future, and the future of the humanities."
Through this campaign, the Center seeks to solidify its position as the leading independent research institute for the humanities in the world. Specifically, it seeks to:
- Secure the quality and independence of its fellowship program by increasing the number of endowed fellowships it offers, and ensuring that those fellowships are suitably funded
- Complete its extensive library of digital resources for teaching American history and culture and double the size of its of highly successful online seminar program (with a goal of 50 sessions per year, for 1,500 teachers with up to 400,000 students)
- Extend strategic outreach programs that bring together the academic community and the general public to explore important subjects through the lens of current humanities scholarship
The Center has created a website with details about its capital campaign at nhccampaign.org where people can learn more about the Center's campaign and make a gift or pledge. Pledges are accepted toward specific campaign priorities as well as to the Center's Annual Fund which is an integral part of the campaign.
The Campaign for the National Humanities Center began in the fall of 2010 and will conclude in 2014. "With lead gifts such as that from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Center's campaign is off to a strong start," said Harpham. "We are now expanding and intensifying our fundraising efforts to build on this generosity. We hope that this campaign will not only succeed in increasing support for Center's fellowship and education programs—helping advance humanities research and teaching—but will also raise public awareness of the Center and highlight the value of the humanities in American life."
A campaign launch event featuring a talk by eminent literary scholar Stephen Greenblatt from Harvard University was held at the Center on October 20 with invited trustees, Fellows, and friends of the Center.
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that awards grants in higher education and scholarship, scholarly communications and information technology, museums and art conservation, performing arts, and conservation and the environment.
About the National Humanities Center
The National Humanities Center, located in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina, is a privately incorporated independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. Since 1978 the Center has awarded fellowships to leading scholars in the humanities, whose work at the Center has resulted in the publication of more than 1,300 books in all fields of humanistic study. The Center also sponsors programs to strengthen the teaching of the humanities in secondary and higher education.