Funder: American Council of Learned Societies
Due Dates: December 1, 2026, 5:00 PM ET (Letter of Intent) | April 28, 2027, 5:00 PM ET (Invited full application)
Funding Amounts: Five grants of up to $130,000 each for 12 months
Summary: Supports curriculum-linked campus-community partnerships that engage undergraduates and community members in co-creating civic knowledge.
Key Information: Projects must expand or extend a well-established community partnership, not establish an entirely new one.
Description
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), with support from the Henry Luce Foundation, funds campus-community partnerships that strengthen civic engagement and build public trust in higher education. Projects connect undergraduate humanities or interpretive social science curricula with collaborative work in which students and community members co-create civic knowledge. They develop democratic practices through communication, literacy, argumentation, critical analysis, and perspective-taking.
The program prioritizes faculty engagement, institutional support, field coordination, campus communication, shared governance, and recognition of work at underrepresented institutions. These include two-year institutions, community colleges, HBCUs, Minority Serving Institutions, and regional public institutions. Projects should make their work visible to academic and non-academic audiences through outputs such as archives, exhibitions, websites, public art, media partnerships, or toolkits.
