Humanities Nebraska scaling back operations following federal funding pull

Humanities Nebraska, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to promoting humanities programming across the state, announced this week that it’s cutting some of its outreach events and community grants. The Humanities Nebraska board officially approved the organization’s budget, including $300,000 cuts in the organization's programming and operating expenses, at its meeting in September.

The budget tightening follows cuts made earlier this year at the federal level, when the newly established U.S. Department of Government Efficiency chopped funding to the National Endowment. The national office then notified Humanities Nebraska and other humanities groups across the country of their loss in federal funding.

In August, a federal judge ruled that the government’s sudden cut of humanities grants previously approved by Congress was “unlawful.” The judge ruled a lawsuit brought by Oregon Humanities and the Federation of State Humanities Councils can go forward.

But until the federal funding landscape changes, humanities groups across the U.S., including Humanities Nebraska, are narrowing down some of their future projects and leaning into other private donations to stay afloat.

“I don’t want people to think we’re going away, but I do think people just need to see that these cuts at the federal level trickle down all the way to local communities,” Executive Director Chris Sommerich said.

As a part of scaling back its operations, Humanities Nebraska’s board elected to make the following changes:

• Reducing grant funding available to local nonprofits by $44,000
• Reducing expenses for the HN Speakers Bureau by increasing the booking fee from $50 to $75 and limiting organizations to only one application per year
• Reducing Prime Time Family Reading programs across the state from 50 to 40 sites
• Reducing Summer Reading Kit distribution around the state from 500 to 220
• Reducing budgets for the Chautauqua summer history festival, Nebraska Forum on Global Issues for high schools, Nebraska Warrior Writers workshops for veterans and active duty military, and National History Day-Nebraska for middle school and high school students
• Reducing one staff position from full time to half time
• Other reductions to administrative expenses

The Humanities Nebraska board tried to trim operating expenses mostly across the board, so not one or two specific programs would be severely impacted.

“We tried to do it very strategically,” Sommerich said. “They’re all still important to our mission. Our job is to serve the entire state – rural areas, urban areas, everything in between, people of all ages. We didn’t want to disproportionately hurt any particular segment of the population of Nebraska.”

Sommerich said his organization has managed to keep important portions of events and programs thanks in part to an increase in private donations and other funding, but if the federal flatline lasts into next year, Humanities Nebraska will be facing more drastic cuts.

“We want to continue everything we’re doing the best we can – dip into our reserves, which is something we don’t normally need to do, and try to raise more private funding and keep working with our cultural endowment and see how 2026 plays out,” Sommerich said. “We’ve been here for 52 years, and we want to be here for another 52 years, and well beyond.”

By way of full disclosure, Humanities Nebraska is a financial supporter of Nebraska Public Media.