Library of Congress Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative: New Awards for 2027-2029
Funding opportunity: 030ADV26R0050
Status: Open
Deadline: September 28, 2026 at 2:00 PM Eastern Time.
Funding: The Library of Congress expects up to six cooperative agreements. The maximum award is $100,000 for the first 12-month budget period, with continued funding potentially supporting a maximum three-year project and no more than $300,000 total per awardee. No cost sharing or matching is required.
Program focus
The Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative supports educational projects in which analysis of Library of Congress music and/or creative-arts digitized primary sources is central to teaching and learning about history, civics, and democracy. Projects should focus primarily on middle- and high-school educators and learners and may include educational programs, tools and materials, convenings, and practitioner-involved research.
Eligibility
Eligible applicants include a broad range of U.S.-based public and private organizations, including nonprofit and for-profit organizations, institutions of higher education, library systems, cultural institutions, K-12 schools, after-school programs, literacy organizations, professional associations, civic and community groups, states and public agencies, and Tribal governments and organizations. Applicants must have a record of serving learner populations aligned with the initiative and must not have previously received Lewis-Houghton Initiative funding directly from the Library of Congress. Individuals and other federal agencies are not eligible. Successful awardees must complete applicable SAM.gov registration requirements by award.
Submission mechanics
This opportunity has unusual submission instructions. Applications must be submitted by email to tps-grant@loc.gov. Applicants must not submit proposal files through Grants.gov; the Notice states that Grants.gov submissions will not be accepted. The email subject must include 030ADV26R0050. Each email is limited to 20 MB and larger submissions may be divided into numbered emails. Locked or zipped files and cloud-storage links are not permitted.
Required materials include the official Proposal Narrative Template, Budget Plan, and SF-424, together with all other Notice-specific requirements. Applicants should use the current amended Notice and Q&A when preparing the submission.
Material project requirements
Awardee-created project content must comply with the Notice’s open-license requirements, and digital deliverables must meet applicable accessibility obligations, including ADA, WCAG, and Section 508 requirements. The Notice also restricts awardees from using generative AI to create or produce project materials. Applicants should distinguish any permissible administrative or application-support assistance from the project materials that would be produced under an award and comply with the controlling Notice.
Direct Dr. Miltie path
For-profit organizations are structurally eligible, so a direct Dr. Miltie application is possible in principle. It is not submission-ready, however. Before a direct path advances, Dr. Miltie would need independently substantiated evidence of a qualifying record serving the initiative’s learner populations, confirmation that it has not previously received direct Lewis-Houghton funding, a responsive secondary civics/history/democracy project centered on Library creative-arts primary sources, a qualified project team, applicant registrations and organizational facts, and all required proposal materials. Current classification: Dr. Miltie Direct / Structural Eligibility Only / Needs Marc Review.
Atlas routing
Organization-specific applicant evaluation should be routed to applicable state education pathways for eligible schools and districts, libraries, cultural institutions, higher-education institutions, nonprofits, qualifying for-profit education organizations, and Tribal organizations with a documented learner-serving record. New applicant outreach remains subject to organization-specific eligibility, deduplication, recipient, opt-out, and deadline controls.