Funding the humanities: two new reports chart increases in private philanthropy and institutional investment. From the reports:

There are no national data on giving for humanities activities specifically, but data on the broader category of arts, culture, and humanities (ACH) organizations show a considerable increase in charitable giving over the past several decades. During economic hard times, however, ACH organizations tended to lose substantial ground.

Findings and Trends
  • ACH organizations received $25.13 billion from corporations, foundations, and individuals in 2024—the largest amount ever recorded (in inflation-adjusted data extending back to 1984; Indicator IV-15). This accounted for 4.2% of all charitable giving that year.
  • Giving to ACH organizations increased 277% from 1984 to 2000 (rising from $5.1 billion to $19.24 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars) and then, after a two-year decline, experienced another surge up to $22.57 billion in 2007. With the recession the following year, however, charitable giving to these organizations dropped sharply, falling 20.6% (to $17.91 billion). ACH organizations were thus particularly hard hit, as overall giving decreased by only 7.2%. During the recession and for several years following it, giving to ACH organizations remained well below the 2007 high point.
  • ACH giving hovered between $23 and $25 billion in almost every year from 2015 to 2023, before rising above $25 billion for the first time in 2024.
  • Over the 1984–2024 period, giving to ACH organizations increased 393%, outpacing growth in charitable giving overall (186%).

Data on the level and sources of funding for research and development (R&D) at the nation’s colleges and universities reveal modest investment in the humanities relative to other fields, as well as the much greater dependence of humanities research on direct institutional support.

Findings and Trends
  • In fiscal year (FY) 2023, expenditures for academic humanities R&D (excluding research in the discipline of communication) reached $846.9 million, the highest level observed going back to 2011 (Indicator IV-35a).1 Expenditures in 2023 were up 14% from the previous year and 108% from 2011 (with inflation taken into account).
  • Expenditures for academic humanities R&D were dwarfed by those for research in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and medicine; Indicator IV-35b). At the extreme, expenditures for health sciences research in 2023 were over 42 times greater than funding for research in the humanities. Further, 2023 spending for humanities research equaled 0.8% of the amount dedicated to STEM R&D (when all scientific fields—including agricultural sciences and others not depicted in the graph—are considered).
  • The percentage growth in college and university spending for humanities research from 2011 to 2023 was substantially greater than that in any of the broad science fields examined here, such as the biological sciences (which experienced an increase of 27%) and engineering (38%). Comparisons between the humanities and STEM fields should be made with caution, however, given the humanities’ much smaller 2011 baseline value.
  • The percentage growth in spending for academic humanities R&D over the 2011–2023 period was markedly less than that for some other non-STEM fields, such as business/management (134%) and law (165%), but greater than that seen in education (40%).
  • Federal support constituted 8% of all academic humanities R&D expenditures in 2023 (Indicator IV-35c), which was similar to business and law but markedly smaller than the shares in education and each of the STEM fields (33%–67%).

For other posts on Humanities Indicators, see here.