Strategic Growth Grant Recipients

The SAA Foundation seeks to uplift archivists and archives by providing resources to the archival community. To that end, the SAA Foundation Board awards grants annually that meet the mission and goals of the Foundation and/or the strategic planning priorities of the Society of American Archivists. To learn more and apply for the next funding cycle, see the Grant Application Process and Guidelines.

Congratulations to the following grant recipients, from the program's inception in 2016 to now! 

2022 Grant Recipients

• “Growing Across Generations,” as submitted by the Pueblo of Isleta, funded in the amount of $5,000. 

• “Arizona Museum-Archives Collaboration,” as submitted by the Museum Association of Arizona, funded in the amount of $3,500.

• “Community Collections and Collaborations” as submitted by the Maryland Center for History and Culture, funded in the amount of $5,000.

• “The Importance of Caring in Nursing: Providing Online Access to the Archives of Caring,” as submitted by Florida Atlantic University, funded in the amount of $5,000.

• “Collective Leadership and Anti-Oppressive Facilitation Training for SAA Education,” as submitted by Jessica Chapel, Alison Clemens, and Dr. Lydia Tang, funded in the amount of $3,400.

2021 Grant Recipients

2020 Grant Recipients

• To the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, to undertake a comprehensive research project to examine archival accessioning labor profiles throughout the U.S., including administering a survey, conducting site visits, and developing an open-access dataset;

• To the Quenepón Restoration Project Team, to revive, web restore, and create a viable digital preservation strategy for El cuarto del quenepón to honor its legacy and continuing influence in the Puerto Rico arts community;

• To the SAA Education Department to develop the next level of professional development coursework for archives managers, focusing on DEI skills and competencies; and

• To Sixty Inches From Center, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization, to publish a series of multi-media articles and produce a live discussion series that brings archival best practices to an audience of cultural workers, artists, writers, curators, grantmakers, street scholars, and community archivists.

2019 Grant Recipients

• Develop workshops and a toolkit related to the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials, submitted by Stephen Curley, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Archives, funded in the amount of $5,000.

• Initiate the project “Documenting Asian American Community Music Ensembles,” submitted by Eric Hung, Music of Asian America Research Center, funded in the amount of $5,000.

• Implement a regional emergency response plan, submitted by Tracie Gieselman-Holthaus, Special Collections and Archives, Missouri State University, funded in the amount of $2,500.

• Write biographical Wikipedia entries about American archivists, especially women and archivists of color, submitted by April Anderson-Zorn, Illinois State University, funded in the amount of $4,134.

• Create a workbook related to the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials to assist institutions holding such materials, submitted by Liza Posas, The Autry Museum, funded in the amount of $5,000.

2018 Grant Recipients

• Academy of Motion Pictures Foundation, Margaret Herrick Library, to fund a fellowship for a new professional from an underrepresented background to gain hands-on experience in archival processing with two library projects involving African American film history and web archiving.

• American Academy in Rome, to preserve and catalog a collection of 15,000 handwritten notes by archeologist Esther B. Van Deman. 

• Florida International University, to explore development and incorporation of translation and transcription functionality into open-source digital archives to support compliance with the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, thus increasing access to collections. 

• Historical Society of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, to preserve 600 glass plate negatives representing the work of two local photographers.

• Louisiana Historical Association and Louisiana Archives and Manuscripts Association, to train stakeholders in preserving Louisiana records to serve as effective spokespersons for the "History Lost? Saving Louisiana's Archival Heritage" initiative.

• National Security Archive, to digitize 35 audiocassettes of Washington Post senior diplomatic correspondent Murray Marder's interviews with Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance on foreign policy issues of the 1970s. 

• The Nomadic Archivist Project, to work with community partners to develop archival literacy in audiences who are unfamiliar with the process of collecting and preserving local histories.

• South Asian American Digital Archive, to create a SAADA Archivists' Collective to collect and share overlooked histories of South Asian Americans.

2017 Grant Recipients

• Ben Goldman of Pennsylvania State University (principal investigator) and Eira Tansey of the University of Cincinnati (grant collaborator) for “Existence and Location of Originals: Gathering and Documenting Archival Repository Location Data,” a one-year project to identify, gather, standardize, and make publicly accessible United States archival repository location data. (View an abstract of the authors’ 2016 Research Forum presentation on this topic.)  Award amount: $5,000. 

• JoyEllen Freeman of Kennesaw State University for a one-year project entitled “Community Curation Initiative Workshop for Indigenous Community Members.” Award amount: $1,000.

2016 Grant Recipient

• Ed Benoit III, PhD, at Louisiana State University, for the project "Analysis of User-Generated Descriptions of Moving Image Materials." Award amount: $2,400.