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Grant Guidelines

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is seeking an entity to serve as the permanent home of the "American Archive" - the acknowledged archive of public media programming in the United States. These guidelines and associated documents will inform potential applicants of the requirements to receive a one-time grant and all assets associated with the American Archive.

Background

Public media has made significant, critical contributions to American culture and thought, and local public radio and television stations hold irreplaceable records of the American story. Since 2007, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been investing in the "American Archive" initiative to ensure that the legacy of public television and radio is effectively managed and preserved.

The American Archive recently completed an historic, multi-year inventory of public media archives (from more than 120 locations) that has resulted in 2.5 million records. Participating local public television and radio stations have unearthed content of deep significance to their communities and to historians and scholars, and the records represent approximately one million hours of content. Of this, stations have selected approximately 40,000 hours of audio and video for preservation.

Now that CPB has established a framework for a coordinated local/national inventory and preservation effort, we are poised to conclude our incubation of the Archive and to secure an appropriate, permanent home for this important collection - one that will nurture and expand the work of the Archive going forward.

CPB is seeking applications from major library, academic, archive or media institutions that are accustomed to preserving cultural archives, capable of digitizing and sharing media assets, dedicated to supporting the mission and organizations of public media, and able to raise or generate substantial funds to sustain these efforts over many decades.

Please download the Grant Guidelines for detailed information, including application requirements.

• Grant Guidelines 697 KB

Eligibility

Eligible applicants include:

• A single nonprofit entity that is a major library, academic, archive or media institution.
• A formal collaboration in which such an institution works closely with other organizations, and is the primary anchor institution and designated fiscal agent.

Note that the applicant or at least one of the collaborating entities must be a qualified library or archive based on the guidelines in U.S. Copyright Law Section 108, subsection (a)(2).

Contact

Any questions about grant guidelines requirements should be submitted by email to:

Mark Irwin
Senior Director, American Archive
mirwin@cpb.org

Questions will be answered by CPB staff members, and may be shared (without applicant attribution) on CPB's website, using a Frequently Asked Questions format.