Libraries, museums and other groups that get grant money from South Carolina Humanities to put on events haven’t been able to rely on the organization for a few months now.
That means organizations like the Center for Creative Partnerships in Orangeburg, which previously held events discussing civil rights and social justice across South Carolina, don't have as much of a reach.
The withdrawal comes after the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, cut all funding to state and national humanities councils in April.
But a vote in Congress coming up in September could return that money back to South Carolina Humanities, a nonprofit funded by the federal government to bring cultural and educational events to local communities.
The state branch is part of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds 56 humanities councils across the United States and its territories.
South Carolina Humanities gets 75% of its money from the NEH, said TJ Wallace, the organization’s assistant director. For 2025, the group was supposed to get $1.139 million.
So when DOGE announced that NEH, and by extension all state councils, were losing their funding on April 1, most of that money was terminated.
“We were all shocked,” Wallace said. “The fact that our grant was just terminated overnight without any warning was a shock to us and I think to all of the other state humanities councils.”
Jennifer Gunter, who heads S.C. Humanities, said she was beginning to outline what the next few years could look like when the news was dropped that they were losing federal dollars.
"We were thinking bold. We had this huge, beautiful strategic plan. And, man, it was something,” she said. “Then, we get an email April 1, and all of that is just turned over.”
Since April, grant-giving organization S.C. Humanities has had to adapt by finding other ways to support the community.
For instance, the group has tried to teach organizations how to be better grant writers, Wallace said.
Wallace said they’re still trying to point organizations in the right direction, even if the money cannot come from the state group.
“Small organizations are not going to know about other opportunities out there, or they are going to have to compete with larger organizations that may be writing shinier applications,” she said.
For now, S.C. Humanities focuses on day-to-day operations.
Wallace said they’re running on donations and savings that have been built up over the past 50 years.
Recently, the Mellon Foundation, another organization that gives grants for the humanities, announced matching donations up to $50,000 to each of the 56 humanities councils.
S.C. Humanities has seen support from the foundation, according to former Executive Director Randy Akers.
“That’s very encouraging, but we still have a ways to go,” he said.
As S.C. Humanities aims to keep the lights on, they’re also playing a waiting game.
Congress is set to vote on a temporary spending bill in September that could return funding to NEH and state humanities councils in October.
It would return funding to NEH from October 2025 to September 2026.
Akers said he's hopeful.
“It’s a positive thing that we’re monitoring. … Still on the House floor, on the Senate floor, there’ll be folks that will try to abolish NEH,” he said. “There might be folks that try to reduce the amounts to NEH.”
Akers served as executive director from 1988 to 2025. He said this isn’t the first time the humanities councils were threatened.
In the mid-1990s, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for NEH to be eliminated.
Akers said he managed to cut NEH’s budget by 40%.
“In 1995, South Carolina Humanities was reduced to two employees to run a statewide organization,” he said.
“So we have been through difficult times. We’ve been through times when folks in Congress were not happy with cultural things, but we have lived through them and come out stronger on the other side,” he added.
