November 3, 2021
Announcing Grant Opportunities for Individuals
Several grant opportunities are available to individuals for support to help develop an understanding of deliberative practices and to convene deliberative dialogues in the classroom, on campus, and in communities.

Taylor L. Willingham Legacy Fund
Application deadline:  November 30, 2021

National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) is accepting grant applications for the Fund through November 30, 2021. 

The Fund was established to honor the work of Taylor Willingham. Throughout Taylor's public work, she encouraged countless newcomers to develop their capacity to convene and to moderate deliberative forums. In that spirit, this award is intended to support the learning and leadership of those who are relatively new to deliberative dialogue as they work to increase opportunities for Americans to examine and address public issues. Grants are in the range of $500-1,000.  Read more and for links to fill out an application

Current grant recipient:
  • Heidi Holliday, executive director of Consensus KC, Kansas City, MO. Learn more about Heidi’s deliberative practices.

Micro Grant Program from Up to Us 
This program runs through June 2022

NIFI’s partner, Up to Us, is offering micro grants of $150 to faculty, students, and administrators affiliated with US-based colleges and universities who moderate a forum using one of the following NIF issue discussion guides: Youth and Opportunity, A Nation in Debt, A House Divided, and Health Care. Funds can be used at the moderator’s discretion to help support the forum. This program runs through June 2022.  Click here to read more and to access the application form.


Elizabeth “Libby” Kingseed Teaching with Deliberation Memorial Award
NIFI will begin accepting grant applications in February 2022.

The award recognizes the commitment that Libby Kingseed had to civic education, especially her support of teacher networking, experimentation, and reflection on the use of deliberation in the classroom. 

This award is open to any K-12 teacher who is inspired to implement deliberation or deliberative pedagogy in the classroom and who is new to using the practices. The teacher should have a demonstrated commitment to fostering the civic development of students, though it is not necessary that they be a civics or social studies teacher. All K-12 teachers are encouraged to apply. 

NIFI will begin accepting grant applications in February 2022 for the grant period beginning July 1, 2022 and ending on June 30, 2023. Grants will be in the range of $500.

Current grant recipients:
  • Michael Cruse, special education and English language learner resource teacher at the H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program in the Arlington Public Schools, Arlington, VA.
  • Amy Nocton, Spanish teacher and advisor for the Deliberation and Discourse Project at the E.O. Smith High School, Storrs, CT. 
  •  Brandon Thornton, language arts and mathematics teach at the Bloomington High School, Bloomington, IL. 
  • Lisa Bietau is currently working with the Manhattan-Ogden Public Schools and Kansas 4-H to increase the impact and opportunity for students to engage in civic actions in the classroom, school, and at state levels.

Click here and here to learn more about their deliberative practices in the classroom and in communities.
About Deliberation in National Issues Forums
National Issues Forums issue guides are designed to stimulate public deliberation, which is a way of making decisions together that is different from discussion or debate. The purpose of deliberative forums is to inform collective action. As citizens, we have to make decisions together before we can act together, whether with other citizens or through legislative bodies. Acting together is essential for addressing problems that can't be solved by one group of people or one institution. These problems have more than one cause and therefore have to be met by a number of mutually reinforcing initiatives with broad public participation. 

About the National Issues Forums Institute

The National Issues Forums Institute's mission is to promote the use of public deliberation in schools, colleges, civic organizations, and religious institutions in the United States. The institute's board members are volunteers drawn from leaders in government, colleges and universities, libraries, civic organizations, the media, and medicine. For more information visit www.nifi.org.