Funding by Area
College of Arts and Letters
Shape the next generation of changemakers
In the College of Arts and Letters, we prepare students for fulfilling careers and engaged civic lives through creativity, critical inquiry, and cultural understanding. Your support fuels hands-on learning, public-facing scholarship, and meaningful engagement across communities.
Whether you choose to support experiential learning, community engagement, or another area you value, your investment supports an education grounded in the essential value of the arts and humanities.
Scholarships helped NAU student Ethan Ward prepare for law school and a career in justice.
Read Ethan’s storyElevate Access for students
Scholarships
Fundraising goal: $50,000
Every student deserves access to an excellent education—but for many, cost remains the greatest barrier. At NAU, 97 percent of students receive financial aid, ensuring that cost never stands in the way of ambition. A gift of $50,000 supports one student for an academic year; $500,000 supports ten. Your generosity opens doors and gives students the freedom to focus on learning.
Elevate academic excellence
Dean’s Innovation Fund
Fundraising goal: $200,000
This flexible fund allows the dean to support faculty and student initiatives that launch innovative and creative ideas. Whether bringing a new music festival to life or supporting international research conducted by students and faculty, your investment helps keep the College of Arts and Letters dynamic and future-focused.
Elevate academic excellence
Community Engagement Fund
Fundraising goal: $400,000
We are committed to serving Flagstaff and northern Arizona through educational and creative programs that reach beyond the NAU campus. This fund supports signature programs like Philosophy in the Public Interest, Young Authors Camp, NAU History Day, Curry Summer Music Camp, and Flagstaff Piano Festival. Your gift helps us sustain and grow these programs, expanding access, deepening impact, and building stronger connections between NAU and the communities we serve.
In the gift comments of the giving form, please include “Community Engagement Fund”
Elevate academic excellence
Experiential Learning Fund
Fundraising goal: $1 Million
Arts and humanities students thrive when they can apply their talent and knowledge beyond the classroom. This fund will support internships, externships, faculty-guided projects, study abroad, and community-based learning, ensuring access to transformative experiences that broaden horizons while enhancing career skills.
In the gift comments of the giving form, please include “Experiential Learning Fund”
Elevate academic excellence
Holocaust Education
Fundraising goal: $1.8 Million
The Martin-Springer Institute (MSI) trains teachers, curates exhibitions, and develops curriculum that fosters historical understanding and ethical awareness around the Holocaust. Your endowed investment will support MSI’s educational programming as well as a full-time coordinator to design lessons, lead trainings for teachers and student docents, and develop study tours for educators. With your support, MSI can significantly expand its reach, ensuring the lessons of the Holocaust are taught with accuracy, care, and impact.
Elevate faculty impact
Endowed Faculty
Fundraising goal: $500,000
Exceptional students need exceptional faculty. Your investment in endowed positions helps the College of Arts and Letters recruit and retain accomplished teacher-scholars who inspire students, build meaningful community partnerships, and generate research that informs real change.
Elevate Faculty Impact
Martin-Springer Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship
Fundraising goal: $500,000
This endowed, annual fellowship supports recent PhDs and early-career scholars. Fellows conduct research, teach courses, engage the community, and collaborate with the Martin-Springer Institute and other academic programs. Postdoctoral fellows further MSI’s mission to bring the experiences of the Holocaust into sharp focus in order to understand those events in the context of today’s concerns and crises. Your gift will augment salaries, travel, and research expenses for fellows.
Elevate the campus experience
Martin-Springer Institute Capital Project
Fundraising goal: $1.5 Million
The Martin-Springer Institute brings Holocaust education, human rights scholarship, and intercultural understanding to students, educators, and communities across Arizona and the world. As demand for MSI’s programming has grown, so has the need for a dedicated physical space. Your investment will create a new center on the Flagstaff campus: a permanent home for MSI that includes a gallery space for public exhibitions, a seminar room for courses and workshops, staff offices, and archival and instructional storage. With your support, the new facility will expand MSI’s ability to host visiting scholars, train teachers, showcase student-curated exhibits, and serve as a hub for community engagement and public scholarship.
Stories of impact
View all
Unveiling the Nakai Plaza
Grammy-nominated recording artist and NAU alum creates an Indigenous plant garden.
Scholarships funded by stocks send Lumberjacks abroad
By using appreciated stock to fund scholarships, Gary Kane, ’69, enables NAU students to take life-changing journeys abroad.
Reshaping legal language
NAU linguist Scott Jarvis is fighting to make the legal system fairer—one word at a time.