Funding and Development
Cache of Hacksilber, Ekron, 7th c. BCE
W. F. Albright Institute
of Archaeological Research
The mission of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research
is to develop and disseminate scholarly knowledge of the culture of the Near East
from prehistory to the early Islamic period.
The strategic goals adopted by the Board of Trustees are to:
• Support the scholarly program of the Institute (e.g. fellowships, library, seminars, lectures, excavations);
• Preserve the historic building complex and expand facilities to meet growing needs;
• Promote the Institute as an American center for an international community of scholars;
• Develop an educational program for the general public in the United States and elsewhere.
The Albright Board of Trustees with the assistance of the Albright Development Committee seeks to increase the resources of the Institute in order to maintain the high level of scholarship of its unique academic program as well as to implement the goals mentioned above.
Currently this program is supported by grants from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH), the United States Information Agency/Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau of the US State Department, the Getty Trust, the Mellon, Kress and other private foundations, and by annual gifts from Albright Trustees, members of the Albright Institute National Council, and from Alumni and Friends of the Albright.
In recent years the Institute successfully completed a $2,000,000 NEH Challenge grant to endow the directorship and the library. The Albright was also awarded two grants from the Getty Trust totaling $210,000 to support library resources, and the computerization of the library’s catalogue; and received $110,000 from a Leon Levy Bequest earmarked for library acquisitions. Grants received from private institutions include: $600,000 from the Skirball Foundation to complete the endowment of the Albright library; $850,000 from the Scheuer Foundation and $950,000 from the Dorot Foundation to endow various programs at the Albright; and annual grants for Albright Fellowships from the Education and Cultural Affairs Bureau of the United States government, Samuel H. Kress, Horace H. Goldsmith, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundations, amount to $216,500.
In 2006 the Albright was awarded a second $2,000,000 NEH award, $1,000,000 to renovate and endow the hostel in the name of Joy Gottesman Ungerleider; and to renovate related areas in the Institute; and $1,000,000 to endow the Seymour Gitin Distinguished Professorship. Also in 2006, the Glassman Holland Research Fellowship for European Scholars, with an annual award of $12,000, was established by Eli Glassman and Joan Holland in honor of their daughter-in-law, Albright Trustee, Joan Branham.
You are invited to become a Friend of the Albright in support of the ongoing activities and programs of the Institute, and of the important role of the Albright as a premier center of American scholarship. The W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research – AIAR is a private, non-profit educational research institution registered as a tax-exempt 501©3 organization in the United States. All contributions are tax deductible within the limits of the law.
Updated July 2011