Giving Blueday 2026

Giving Blueday is just once a year, but your donations impact student opportunities for years to come!

The Museum of Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Michigan is hitting on all cylinders, meeting its mission, and then some:

The University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology (UMMAA) is dedicated to original research on humanity's past, to the curation of world-class collections, and to sharing our knowledge with the public. We are further committed to educating undergraduates about human diversity, and training graduate students to become anthropological archaeologists.

Curators, students, and staff continue to conduct research in the collections and around the world. Our Museum press produces award-winning books. With the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, we have launched a Center for Community Archaeology and Heritage and The Klinsky Expeditions. We are admitting five (!) Ph.D. students this year. And soon we will make a major announcement about the construction of a brand-new UMMAA research facility. The future is bright!

But we also, unfortunately, see trouble on the horizon. In the United States, archaeology and museum work have never been particularly well funded. Historically, most of our research funding has come from the National Science Foundation, but the NSF, like many federal agencies, is under threat. Programs like the Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, which have funded generations of UMMAA dissertations, have already been eliminated.

In order to maintain our world-class anthropological archaeology graduate program, we recently decided to extend so-called Griffin Fellowships to ALL graduate students—in the amount of $20,000—regardless of where they work, New World or Old World. These fellowships will help stem the loss of NSF funding.

But to keep the momentum going, to continue to fully meet our mission, we need your support.

In this time of federal funding cuts, your gift to UMMAA’s Strategic Fund–of any amount!–helps us meet our mission: research, education, public and descendant community engagement. And this year, your gift will go even further as all gifts will be doubled thanks to a 1:1 matching donation! Thanks for considering a gift to UMMAA on Giving Blueday.

We appreciate it!