I went through the application information and I think we could definitely be a strong contender, if we had a good partner and a sound project.
Please contribute ideas here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/NEH_Advancing_Knowledge_grant
Basically, we can't use it to purchase existing collections, and we need to have a specific project with a partner such as a library, museum or archive. So we need to brainstorm on either what good projects would be (and then, who would be good to approach as a partner?) or on who good partners would be (and then, what would make sense as a collaborative project?).
After mulling over this a bit, it just screams LIBRARY + WIKISOURCE to me. We need a partner who is sympathetic to open content and not putting restrictions on public domain material.
If you have ideas for good partners and/or projects, please put them on the meta page!
thanks, Brianna user:pfctdayelise