FY2021 Historic Preservation Fund- African American Civil Rights- Preservation Grants | P21AS00431

Opportunity Information: Apply for P21AS00431

The FY2021 Historic Preservation Fund African American Civil Rights Preservation Grants opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number P21AS00431) is a competitive grant program run by the National Park Service (NPS) using Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) dollars. Its purpose is to help document, interpret, and preserve places that tell the full history of the African American struggle for equal rights as citizens. In practical terms, the program is meant to keep significant civil rights-related buildings and sites standing, usable, and historically intact, while also supporting the professional planning and technical work that often has to happen before or alongside preservation construction.

This specific announcement, P21AS00431, is only for physical preservation projects at historic sites. The work supported can cover a wide range of hands-on preservation needs tied to real places and structures, including architectural and preservation professional services, preparing historic structure reports, developing preservation plans, and carrying out preservation or rehabilitation work to historic structures themselves. The NPS emphasizes that proposed projects and properties should align with the themes and site types discussed in its 2008 report, Civil Rights in America: A Framework for Identifying Significant Sites, which is used as a guiding reference for judging whether a site and proposed work fit the program.

The grants are awarded through a competitive process and, importantly, they do not require a non-federal match, which can make the program more accessible to smaller organizations or communities that may not have fundraising capacity to meet a typical cost-share requirement. Congress provided $16.75 million for the overall African American Civil Rights (AACR) Grant Program in FY2021 under Public Law 116-260, and funds are distributed through these competitive awards. For this opportunity, the maximum award amount listed is $500,000.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of public and nonprofit entities. Applicants may include state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status and nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status; and eligible Native entities, including federally recognized Tribal governments, other Native American tribal organizations, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiian Organizations as defined by 54 USC 300300. One key limitation is that grants are not available for sites or collections owned by the National Park Service itself, meaning NPS-owned properties are excluded from receiving these funds.

Because the AACR program is split into separate tracks, applicants have to select the correct funding announcement based on the kind of work they are proposing. P21AS00431 is strictly for physical preservation. A separate announcement, P21AS00432, covers historical research, documentation, surveys, and nominations rather than construction or repair work. The notice also points out an additional and newer program, the Historic Equal Rights grant program under P21AS00430, which supports physical preservation only for sites connected to the broader struggle for all Americans civil rights. The closing date shown for this opportunity was December 1, 2021, and the assistance listing is associated with CFDA number 15.904.

• The National Park Service in the arts, humanities, other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY2021 Historic Preservation Fund- African American Civil Rights- Preservation Grants" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.904.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-09-30.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-12-01. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for P21AS00431

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