The National Trust for Historic Preservation is accepting applications starting today for its Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund.
The grants provide financial support to public agencies, tribal governments, or nonprofit organizations to preserve and interpret historic places along the Route 66 corridor.
Grants made from the Preserve Route 66 Fund will generally range from $2,500 to $10,000.
The grant applications will be due on Nov. 12 at 11:59 p.m. your local time. Reviewing applications generally takes 8 to 10 weeks after the deadline, and applicants are notified via email once the process is complete.
Projects must be in a community, neighborhood, or tribal land along the Route 66 corridor in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, or California.
While organizations do not need to be located directly on Route 66, they should demonstrate geographic or thematic connections to Route 66.
Applicants must be a public agency, tribal government, or federally recognized nonprofit organization to be eligible. Applicants that have received previous National Trust financial assistance are eligible provided that all grant requirements are current.
No more than three grants will be awarded in any two years to a single grantee. Only one grant will be awarded per organization in any grant round. Only one grant will be awarded for a particular project phase.
Grants from the Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund are awarded to preserve historic places on or connected to Route 66. Funds can be used to launch new initiatives or to provide support to ongoing efforts. Grants may be made for activities and projects such as:
- Restoration, rehabilitation, stabilization and preservation of designated historic sites and structures, including brick-and-mortar construction and work to preserve archaeological sites
- Obtaining the services of consultants with expertise in areas such as archaeology, architecture, planning, engineering, economics, law, fundraising, organizational development, media relations and education
- Sponsoring preservation conferences and workshops
- Designing and implementing innovative preservation education programs
- Designing, producing and marketing printed materials or other media communications to advance historic preservation
- Acquisition of historically significant land and/or buildings
- Purchase of perpetual easements
Eligible expenses include:
- Construction or other capital improvement costs
- Fees for consultant services
- Nonprofit applicants may include staff salaries for staff members directly working on the funded project
- Speaker/faculty costs (honoraria, travel, and lodging), room rental for conferences
- Mailing costs for distribution of materials
- Website development
- Acquisition costs
- Materials and services such as printing, photographs, telephone and supplies. Except for publications projects, these costs may not exceed 10% of the project budget.
Applications may be found here.