African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Grants
The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund works to advance the broader preservation movement towards a more diverse and equitable representation of American history. Grants showcase the beauty and complexity of Black history and culture in America, while underscoring the urgent need to protect, preserve and interpret these invaluable American assets.
Action Fund grant requirements and deadlines vary. Visit the links below to access the most up-to-date information, as well as for application guidelines and deadlines.

Action Fund National Grant
Action Fund national grants advance ongoing preservation activities for historic places such as sites, museums, and landscapes that represent African American cultural heritage. Funding supports work in four primary areas: Capital Projects, Organizational Capacity Building, Project Planning, and Programming and Interpretation.
- Letters of Intent due December 19, 2022
- Guidelines and Application

Conserving Black Modernism
In partnership with the Getty Foundation, the Conserving Black Modernism grant program is designed to empower and equip preservationists and stewards with funding and technical support to preserve the material heritage, innovation, and legacy of modern architectural sites designed by Black architects.
- Letters of Intent due December 19, 2022
- Program Information
- Guidelines and Application

HBCU Cultural Heritage Stewardship Initiative
This program provides technical assistance and funds new Cultural Heritage Stewardship Plans at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The partnership with National Endowment for the Humanities seeks to empower HBCUs with the resources to protect, preserve, and leverage their historic campuses, buildings, and landscapes, and ensures these symbols inspire and educate future generations.
- Applications due February 28, 2023
- Program Information
- Guidelines and Application

Preserving Black Churches
The Action Fund, with support from the Lilly Endowment Inc, is investing in historic Black churches and congregations to reimagine, redesign, and deploy historic preservation to address the institutions’ needs and the cultural assets and stories they steward. We are leveraging historic preservation as a tool for equity and reconciliation and celebrating historic Black churches as centers of heritage, community, and cultural life.
- Letters of Intent due September 2, 2022
- Program Information
- Guidelines and Application
Learn more about additional National Trust grant programs here.
Action Fund Grant Stories
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African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund 5 for 5: African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Sites You Should Know More About -
Preserving Black Churches 35 Historic Black Churches Receive $4 Million Investment -
Preservation Magazine Elizabeth Alexander on the "Urgent and Sacred Mission" of Saving Black History Sites -
Preservation Magazine How the Free Black Community of Weeksville Rose in 19th-Century Brooklyn -
African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Anasa Troutman and the Future of Historic Clayborn Temple
Each year, America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places sheds light on important examples of our nation’s heritage that are at risk of destruction or irreparable damage.
Find Out Who Is Listed