FY2025 Historic Preservation Fund- African American Civil Rights- Preservation Grants
Competitive grants fund preservation or history/documentation projects for African American civil rights sites and stories, for eligible historic properties and applicants under the NPS Historic Preservation Fund.
RESTRICTED TO: STATE LOCAL GOV · NONPROFITS · MINORITY SERVING INSTITUTIONS · TRIBAL ENTITIES
⚑ Separate announcement exists for physical preservation vs. history/research/documentation/survey/nomination; applicants must use the correct opportunity number. · No non-Federal match required. · Properties must be listed or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. · Not available for sites or collections owned or leased by NPS, or where NPS holds a property interest.
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| IPPRA | 31 weak | outside portfolio topics; signature methods: community engaged, policy analysis; social/behavioral work is minor; funds other — not a research fit |
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 25 weak | technical depth: minor; funds other (capped) |
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 5 none | no commercialization signal |
Description
The National Park Service"s (NPS) African American Civil Rights Grant Program (AACR) will document and preserve the sites and stories of the full history of the African American struggle to gain equal rights, from transatlantic slave trade forward. The program funds history and preservation projects using the NPS report, Civil Rights in America, A Framework for Identifying Significant Sites, as a guide in determining the appropriateness of proposed projects and properties. AACR grants are funded by the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), administered by the NPS, and will fund a broad range of preservation projects for historic sites including: architectural services, historic structure reports, preservation plans, and physical preservation to structures. Properties must be listed or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places to be eligible for grant funding. Grants are awarded through a competitive process and do not require non-Federal match.There are separate funding announcements for physical preservation projects and for history research/documentation projects. Funding announcement P25AS00495 is for physical preservation of historic sites only; P25AS00496 is for history/research/documentation/survey/nomination projects. Please ensure you apply under the correct opportunity number for your project.FY2025 Public Law 119-4 provides $24 million total for the AACR Grant Program.
Eligibility
Eligible applicants are State governments, local governments, nonprofits, educational institutions, and Federally Recognized Indian Tribes, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiian Organizations, as defined by 54 U.S.C. § 300309, 54 U.S.C. § 300313 and 54 U.S.C. § 300314.Grants are not available for sites or collections owned or leased by the NPS, or in which the NPS holds a property interest.
Apply
View on Grants.gov → CONTACT: National Park Service <STLPG@nps.gov>
Proposal brief SEE AN EXAMPLE →
A one-page internal memo: fit assessment, submission requirements, document scaffold, and next steps dated back from the deadline — tailored to your project idea if you add one.
Proposal shell · Federal (generic) conventions SEE A FEDERAL EXAMPLE →
Funder-faithful document skeletons — Federal (generic)'s document set with section headings, page limits, reviewer guidance, and writing prompts; add a project idea to get [DRAFT] starter bullets. Download as .md for Word or Overleaf.
Legacy IPPRA LLM assessment (v2.0, for comparison)
14/100 · gpt-5.4-mini · 2026-07-06
This is a historic preservation grant focused on documenting and physically preserving African American civil rights sites, not on the social/behavioral or policy research domains IPPRA specializes in. While universities are eligible, the program is for preservation and site documentation rather than research, evaluation, survey, or risk-communication work, so it is only a weak fit.
Legacy scoring history
| 2026-07-06 | 14 | gpt-5.4-mini | This is a historic preservation grant focused on documenting and physically preserving African American civil rights sites, not on the social/behavioral or policy research domains IPPRA specializes in. While universities are eligible, the program is for preservation and site documentation rather than research, evaluation, survey, or risk-communication work, so it is only a weak fit. |
| 2026-07-06 | 35 | gpt-5.4-mini | This is a preservation and history-focused grant for documenting and physically preserving African American civil rights sites. IPPRA’s core strengths in survey research, risk communication, and technical-socio policy analysis do not align closely with the primary work, though a limited environmental-policy adjacency exists in heritage conservation and land-use preservation. Eligibility is broad enough for public universities, but the opportunity is not a strong fit for IPPRA’s portfolio. |