Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions | 20240111 PG

Opportunity Information: Apply for 20240111 PG

The Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions program is a discretionary grant opportunity offered by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), through its Division of Preservation and Access. It is designed to strengthen the preservation practices of small and mid-sized organizations that hold humanities collections, especially those that may not have dedicated preservation staff or robust conservation infrastructure. The central goal is to help these institutions build practical, sustainable capacity to care for and protect materials of long-term humanities value, such as archival records, manuscripts, photographs, books, maps, audiovisual recordings, and other culturally significant holdings.

This opportunity specifically emphasizes improving an institution's ability to preserve and care for its collections, which often means funding foundational steps that make long-term preservation possible. In practice, that can include activities like having a preservation professional assess collection conditions, developing or updating a preservation plan, improving storage and environmental conditions, implementing basic preventive conservation measures, identifying and prioritizing risks, and building internal knowledge and procedures so that preservation work continues after the grant period. NEH also signals that it welcomes applications from organizations that have never received an NEH grant before, making this program a common entry point for smaller institutions looking to begin or formalize preservation work.

Eligible applicants are broad and include many types of public and nonprofit entities that commonly steward humanities collections. These include state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; and nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (other than higher education institutions). The funding activity category is Humanities (often aligned with cultural affairs), and the program is associated with CFDA number 45.149.

For this cycle, the grant has an award ceiling of $10,000, with NEH expecting to make about 65 awards. The funding opportunity is listed under number 20240111 PG. The opportunity was created on October 17, 2023, with an original application closing date of January 11, 2024. Overall, the program is geared toward achievable, high-impact preservation improvements that help smaller organizations better safeguard humanities collections and reduce the risks of loss, deterioration, or damage over time.

• The National Endowment for the Humanities in the humanities (see cultural affairs in cfda) sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 45.149.
• This funding opportunity was created on Oct 17, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jan 11, 2024. (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 $10,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 65 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for 20240111 PG

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: