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2025 GRANT PROGRAM

Nation’s First Grant Program to Document and Raise Awareness of LGBTQ+ Historic Sites

The LGBTQ+ Heritage Alliance is proud to administer the first nationwide grant program dedicated to places related to LGBTQ+ culture and heritage. This initiative will help researchers, historians, and anyone else with an interest in preserving LGBTQ+ culture fill gaps in the historical narrative and allow teaching the full and complex history of the United States.

This grant program will fund initiatives to document historic places connected to the LGBTQ+ community. Grants will support efforts that advance the recognition, preservation, and interpretation of historic sites related to LGBTQ+ communities in the United States and its territories.

This new opportunity will award grants ranging from $500 to $5,000 to individuals, not-for-profits, and those with fiscal sponsors. This opportunity is only available to applicants in the United States or its territories.

Please review the guidelines below to ensure your potential effort is eligible for funding.

HIGHLIGHTS

$75,000 available funding for grants ranging from $500 to $5,000
Research, recognition, interpretation, and archival projects supporting places with LGBTQ+ significance.
Fall 2025 - Summer 2027 grant period
Letter of Intent Deadline: Monday, July 21 at 11:59 pm EST

Grant Guidelines

From dim bars to private salons, public parks to popular performance venues, LGBTQ+ people have found community, built shared identity, and influenced culture through place. The history of LGBTQ+ oppression, activism, community, and culture are embedded in many kinds of places, making them a powerful tool for teaching, understanding one’s self, and building connections.

LGBTQ+ people have been traditionally left out of the historical record. Fortunately, an increasing number of efforts are identifying, reclaiming, and raising awareness of places where LGBTQ+ people made important contributions to American history, faced discrimination, found community, and organized for LGBTQ+ rights across the country. Through their focus on place, these initiatives connect people to the past by forming a tangible relationship to where history happened.

Please review the guidelines below to ensure your potential effort is eligible for funding.

The LOI requires a brief description of the proposed project, how it furthers understanding of LGBTQ+ history or culture, a budget, and schedule. LOIs will only be accepted through the form and any materials submitted after the deadline will be ineligible. LOIs will be reviewed by the Grant Review Committee, a panel of subject experts with personal and professional knowledge of LGBTQ+ site-based efforts, issues, and needs.

The LOI review period will last approximately four weeks, after which you will be notified of your project’s standing.

If accepted, you will be invited to submit a full grant application proposal. The grant application requires more detailed project information, including descriptions of research method(s), your experience, the project’s intended audience, and opportunities for promotion or collaboration. The submission window will last approximately eight weeks, during which the LGBTQ+ Heritage Alliance will be available to answer questions and provide guidance.

Eligible Projects

Eligible projects must use at least one project type listed below in relation to site(s) of LGBTQ+ historical significance. The Alliance will fund a diverse range of projects to further the understanding and appreciation of place-based LGBTQ+ heritage.

We especially welcome submissions that address the challenges of documenting historically marginalized communities under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, including but not limited to people of color, Two-Spirit and indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and transgender, non-binary, intersex, or gender nonconforming people.

Ineligible projects include political advocacy campaigns, general oral histories or collecting projects, social media accounts, documentaries, book projects, or travel.

Cultural resource surveys or other efforts to identify historic places Example: Reconnaissance Survey of LGBTQ Architectural Resources in Richmond, VA

Historic context statements that highlight LGBTQ+ themes Example: Historic Context Statement for Washington’s LGBTQ Resources

Landscape or urban planning projects Example: The Queer Ecologies Project at the Alice Austen House

Preparation of reports, publications, or any other resources for public use

Permanent or temporary exhibitions Example: Gateway to Pride by the Missouri History Museum
Walking, audio, self-guided, or bus tours Example: Stonewall National Monument Walking Tour Example: Southwest VA LGBTQ History Walking Tours
Mapping projects Example: The NYC LGBT Sites Project Digital Map Example: Coming Home: A History of Queer Nightlife in Nashville
House Museum interpretations Example: 123-I Love You: Queer History at Glen Burnie

Collecting and archiving historical documents, photographs, and ephemera that provide insight into LGBTQ+ sites Example: Invisible Histories Digital Archival Resources Example: The Lesbian Herstory Archives Periodical Collection Example: The Digital Transgender Archive Mountain Lace Collection
Recording oral histories that provide insight into LGBTQ+ sites Example: Outwords Archives Oral Histories of the 1969 Stonewall Riots

Additional Guidance

Applications will be scored by the Grant Review Committee by considering the effort’s historical significance, relation to LGBTQ+ culture, connection to place, and use of eligible documentation and educational methods. Applications should make a compelling case for support and demonstrate how the work elevates LGBTQ+ historic place(s). Applicants should also make a case for their ability to collaborate and effectively complete their proposed work by June 30, 2027.

APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED

Thank you for applying. Please check back later for project announcements and potential future opportunities.

Add a Title

2025 GRANT PROGRAM

Nation’s First Grant Program to Document and Raise Awareness of LGBTQ+ Historic Sites

HIGHLIGHTS

Grant Guidelines

Step 1: Submit a Letter of Intent by July 21, 2025

Step 2: Submit a Grant Application

Eligible Projects

Research

Recognition

Interpretation

Archival

Additional Guidance

SCORING CRITERIA

KEY DATES

GRANT AMOUNT

QUESTIONS

ABOUT THE FUNDING

APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED