Letter of Intent (LOI) Deadline: Monday, July 21 at 11:59 pm EST LOI Decision Notifications: August 2025 Full Proposal Application Deadline: Fall 2025 Grant Award Notification: Fall/Winter 2025 Grant Effort Completion: Efforts must be completed through June 2027. Ongoing or completed work will not be funded past this date.

A one-time total of $75,000 is available to be awarded in amounts from $500 to $5,000. Matches are not required.

Please contact us (https://www.lgbtqheritagealliance.org/contact)with any questions, including those regarding eligibility requirements and whether your proposed project falls within the grant guidelines.

This grant program is facilitated by the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project with the involvement of a national grant review committee. Funding is made possible by the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Fund for the City of New York is the fiscal sponsor for this grant opportunity.

About the Grant Review Committee

Project scoring is done by the Grant Review Committee, a panel of subject experts with personal and professional knowledge of LGBTQ+ site-based efforts, issues, and needs.

RESOURCES | LGBTQ+ Heritage Alliance

LGBTQ+

Heritage Alliance

Grants to Recognize & Preserve LGBTQ+ Places

Highlights

$750,000 in funding available
up to $5,000 per award
Supporting research, recognition, interpretation, and archival projects

Key Dates

LOI Opens: May 1, 2026
LOI Deadline: June 1, 2026
Award Announcements: July 2026
Grant Period: Oct 2026 - Feb 2026

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 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, a 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.

Program Guidelines

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.

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.

This opportunity will award grants up to $5,000 to not-for-profits and those with fiscal sponsors. Please review the guidelines below to ensure your effort is eligible for funding. See here for information about our 2025 grantees.

Application Process

Submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) through the link below by xxxx. The LOI form asks for a brief description of your proposed project and how it will further understanding of LGBTQ+ history or culture, as well as details including a budget and schedule. LOIs will only be accepted through the form and any materials submitted after the deadline will be ineligible.

If accepted by the grant review committee, you will be invited by email to submit a full grant application with detailed project information, including how it highlights place-based history, its intended audience, and how your expertise strengthens the project. The submission window will last about 2 months, during which the 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. For examples of eligible projects, see our list of place-based LGBTQ+ efforts identified from a Fall 2023 survey.

• Cultural resource surveys or other efforts to identify historic places Example: Reconnaissance Survey of LGBTQ Architectural Resources in Richmond, VA(https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/LGBTQRichmondSurveyReport.pdf) • Historic context statements that highlight LGBTQ+ themes Example: Historic Context Statement for Washington’s LGBTQ Resources(https://dcpreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Washington-LGBTQ-Historic-Context-Statement.pdf) • Landscape or urban planning projects Example: The Queer Ecologies Project at the Alice Austen House(https://queerecologiesproject.org/) • Preparation of reports, publications, or any other resources for public use

• State or National Register of Historic Places nominations Example: National Landmark Nomination for the Furies Collective (https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/713203) • Installing plaques, markers, street signs, or monuments Example: Plaque commemorating the Caffe Cino in New York City(https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/2022/11/17/plaque-unveiling-at-caffe-cino-on-joe-cinos-91st-birthday/)

• Permanent or temporary exhibitions Example: Gateway to Pride (https://mohistory.org/exhibits/gateway-to-pride)by the Missouri History Museum (https://mohistory.org/exhibits/gateway-to-pride) • Walking, audio, self-guided, or bus tours Example: Stonewall National Monument Walking Tour (https://www.npca.org/resources/3214-lgbtq-history-tour-greenwich-village-new-york-ny)Example: Southwest VA LGBTQ History Walking Tours (https://lgbthistory.pages.roanoke.edu/walking-tour/) • Mapping projects Example: The NYC LGBT Sites Project Digital Map (https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/)Example: Coming Home: A History of Queer Nightlife in Nashville (https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/cba741e7612b4394b64192f98a4df064) • House Museum interpretations Example: 123-I Love You: Queer History at Glen Burnie (https://www.themsv.org/events/123-i-love-you/)

• Collecting and archiving historical documents, photographs, and ephemera that provide insight into LGBTQ+ sites Example: Invisible Histories Digital Archival Resources (https://invisiblehistory.org/digital-collections/)Example: The Lesbian Herstory Archives Periodical Collection (https://lesbianherstoryarchives.org/collections/periodicals/)Example: The Digital Transgender Archive Mountain Lace Collection (https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/col/d791sg391) • Recording oral histories that provide insight into LGBTQ+ sites Example: Outwords Archives Oral Histories of the 1969 Stonewall Riots(https://theoutwordsarchive.org/lgbtq_history/1969-stonewall-riot/)

Political advocacy campaigns, general oral histories or collecting projects, social media accounts, documentaries, book projects, and travel are ineligible.

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.

Click Here to Apply

Contact Us

Funding for this project is made possible by the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

LGBTQ+

Heritage Alliance

Highlights

Key Dates

Program Guidelines

Application Process

Eligible Projects

Research

Recognition

Interpretation

Archival

Additional Guidance

Scoring Criteria

Key Dates

Grant Amount

Questions

About the Funding

About the Grant Review Committee