Preservation Planning Grants

Preservation Planning Grants (PPG) are ABPP's broadest and most diverse grant program, promoting the preservation of any battlefield or associated site on American soil. PPGs fund projects that relate to planning, interpreting, and protecting these sites. Typical awards range from $30,000-$150,000 and do not require matching funds. Since 1990, grant recipients have helped protect and enhance more than 100 battlefields with more than 600 funded projects in 42 states and territories.

PPG applications are accepted on an annual basis, at the end of the calendar year. Each spring, ABPP staff evaluate the applications for completeness and a Merit Review panel ranks the applications based on the eligibility requirements in the Notice of Funding Opportunity. By early summer the National Park Service selects and announces projects for the award.

Man with large backpack with column rising over his head takes notes on rugged mountain landscape — Conducting land use analysis with GPS equipment. NPS Photo.

Eligibility

State, local, and Tribal governments, other public entities, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply.
Eligible projects focus on battlefields or associated sites in the United States, including Territories and Freely Associated States.
All eras and armed conflicts are eligible.
Grants may not be used for the acquisition of property or services of direct benefit to the Federal government, including support of the day-to-day operations of a Federal agency.

Please contact the PPG team if you have questions or need additional information about eligibility.

PPGs are authorized by 54 U.S.C 308102

What We Fund

Armed conflicts are periods of collective violence that are characterized by specific events bounded in time (e.g. Battle of Harlem Heights, “the Pequot War,” or the “Sand Creek massacre”), rather than broad cross-cutting themes throughout American history (e.g. “violence against Indigenous peoples”).

Associated Sites fall under the following themes:

Military: sites directly associated with military forces on land or sea
Government, Laws, Policies, and Diplomacy: sites associated with decision-making, policy creation, political process, and diplomatic relations during periods of armed conflict.
Intellectual History: sites associated with the publication or propagation of ideas and values that influenced the social, political, economic, and military actions and policies during periods of armed conflict.
Economics of War: sites associated with economic activities that contributed to battle, fighting, or war efforts.
Society: sites associated with moving people, goods, and information during periods of armed conflict.
Transportation: sites associated with moving people, goods, and information during periods of armed conflict.

Consultation and partnership building
Collections stewardship
Education
Historical documentation and nominations to historic registers
Exhibitions, media, and signage
Planning
Public programs and outreach
Survey and inventory
Terrestrial and underwater archeology