Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Grants
About Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Grants
The Historic Cemeteries Program assists state and local government and private stakeholders with guidance on the protection and preservation of historic and abandoned cemeteries. The purpose of this grant program is to provide funding to assist with efforts to preserve abandoned African-American Cemeteries. This program provides historic preservation grants on a competitive basis. The program does not fund operational support for historic preservation organizations. The Legislature determines the amount appropriated annually for the program, and funding for all eligible applications is not guaranteed. The Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Grant Guidelines specify program policies and procedures.
The Historic Preservation Grants Program utilizes an online grant system via which prospective applicants submit their applications. Applications from previous solicitation periods are also available upon request (for viewing only).
Project Types and Eligibility
The project types in this program each have their own eligible applicants.
- Cemetery Research: awarded to Research Institutions, colleges and universities, and qualified nonprofit organizations for the purpose of conducting genealogical and historical research necessary to identify and contact the relatives and descendants of persons buried in abandoned African-American cemeteries. Cemetery Research projects do not fund archaeological fieldwork or comprehensive field surveys of geographic areas whose goal is to locate and identify abandoned cemeteries
- Cemetery Protection: awarded to local governments and qualified nonprofit organizations for the purposes of repairing, restoring, and maintaining abandoned African-American cemeteries. This includes: planning to guide the long term preservation of the Cemetery, including existing conditions assessments, architectural or engineering drawings and construction documents, and management plans; the restoration of historic funerary resources and the in-kind replacement of resources that cannot be repaired; the removal of vegetation that negatively impacts the historic resources; installation of appropriate security features including lighting or fencing; installation of limited interpretive signage; and the marking of unmarked remains, all in a manner that is approved by the Division and consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation. This does not include archaeological fieldwork, other than remote sensing techniques such as ground penetrating radar and magnetometry performed by a professional archaeologist to determine the boundaries of the cemetery or location of interments for planning purposes.
Cemetery Eligibility: The cemetery that is the subject of the proposed project must meet the following requirements.
- It shall not be a licensed cemetery under Chapter 497, Florida Statutes.
- It shall have a majority of interments occurring more than 50 years ago, with no recorded interment of human remains or cremated remains in the previous 10 years and no contracted future interment or other burial rights.
- Its presence shall have been previously reported, recorded, identified or documented through archival research, archaeological survey, accidental or intentional ground disturbance, oral history, Florida Master Site File form, or other means of documentation.
- It shall have a documented association with interments of persons of primarily African-American ancestry.
Review Process
Applications are evaluated on a competitive basis. The criteria for evaluation include: historic and cultural significance, need for the proposed project, appropriateness of the proposed project, administrative capability of the organization, financial resources of the organization, availability of professional services, public good resulting from the project, and community support.
Grant Award and Match
Abandoned cemetery grants provide a maximum grant award of $50,000. There is no minimum request amount. No Match is required.
Application Information
FY2025 Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Grants Solicitation
When applying for a grant from the Division of Historical Resources the following information should prove useful.
- The Solicitation Notice on the Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Grants program.
- A PDF version of the “How to Apply” webinar is available on the right hand side of this page. Registration for scheduled webinars can be found on the Division's Upcoming Events page.
- A Substitute W9 form will be required with all applications. Note that this is not the Federal W-9, but the State of Florida’s Substitute W-9 form. You can retrieve a copy of the form by going to the Department of Financial Services’ website. Upload the form in your application in the Support Materials section of your application.
The documents provided here are in the process of being update as part of our regular rule update. They will apply to the FY2026 application and award of the grants:
- Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Grants Solicitation Notice (pdf)
- Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Grants Guidelines (pdf)
- For a sample application click here (not the actual application)
All applications must be completed and submitted via the online grant system by the application deadline. To access dosgrants.com click here.
Additional Information and Documents
Photograph Submission Guidelines
Photographs are requested not only at the time of application, but also to evidence the progress and completion of all funded projects. All projects must adhere to the specifications stipulated in the Guidelines for Submitting Photographs (pdf)
Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and Historic Preservation (36 C.F.R. 68)
- Professional Qualification Standards (48 FR 44716, September 29, 1983)
- Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and Historic Preservation (as amended and annotated by the National Park Service)
- Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, 2017
If you have any questions, please contact the division at [email protected] or [email protected]
