Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections

Cultural institutions, including libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations, face a complex challenge: to preserve humanities collections for future generations through environmentally sustainable preventive care strategies to reduce energy consumption and costs as well as to strengthen institutional resiliency in the face of a changing climate. Cultural institutions can accomplish this work most effectively through managing collections’ environment, including aspects such as temperature, relative humidity, pollutants, and light; providing protective storage enclosures and systems for collections; and safeguarding collections from theft, fire, floods, and other disasters. By using environmentally sustainable methods, institutions reduce reliance on fossil fuels and ensure collections are better protected from current and future disasters.

There are three levels of funding. Planning (up to $50,000) provides funding for institutions to develop and assess environmentally sustainable preventive care strategies in collection spaces. Implementation Level I (up to $100,000) provides funding for institutions to implement environmentally sustainable preventive care projects that address specific, discrete preservation challenges that have been identified through an assessment. Implementation Level II (up to $350,000) provides funding for institutions to implement environmentally sustainable preventive care projects that address large or multifaceted preservation challenges that have been identified through assessments and planning conducted by a multidisciplinary collaborative professional team appropriate to the goals of the project.

For more information on the funding levels and supported activities, please see the link to the Notice of Funding Opportunity.

Register for Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections Webinar here.

For more information about the Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections program and the 2025 Notice of Funding Opportunity, you may contact the division’s staff at preservation@neh.gov and request a consultation with a program officer.