Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund

The Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund offers financial support to public agencies, tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations aiming to preserve historic places along Route 66. This initiative prioritizes projects that enhance underrepresented narratives, including those related to diverse communities. Grants typically range from $2,500 to $10,000, with a focus on activities that restore, rehabilitate, or educate about significant historical sites, ensuring that this iconic American highway's legacy is maintained for future generations.

NOTE: The application opens September 1, 2026, and is due November 12, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. your local time.
Grants from this fund will help preserve and enhance historic places on or connected to Route 66 for future generations.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund provides financial support to public agencies, tribal governments or nonprofit organizations to preserve and interpret historic places along the Route 66 corridor. The National Trust has a special interest in illuminating the narratives of communities whose places and stories have been historically underrepresented, which may include communities and neighborhoods along the Route 66 corridor associated with People of Color (including but not limited to indigenous peoples, Latinx, Black Americans and others), women, immigrants, LGBTQIA communities, veterans, and economically distressed communities.
Grants made from the Preserve Route 66 Fund will generally range from $2,500 to $10,000.

Eligibility

Eligible Applicants
Projects must be located in a community, neighborhood, or tribal land along the Route 66 corridor in the following states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, or California. While organizations do not need to be located directly on Route 66, they should demonstrate geographic or thematic connections to Route 66.
Applicants must be either a public agency, tribal government, 501(c) (3), or other nonprofit organization to be considered eligible. Applicants that have received previous National Trust financial assistance are eligible provided that all grant requirements are current.
No more than three grants will be awarded in any two-year period to a single grantee. Only one grant will be awarded per organization in any grant round. Only one grant will be awarded for a particular project phase.
Eligible Activities
Grants from the Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund are awarded to preserve historic places on or connected to Route 66. Grant funds can be used to launch new initiatives or to provide additional support to ongoing efforts. Grants awards may be made for activities and projects such as:
Restoration, rehabilitation, stabilization, and preservation of designated historic sites and structures, including bricks-and-mortar construction and work to preserve archaeological sites
Obtaining the services of consultants with expertise in the areas such as archaeology, architecture, planning, engineering, economics, law, fundraising, organizational development, media relations, and education
Sponsoring preservation conferences and workshops
Designing and implementing innovative preservation education programs
Designing, producing, and marketing printed materials or other media communications to advance historic preservation
The acquisition of historically significant land and/or buildings
Fees for consultant services
Nonprofit applicants may include staff salaries for staff members directly working on the funded project
Speaker/faculty costs (honoraria, travel, and lodging), room rental for conferences
Acquisition costs
Materials and services such as printing, photographs, telephone, and supplies. With the exception of publications projects, these costs may not exceed 10 percent of the project budget.

Ineligibility

Ineligible Expenses and ActivitiesAcademic research
Costs associated with planning for or constructing new buildings or new structures, including the creation of monuments and statues
Costs associated with the creation or maintenance of archival collections (books, documents, ephemera, etc.)
Organizational overhead costs that exceed 10% of the project budget

Public agencies, tribal governments, 501(c)(3) or other nonprofit organizations preserving or interpreting historic places along the Route 66 corridor in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona or California. One grant per organization per round; no more than three grants to any grantee within two years.