Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Grants

The Florida Department of State is soliciting applications for the Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Grants program through its Division of Historical Resources. The program supports efforts to protect and preserve abandoned African-American cemeteries in the State of Florida and awards grants on a competitive basis. The program does not provide operational support to organizations. Applications for the Fiscal Year 2028 cycle were accepted through the Department's online grants system at dosgrants.com from June 1, 2026 through July 10, 2026. Funding is available for two principal project types. Cemetery Research projects support genealogical and historical research necessary to identify and contact relatives and descendants of persons buried in abandoned African-American cemeteries. These projects may be undertaken by research institutions, colleges and universities, and qualified nonprofit organizations. Cemetery Research funding does not support archaeological fieldwork or comprehensive field surveys intended to locate and identify abandoned cemeteries. Cemetery Protection projects support repairing, restoring, and maintaining eligible cemeteries and may be undertaken by local governments and qualified nonprofit organizations. Allowable Cemetery Protection activities can include preservation planning, existing conditions assessments, architectural or engineering drawings and construction documents, management plans, restoration of historic funerary resources, in-kind replacement of resources that cannot be repaired, removal of vegetation that negatively affects historic resources, erosion control, fill used to level sunken graves, appropriate security features such as lighting, fencing, and cameras, limited interpretive signage, and marking unmarked remains. Work must be approved by the Division and be consistent with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. Archaeological fieldwork generally is not eligible, except for remote sensing techniques such as ground penetrating radar and magnetometry when conducted and interpreted by a Professional Archaeologist with specialized training. A professional Bioarchaeologist must monitor project activities involving ground disturbance. The maximum grant award is $75,000. The solicitation states that there is no minimum request amount and no matching requirement. The amount appropriated for the program as a whole and the number of awards are not stated. Any grant award is contingent on legislative appropriation. For projects receiving funding from the 2027 Legislature, funds become available after July 1, 2027, at the beginning of the 2027-2028 State Fiscal Year. Grantees must execute a Grant Award Agreement containing specific administrative responsibilities, and any unexpended grant balance will revert to the state at the end of the 12-month period on June 30, 2028. An eligible cemetery must not be licensed under Chapter 497, Florida Statutes. A majority of its interments must have occurred more than 50 years ago, with no recorded interment of human remains or cremated remains during the previous 10 years and no contracted future interment or other burial rights. The cemetery must already have been reported, recorded, identified, or documented through such means as archival research, archaeological survey, ground disturbance, oral history, a Florida Master Site File form, or other documentation, and it must have a documented association with interments of persons of primarily African-American ancestry. Applicant eligibility varies by project type: Cemetery Research projects are open to research institutions, colleges and universities, and nonprofit organizations, while Cemetery Protection projects are open to local governments and nonprofit organizations. Applications were required to be submitted electronically through dosgrants.com and had to be complete to be considered for evaluation. An applicant organization may submit only one Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Grant application under a single deadline for a particular cycle. County or city governments and universities may submit applications from more than one division or department when those units are separate and distinct budgetary units and the applications do not address the same cemetery. Eligible applications are competitively reviewed and scored by the Historic Cemeteries Program Advisory Council in a public meeting using criteria in the program guidelines. The Council recommends applications to the Secretary of State for possible forwarding to the 2027 Legislature for State Fiscal Year 2028 funding consideration. A Council recommendation does not constitute an immediate award because the final award and funding level depend on legislative appropriation. The application period opened June 1, 2026 and closed at 5:00 p.m. Eastern on July 10, 2026. Questions about proposed projects, eligibility, or the online application form may be directed to the Historic Preservation Grants Program, Division of Historical Resources, at DHRgrants@dos.fl.gov, 800.847.7278, or 850.245.6333.

Confirm that the cemetery and applicant meet the project-specific eligibility rules before submission; keep the application complete because incomplete applications will not be considered; do not include operational support; for Cemetery Research do not propose archaeological fieldwork or comprehensive field surveys intended to locate cemeteries; for Cemetery Protection ensure proposed work is approved by the Division and consistent with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties