National Trust Awards $13.5 Million to Preserve Historically Black Churches Across the U.S.

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a division of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, awarded $13.5 million in 2026 to support historically Black churches across the United States.

The funding came in two rounds. The first, $5 million, was awarded on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to five churches. The second, $8.5 million, went to 33 churches on February 24, 2026, through the fourth annual Preserving Black Churches program.

Since the program launched in 2022, it has awarded nearly $34 million to more than 170 historically Black churches. The initiative is backed by a $60 million commitment from the Lilly Endowment Inc.

Notable 2026 recipients include the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which received funding to hire a Director of Development for endowment and fundraising campaigns. The church is a global symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, having been bombed in 1963.

Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was baptized, received a grant to support an HBCU graduate fellow leading an oral history tour project.

Iglesia San Mateo de Cangrejos in Puerto Rico, a landmark of Afro-Puerto Rican heritage, received funds to restore the chapel and parish house damaged by Hurricane Maria.

University AME Zion Church in California, the oldest continuously operating Black church in Silicon Valley, received support for structural preservation of its mid-century modern campus.

Grants ranged from $50,000 to $500,000 and covered capital repairs, endowment building, organizational capacity, programming, and project planning.