What Happened?

If your community wants to build or restore a military memorial, no dedicated federal grant program exists to fund it. A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report reviewed by Legis1 maps the broader federal and state programs that communities can apply to instead. ​

The CRS is Congress's in-house research arm. Its report covers state, local, and private memorials but excludes national memorials and monuments.

Communities must compete for broader programs with their own eligibility rules, including:

  • Humanities grants: The National Endowment for the Humanities supports humanities projects and has funded military history initiatives.
  • Battlefield preservation: The National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program funds battlefield preservation and interpretation, and eligibility varies by grant type and can include governments and nonprofit organizations.
  • Historic preservation: The Save America's Treasures program supports nationally significant historic properties and collections.

Why Does It Matter to Me?

Many of the listed assistance programs are not designed specifically for military projects, and narrow program purposes and competition can limit grant success.

Most states also lack grant programs specifically for military history or commemoration, and state and local funding for such projects varies widely. The distinction between a "memorial" and a "preservation project" can determine which programs a community may even apply for.

Both Sides, Now

The Save America's Treasures program funded rehabilitation of the Commanding Officer's House at Historic Fort Wayne in Detroit in 2021, and the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the Newport Historical Society a grant in July to digitize documents related to the American Revolution.

Critics argue that patchwork funding invites project failures. Military.com reported that a $1 million Vietnam War memorial in Orange County, California, was found to be shoddily built and implicated in fraud, and officials determined it had to be torn down.

The Los Angeles Times documented that local veterans and officials called the same memorial "in total disrepair," citing local fundraising and contracting failures.

Congress has not created a dedicated military memorial grant program; the CRS report guides congressional offices through what already exists.

What Happens Next?

The CRS advises communities to monitor federal and organizational websites for open grant cycles, since listed programs may not have active grants at any given time, and to sign up for alerts about new funding rounds.

The scale of need can be significant: Stars and Stripes reported that East Hawaii Veterans Cemetery No. 2 received a $6.1 million grant to realign thousands of neglected gravestones.

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