U.S. Department of State: Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation Grant for Global Heritage Protection

The U.S. Embassy in Suriname announces a call for concept notes to put forward for the 2025 Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) competition. The U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) helps protect historic buildings, archaeological sites, museum collections, and traditional cultural expressions like indigenous languages and crafts around the world. Pending availability of funds, awards will range from $25,000 to $500,000

Deadline to submit concept notes: midnight on December 15, 2024.

Contact: Paramaribo-grants@state.gov

Who can apply?

Eligible implementers may include Institutions of Higher Education, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Public International Organizations and Governmental Institutions, U.S. Institutions of Higher Education and U.S. Non-Profit Organizations subject to Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code. The AFCP will not award grants to individuals, commercial entities, or past award recipients that have not fulfilled the objectives or reporting requirements of previous awards.

Potential implementers must be registered and active in the U.S. government’s System for Award Management (SAM) to receive U.S. federal assistance. This includes having a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and can take several weeks. Go to https://sam.gov/ for instructions on how to register and read also the “Note on SAM Registration” at the end of this announcement.

What can be funded?

Funding Areas:  Appropriate project activities may include:

• Anastylosis: Reassembling a site using its original parts.
• Conservation: Treating or otherwise addressing damage or deterioration to an object or site.
• Consolidation: Reconnecting elements of an object or site.
• Documentation: Recording the condition and important features of an object, site, or tradition in analog or digital format.
• Inventory: Listing objects, sites, or traditions by location, feature, age, or other unifying characteristics.
• Preventive Conservation: Addressing conditions that threaten or damage a site, object, collection, or tradition.
• Restoration: Replacing missing elements to recreate the original appearance of an object or site, usually appropriate for fine arts, decorative arts, and historic buildings.
• Stabilization: Reducing the physical disturbance or increasing the stability of an object or site.

Sites and Objects Having a Religious Connection: The Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution permits the government to include religious objects and sites within an aid program under certain conditions. For example, an item with a religious connection (including a place of worship) may be the subject of a cultural preservation grant if the item derives its primary significance from and is nominated solely based on architectural, artistic, historical, or other cultural (not religious) criteria.

What is not funded?

AFCP does not support the following activities or costs, and the Center will deem applications requesting AFCP support for any of these activities or costs ineligible:

• Privately or Commercially Owned Property: Preservation or purchase of privately or commercially owned cultural objects, collections, or real property, including those whose transfer from private or commercial to public ownership is envisioned, planned, or in process but not complete at the time of application.
• Natural Heritage: Preservation of natural heritage (physical, biological, and geological formations, paleontological collections, habitats of threatened species of animals and plants, fossils, etc.) unless the natural heritage has a cultural heritage connection or dimension.
• Human Remains: Preservation of hominid or human remains.
• News Media: Preservation of news media (newspapers, newsreels, radio and TV programs, etc.).
• Published Materials: Preservation of published materials available elsewhere (books, periodicals, etc.).
• Mandated Educational Materials: Development of curricula or educational materials for required classroom use.
• Archaeological Research: Archaeological excavations or exploratory surveys for research purposes.
• Historical Research: Historical research, except in cases where the research is justifiable and integral to the success of the proposed project.
• New Exhibits or Collections: Acquisition or creation of new exhibits, objects, or collections for new or existing museums.
• New Construction: Construction of new buildings, building additions, or permanent coverings (over archaeological sites, for example).
• New Works of Art: Commissions of new works of art or architecture for commemorative or economic development purposes.
• New or Modern Adaptations: Creation of new or modern adaptation of existing traditional dances, songs, chants, musical compositions, plays, or other performances.
• Conjectural Reconstructions: Creation of conjectural reconstructions of cultural objects or sites that no longer exist.
• Relocation: Relocation of cultural sites from one physical location to another unless under imminent threat of irreversible damage or destruction.
• Removal: Removal of cultural objects or elements of cultural sites from the country for any reason.
• Digitization: Digitization of cultural objects or collections, unless part of a clearly defined conservation, documentation, or PD effort.
• Conservation Plans or Studies: Conservation plans or other studies, unless they are one component of a larger project to implement the results of those studies.
• Cash Reserves or Endowments: Cash reserves, endowments, or revolving funds (funds must be expended within the award period [up to five years] and may not be used to create an endowment or revolving fund).
• Fund-Raising Campaigns: Costs of fund-raising campaigns.
• Contingency Costs: Contingency, unforeseen, or miscellaneous costs.
• Pre-Award Costs: Costs of work performed prior to the announcement of the award unless allowable per 2 CFR 200.458 and approved by the Grants Officer.
• International Travel: International travel outside the project country, except in cases where travel is justifiable and integral to the success of the proposed project or to provide project leaders with learning and exchange opportunities with cultural heritage experts.
• Project Cost Limits: Individual projects which cost less than US $25,000 or more than $500,000.
• Independent U.S. Projects: Independent U.S. projects overseas.

How do you apply?

This year, the process is thinned down and in multiple stages. For the first round, applicants should submit a concept note via email to Paramaribo-grants@state.gov. Concept notes must be submitted by Sunday, December 15, 2024, 11:59 p.m.

The concept note should include:

• Project basics: Include the implementer’s information, including name and SAM registration status, a working title of the project, anticipated project length (between 12-60 months), project location, and a project cost estimate (amount requested from AFCP, in U.S. dollars).
• Project summary description: Provide a summary (3,000 characters maximum) that outlines the project activities, deliverables (outputs), and intended results (outcomes).
• Visual or audiovisual documentation: Include five (5) high-quality digital images (JPEGs or PNGs) or audiovisual files that convey the nature and condition of the site, collection, or tradition and show the urgency or need for the project (e.g., collapsed walls, water damage).
• Page limit: 2

What are the deadlines?

The multi-stage application process begins with your initial submission of the above to the U.S. Embassy in Suriname, with a deadline of midnight on December 15, 2024.

If selected for further consideration by the panel of experts in Washington, D.C., applicants will be asked to submit full applications by March 17, 2025.

For more on AFCP click here: https://eca.state.gov/cultural-heritage-center/ambassadors-fund-cultural-preservation

Note on SAM Registration

All organizations, whether based in the United States or in another country, must have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and an active registration with SAM.gov. A UEI is one of the data elements mandated by Public Law 109-282, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA), for all Federal awards. An applicant must maintain an active registration while it has a proposal under review by the Department of State and must continue to keep the registration active for the entire duration of the period of performance of any Federal award that results from the NOFO.

The 2 CFR 200 requires that subrecipients obtain a UEI number. Please note the UEI for subrecipients is not required at the time of application but will be required before an award is processed and/or directed to a subrecipient.

The SAM registration process can take weeks or months, especially for non-U.S. applicants.

SAM will assign a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) automatically to any entity registering or renewing its record in the system. Registration in SAM is free: https://sam.gov/.

Disclaimer: Notification of this funding opportunity does not constitute an award commitment on the part of the AFCP program or the U.S. government. The Center reserves the right to waive program formalities and to reduce, revise, or increase project scopes and budgets in accordance with the needs of the program and the availability of funds.