Official Site of The State of New Jersey

The New Jersey Cultural Trust was created in July 2000 as a public/private partnership to help ensure a stable and healthy nonprofit cultural industry in New Jersey that is sustainable even in the toughest of economic times.

The Cultural Trust provides grants to support capital projects, endowments and institutional and financial stabilization of arts, history and humanities organizations in New Jersey. Funding for the grants comes from interest earned on the Cultural Trust Fund, which is a permanent investment fund.

The New Jersey Historic Trust is authorized by the Cultural Trust Act to make capital facilities grant award recommendations for funding by the New Jersey Cultural Trust. 

On January 26, 2023 the New Jersey Historic Trust and the Cultural Trust held a free Applicant Workshop as a virtual webinar hosted via Zoom. We strongly encourage prospective applicants to review the workshop materials to learn about the 2023 (FY24) grant application.

Click here to view the presentation on Youtube.

Click here to view a PDF of the presentation.

Click here for useful resources to help with your application.

In order to be eligible to receive funding through this program, applicants must be nonprofit organizations with history, humanities or arts missions that are qualified by the Cultural Trust. Visit the NJ Cultural Trust web site or call (609) 633-0522 for more information on the qualification process. 

All properties for which funds are requested must be listed on the New Jersey and/or National Register of Historic Places by April 4, 2023 in order to be considered for funding. Contact Andrea Tingey at the NJ Historic Preservation Office at (609) 984-0539 or andrea.tingey@dep.nj.gov with questions regarding listing.

Eligible activities include stabilization, repair, restoration, adaptive reuse and improvements to cultural or historic properties, including adapting for increased accessibility.

All work must be performed in compliance with the Secretary for Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, 1995.

Read about Cultural Trust projects funded in previous grant rounds.

• Nature and degree of threat, if any, to the property
• Archaeological, architectural, cultural and/or historical significance of the property
• The ability of the project to improve long term preservation of the property
• The ability and commitment of the applicant to execute the project
• The extent to which the proposed project can be successfully accomplished with the grant and other resources available to the applicant
• The nature and impact of the organization’s program and service on the intended audience
• The benefit of the project to the community
• The ability of this grant to make a difference in the quality of the project.