A FOUR-STATE INITIATIVE TO SUPPORT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PRESERVATION

The Northeast Heritage Economy Program is a collaborative initiative of the Preservation League of New York State, New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, Maine Preservation, and Preservation Trust of Vermont. This grant program is funded with a $1,000,000 grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC) through their Regional Forest Economy Partnership program. The grant will be split evenly among the four states.

The NHEP will provide grants to community-driven preservation projects to address the negative economic shift produced by the chronic and consistent decline of the forest products industry in the rural areas of the Northern Border Regional Commission region (New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine).

Applications are now open. Deadline: December 20, 2019.

ELIGIBLE GRANTEES MUST:

• Be an established nonprofit organization, municipality, political subdivision of state government, or federally recognized tribe in order to receive funding;

• Have in-hand a 50% match of any grant requested from the NHEP at the time of application;

• All applicants must have secured all revenue listed in project budget and plan to have their project completed by July 31, 2021;

• Own the target property(ies) and be prepared to maintain that ownership for a minimum of twenty (20) years following the completion of the project or have a long-term (minimum of 20 years) lease that provides the sub-grantee with legal control over the NHEP-funded improvements;

• Propose a project in a county eligible to receive funding (see above) from the Northern Border Regional Commission and in a community negatively impacted by at least one of the NBRC’s threshold priorities:

  • Industry changes in employment as a result of the decline of the forest industry

  • Percent change in wages in the project area

  • Location of mill and other forest-based manufacturing closings in the past 20 years

  • County population losses

ELIGIBLE PROJECTS MUST:

• Serve as a capital improvement project for a historic building;

• Be completed by July 31, 2021;

• Impact rural communities suffering from the decline of the forest products industry;

• Have as their focus the enhanced use, or the rehabilitation of, historic buildings using the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation;

• Leverage additional public and private forms of support;

• Stimulate economic development and creation of jobs;

• Build local and regional partnerships;

• Involve the broader community and build community cohesion;

• Have a lasting and positive impact on the community

INELIGIBLE GRANTEES:

Applicants who have received NBRC funding and do not have their project 75% completed by the application deadline are not eligible to apply for a NHEP grant.

Application 

We have created a Dropbox link for you to upload your completed application materials by the December 20 due date.  Please check the link below to make sure it works and let us know if you have any issues.  

Your Dropbox Link:  

Please note that if you do not already have a Dropbox account you will need to sign up for a free account in order to upload the materials. 

There are three folders within your Dropbox folder: 

• Application - your application and signature page should be uploaded to the Application folder.
• Attachments – upload the required attachments to this folder
• Photos – upload all of your images to this folder.

• Deadline - All the required materials must be to uploaded to Dropbox before the 5pm deadline on December 20th. You will not have access to the folder after that time.  

• Using the application fillable PDF - Please make sure to save the fillable application to your desktop and save early and often when completing the form. We recommend you draft answers in Microsoft Word and cut and paste the text into the fillable application. The text boxes do not expand or scroll, so make sure to edit your answers to fit the available space.    

Question and Answer Sessions 

The Northeast Heritage Economy Program partners will be hosting two live question and answer sessions:

• November 6, 2019 at 2pm  
• November 15, 2019 at 10am 

Register for a session here: https://forms.gle/eeMeLgiMVNmQuGx48. Please register by November 4, 2019.