Save America's Treasures Grants

Rebecca West and Ann Marie Shriver of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center support Save America’s Treasures.

The President’s Budget proposes that funding for Save America’s Treasures be eliminated for FY 2011. This grant program has, since its creation in 1998, awarded over 1,100 grants to help save nationally significant collections, structures, and sites.

Now is the time for everyone who cares about America’s heritage to ask Members of Congress to restore this funding. Please write or e-mail (or both!) your Representative and Senators. Key points are:

Save America’s Treasures creates jobs—more than 16,000 jobs in the past 10 years. You probably know people who have worked on Save America’s Treasures projects.
Save America’s Treasures projects require at least a 1-1 match, which generates support from private donors and state and local governments.
Save America’s Treasures is highly competitive; only one out of every six applications is funded.
Give an example of a Save America’s Treasures grant in your state with which you are familiar, or of a deteriorating treasure that must be saved.
The $25 million previously allocated to the Save America’s Treasures program in the National Park Service should be restored.

These links make it easy to send your message—just use the points above to draft a brief message, then paste it into the forms provided, and send it electronically.

For your Representative: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
For your Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

If you need help writing your letter or sending it, call 202-233-0800 and ask for Lauren Hunley or Moira Egan.

After you have written your letter, please do 2 things:

Send a copy to Lauren Hunley, Heritage Preservation, 1012 14th St, NW #1200, Washington DC 20005, or info(a)heritagepreservation.org
Ask five friends or colleagues who share your interest in cultural heritage to write similar letters.

Click Thumbnail to see larger image

Letters and manuscripts from America’s founding fathers in the Sol Feinstein collection were preserved by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts with a grant from Save America's Treasures. Historian David McCullough called the collection "a national treasure of the first rank."