The New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Program provides congregations throughout New York State with matching grants for planning and implementing exterior restoration projects, technical assistance, and workshops. Since 1986, the program has pledged nearly 1,700 grants totaling over $13.8 million to more than 850 religious institutions statewide, helping fund over $760 million in repair and restoration projects. Grants are awarded to assist with projects such as conditions surveys, architectural and engineering fees, roof replacements, masonry restoration, stained-glass restoration, and structural repairs. Priority will be given to essential repairs to the primary worship building. Grants are not available for pipe organ restoration, interior renovation, mechanical upgrades, or routine maintenance, including repainting.

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation generously supports our grant activities on Long Island.  Since partnering with the Foundation in 2018, our grants to Long Island Sacred Sites have more than tripled.

Grant Eligibility Criteria

Please read this detailed information about our grant application process before contacting us.

Process and Timeline: We encourage interested applicants to speak with Sacred Sites Staff before submitting an application.  Email is a good way to reach us.  Our email addresses are linked on the left-hand side the page, or you can call program staff at 212-995-5260.

We have two application deadlines per year, January 15th and June 1st, with grants pledged approximately four months later.  If the site is located in New York City, we accept only planning-cost applications on a rolling basis.

Projects are ineligible if a contract or work agreement has been signed, or if the project has been started, prior to the application deadline.  Sites are eligible to reapply for construction-cost grants every three years, but there is no moratorium on grants for planning costs.  Please contact us for more information.

Sacred Sites Open House

Since 2011 the Conservancy, along with our local partners throughout the state, has sponsored the Sacred Sites Open House.

The New York Landmarks Conservancy is a private non-profit organization.