Essex Heritage Grants Open To North Shore Nonprofits, Municipalities

SALEM, MA — Essex Heritage has opened its 2026 grant funding submission process for North Shore nonprofits and communities.

Twelve grants of $2,000 will be awarded in the areas of youth education, cultural heritage awareness, historic preservation and accessibility enhancement.

Projects must have a minimum total estimated cost of at least $4,000 and take place in one of the county's 34 communities to be eligible.

The application process has been designed with simplicity in mind, and applications should take less than an hour to complete. This is the 28th year of the Grant Partnership program.

The application can be found here.

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, projects specifically focusing on Essex County connections within the broader “Revolution 250” context will be given special consideration.

All eligible organizations are encouraged to apply.

"Over the next year, I am excited to partner with 12 grant recipients in the development and implementation of a broad range of educational, interpretive, accessibility, and preservation projects throughout Boston’s North Shore and the Merrimack Valley, particularly those focusing on Essex County’s Revolutionary history," said grants program manager Charles Smith.

The Essex Heritage Partnership Grant Program is a matching grant program created to foster and support activities of communities and organizations that share Essex Heritage's mission to preserve and enhance the historic, cultural and natural resources of the Essex National Heritage Area.

The 27-year-old program has invested more than $1.6 million in support of the region’s nationally significant heritage since its inception.