Sacred Sites Open House Weekend

From the NY Landmarks Conservancy:

The Sacred Sites Program assists religious organizations with two statewide matching grant programs: Sacred Sites Grants and Sacred Sites Challenge grants. Congregations located in New York City are additionally eligible for our third grant program: Consulting Grants. Historic synagogues located in New York City’s five boroughs are eligible for our fourth grant program: Jewish Heritage Fund Grants.

The Program was launched in 1986 and is the only statewide nonprofit program in the nation responding to the preservation needs of historic religious properties. Since its inception, Sacred Sites has awarded over 1,300 grants totaling more than $9.3 million to 750 congregations throughout New York State, regardless of denomination. These grants have leveraged restoration projects totaling more than $603 million.

The two Challenge Grant programs and Sacred Sites Grants programs are offered twice a year in January and June. (Click on the links above for eligibility information, and the links to the right to download applicationPDFs.) In 2015, we awarded $200,000 in Sacred Sites Challenge grants, $150,000 in Jewish Heritage Fund grants, $195,700 in Sacred Sites grants and $53,200 in Consulting Grants.

Our typical Sacred Sites Grant award is between $3,000 and $6,000, with last year’s grants averaging about $5,400. Our Consulting Grant Maximum is $7,500, and the average grant pledge in 2015 was about $6,600. For our two challenge grant programs, the Jewish Heritage Fund, and the Sacred Sites Challenge, the average pledge last year was about $32,000.

David Berg Foundation Doubled Gift

The David Berg Foundation, which helped launch the Conservancy’s Jewish Heritage Fund in 2009 with a $100,000 grant, renewed and doubled its gift in 2011. The Jewish Heritage Fund received $200,000 to underwrite challenge grants of up to $75,000 for major synagogue restoration projects. In the last four years, the Jewish Heritage Fund has awarded nine grants totaling $320,000 for the renovation of historic New York City synagogues. Roy J. Zuckerberg, who provided the initial $25,000 to launch the Jewish Heritage Fund, also renewed his gift. We are grateful for these donors’ support of Jewish History in New York City.