Assistance program
Heritage Partnership
$211.3 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- National Park Service, Interior, Department of the
- Assistance
- Cooperative Agreements
- CFDA number
- 15.939
- What it does
- The purpose of the Heritage Partnership Program funding is to carry out programs and projects that engage National Heritage Area (NHA) recipients, partners, communities, and/or visitors in shared environmental stewardship. It promotes greater public and private participation in preservation, conservation, education, and outdoor recreation programs and activities, and builds resource stewardship ethics in is participants. Goals for each National Heritage Area are set forth in each of their designation legislation, but in general, the goal of designation as a National Heritage Area is to preserve and interpret for the educational and inspirational benefit of present and future generations the unique and significant contributions to our national heritage. This heritage is shown through certain historic and cultural lands, waterways, and structures. By preserving and interpreting this heritage, NHAs are able to encourage a broad range of economic opportunities enhancing the quality of life within the designated area, and provide a management framework to assist state/local government entities, non-profits, and others in developing policies and programs that will preserve, enhance, and interpret the cultural, historical, natural, recreation, and scenic resources of the heritage area.
- Who benefits
- General public, states, their political subdivisions, non-profits, private entities, the heritage area management/coordinating entity.
- Who applies
- State, local, or tribal government or other public entity, an educational institution, or a private nonprofit organization.
- Authorized by
- Pub. L. 109–338, § 1(a), Oct. 12, 2006, 120 Stat. 1783 National Heritage Areas Act of 2006. 54 U.S.C. § 101702(a) Transfer of Service Appropriated Funds
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments