Veterans Legacy Grant Program | NCA 2022 VLGP

Opportunity Information: Apply for NCA 2022 VLGP

The Veterans Legacy Grant Program (VLGP) is a discretionary grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, designed to support educational and public-history projects that commemorate U.S. Veterans and Service members by discovering, researching, and sharing their life stories. The program is intentionally interdisciplinary, meaning proposals are not limited to a particular subject area or academic specialty. Instead, VLGP focuses on projects that use the real historical record found in Veterans cemeteries to create learning experiences and public-facing resources that help communities better understand the people who served.

At the center of the program is work connected to one or more VA national cemeteries (VA maintains 155) or to one or more of the VA grant-funded State, Territorial, or Tribal Veterans cemeteries (119 are referenced in the opportunity). Competitive projects are expected to do more than general historical interpretation: they must include a concrete study of specific Veterans or Service members who are interred in one of these cemeteries. VLGP also emphasizes active community engagement, encouraging applicants to involve and connect with the communities surrounding the cemetery or cemeteries being studied. The goal is not just academic research, but meaningful public remembrance and local participation.

A major program emphasis is elevating stories that have been overlooked or undervalued in traditional narratives. Applicants are expected to focus, at least in part, on underrepresented Veterans or Service members, including (but not limited to) those underrepresented by race, ethnicity, or identity, as well as Veterans or Service members from the LGBTQ community. The opportunity makes clear that this focus can apply to any period of American history, so projects can range widely in timeline while still aligning with the program mission.

For FY 2022 and any later year in which awards are made from that competition’s application pool, the VA uses Competitive Preference Priorities (CPPs) to further encourage certain types of projects. Applications that address one or more CPPs can earn up to three additional points in scoring. The listed CPPs include: strong showcasing of underrepresented interred Veterans or Service members (including LGBTQ individuals and those underrepresented by race, ethnicity, or identity); creatively highlighting interred individuals who have not been studied or researched in prior VLGP proposals; and maximizing best practices in digital scholarship, pedagogy, scholarly communication, and digital public engagement. In practical terms, this means applicants may be more competitive if they propose well-designed digital storytelling, open educational materials, online exhibits, databases, or other digital public-history approaches that meet recognized standards for accessibility, documentation, and educational use. The VA notes that CPPs may change from year to year and will be specified in each annual Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA). To be considered for CPP points, applicants must include a one-page abstract with an explicit statement describing how their project meets the CPP criteria, and this must be reflected on the VLGP Profile Form.

Eligible applicants include a range of education and nonprofit entities, such as public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, independent school districts, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, and IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofits that are not institutions of higher education. The funding activity category is Education (CFDA 64.204). For the referenced cycle, the award ceiling is $500,000, with an estimated 50 awards anticipated. The opportunity record lists a creation date of June 29, 2022, with an original closing date of July 29, 2022, under Funding Opportunity Number NCA 2022 VLGP.

• The Department of Veterans Affairs in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Veterans Legacy Grant Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 64.204.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 29, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 29, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 50 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for NCA 2022 VLGP

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: