Grants for Veterans Memorials 2026: Who Funds Monuments

Memorial source review, Grantsights, October 31, 2026: Grantsights checked the VA National Cemetery Administration pages for the Veterans Legacy Grants Program (opens in a new tab), the Veterans Cemetery Grants Program (opens in a new tab) and headstones, markers and medallions (opens in a new tab), plus the text of 40 U.S.C. 8903 (opens in a new tab) and 40 U.S.C. 8906 (opens in a new tab), then checked them against foundation filings. Where official sources stop: no federal page counts local veterans memorials, how many need repair, or what upkeep costs a town each year, so a committee has to gather those figures itself.

Who Gives Grants for Veterans Memorials: What 990-PF Filings Show

Foundations reporting grants on IRS Form 990-PF are one main source for veterans memorials, but towns, counties, posts and individual donors often carry more of the cost. According to IRS guidance about Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab), private foundations report their grants on that return, which is how each gift below can be traced. Grantsights analysis of 990-PF community and civic grants pulled October 31, 2026 found 198 foundations that made 299 grants to memorial projects, totaling $5,034,363, an average of about $16,800. These local grants show the range:

For example, American Legion Austin-Cox Post 478 in Mansfield, Pennsylvania received $17,000 from the Mansfield Auxiliary Corporation in 2024 for a veterans park, which shows a post can apply directly when it owns the project. One organization in Virginia, Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery Volunteers in Blacksburg, drew $10,000 from the C.E. Richardson Benevolent Foundation in 2024 toward a Veterans Memorial Tower at the cemetery entrance. Notice how often the recipient is a city, a parks conservancy or a community foundation: many funders prefer to pay a public or established partner that will own the memorial for decades. Your best bet is a funder already paying for civic projects in your county, not a national veterans charity.

Veterans memorial grants by state

These figures come from the October 31, 2026 Grantsights pull of 990-PF community and civic grants. States are where the recipient sits, not the funder. The pull found memorial funders in 40 states and DC, and 17 of those had at least 3.

Why Virginia, DC and Ohio look the way they do

Read the top 3 rows with care. Virginia's 40 foundations gave just $76,385, about $1,340 per grant, and in the hand-checked sample, 3 of the 4 Virginia recipients were the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund under slightly different names. DC works the same way: 14 foundations gave $7,800 in all, such as the Lunder Foundation's $100 to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's annual fund in 2023. Those are national gifts, and a Richmond or Roanoke committee shouldn't count those funders as local prospects. The very large DC gifts, like the Crawford Taylor Foundation's $6,000,000 to Friends of the National World War II Memorial in 2024, carried no community tag, so they sit outside the 198.

Ohio runs the other way. Among the largest matched gifts, $2,961,520 of Ohio's $3,028,960 went to the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus from 7 foundations, led by the Wexner Family Charitable Fund's $1,000,000 in 2025 and 3 gifts of $400,000 from the American Electric Power Foundation. Nebraska is the more useful model for a small town: the Robert B. Daugherty Foundation gave $50,000 to the Nebraska City Veterans Memorial Building Project in 2024 and $40,000 to the Emerson Veterans Memorial Park Committee in 2023.

California's memorial funders

California's 4 foundations made 4 grants worth $35,300 in the pull, so the state is thin. The free preview on the Grantsights community and civic funder list for California leads with the Mair Family Foundation, which takes requests and gave the Veterans Memorial and Support Foundation in Los Gatos $10,000 in 2024 for its general fund. The Peter Gallo Memorial Foundation gave Merced Sunrise Rotary Charity $10,000 in 2024 to sponsor The Wall That Heals, and the John H. Grace Foundation gave the Nisei War Memorial Community Center in Sacramento $10,000 in 2025 to preserve the legacy of Japanese Americans who served in World War II.

4 Kinds of Memorial Projects Funders Back

4 project types account for most of the local grants in the October 31, 2026 pull, and each needs a slightly different case.

New memorials and memorial parks. These draw the biggest local gifts, because a funder can point to something permanent. The Stowers Machinery Foundation gave Legacy Parks Foundation $25,000 in both 2023 and 2024 for the East Tennessee Veterans Park, and the Michael and Lois Wilke Foundation gave the Stanton County Veterans Memorial Park in Nebraska $25,000 in 2023.

Restoring older monuments. Civil War and World War I monuments are aging, and restoration asks are small and concrete. The Adams Family Foundation of Nora Springs, Iowa gave $16,000 in 2024 to the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War for a Civil War memorial restoration project.

Names, flags and add-ons. Adding names, flags or lighting is an easy first ask. The Marie H. Bechtel Charitable Trust gave Friends of Veterans Memorial Park in Davenport, Iowa $12,000 in 2023 for a military flag display, and the Lakeland Leadership League gave the City of Forest Lake, Minnesota $17,500 in 2025 for veterans memorial gardens and a flagpole.

Hosting The Wall That Heals. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's traveling replica draws sponsors wherever it stops. The Dorothy M. Morrison Foundation gave the Great Bend Foundation in Kansas $46,174 in 2023 and $30,000 in 2024 for it, and the Town Pump Charitable Foundation gave $25,000 for its stop in Butte, Montana in 2024. Gold Star monuments are a fifth, smaller group: the Miter Charitable Foundation gave the Woody Williams Foundation $41,020 in 2023 for a Gold Star Family Memorial Monument.

Why the Community List, Not the Arts List

Community and civic funders give to veterans memorials far more often than any other kind. According to our analysis of the October 31, 2026 pull, 205 foundations that gave to memorial projects had a community tag on at least one gift, against 40 with an arts tag and 21 with an education tag, and 123 had a gift with no cause tag. Only the 198-funder community count was checked by hand, through the 40-recipient sample, so treat the cross-cause numbers as a rough guide. Arts funders mostly showed up for memorial museums like the one in Columbus.

These rows count all community and civic gifts in each state, from a Grantsights pull of 990-PF filings dated October 29, 2026. Medians of $1,500 to $2,500 in several states mean a memorial committee usually needs many local gifts, not one big one. The Grantsights community funder list costs $29 for a single state or $99 for a full year across every cause, with a 30-day refund window on list purchases. If your memorial sits inside a public park, grants for park foundations covers the funders behind those groups.

What the VA Doesn't Tell You About Memorial Funding

A committee searching for federal memorial money usually finds 5 sources, and only 1 of them pays for anything a town can build. Grantsights checked each page or statute.

1. The Veterans Legacy Grants Program isn't for monuments. According to VA's National Cemetery Administration, the program funds proposals using the stories of those interred in VA national cemeteries and VA grant-funded cemeteries, through projects such as books, films, educational manuals and databases. Its 8 fiscal year 2026 recipients were mostly universities, plus a school and 2 nonprofits. A local committee could partner with a college on a research project, but the grant won't buy granite.
2. The Veterans Cemetery Grants Program is for governments only. According to VA, aid goes only to states, U.S. territories and federally recognized tribal governments, not to private organizations, counties or cities. VA can pay up to 100 percent of development cost for an approved state veterans cemetery but can't pay for land. A memorial plaza at a state veterans cemetery would come through the state.
3. Headstones are free; setting them isn't. VA furnishes a government headstone or marker at no charge for the unmarked grave of an eligible veteran in any cemetery, but placing it in a private cemetery is at private expense. Cemetery groups marking forgotten veterans' graves can ask foundations for setting fees. Grants for cemetery associations covers those funders.
4. The American Battle Monuments Commission works overseas. Its mission covers American military cemeteries and memorials overseas, not hometown memorials, so don't look there for a grant.
5. Washington, DC has its own rules. Under 40 U.S.C. 8903, a commemorative work on the covered federal land in DC and its environs needs specific authorization by law, can honor a war or a branch of the armed forces but not a single unit, and can't be authorized until 10 years after the war ends. Under 40 U.S.C. 8906, the sponsor must donate 10 percent of estimated construction cost for perpetual maintenance before a construction permit issues.

That last rule is worth copying even though it doesn't apply to your town. A red flag for local funders is a memorial with no plan for cleaning, lighting, flag replacement and re-engraving. Setting aside about 10 percent for upkeep, the way Congress requires in DC, answers the question before a board asks it.

Costing a Veterans Memorial for a Grant Request

Most committees underestimate 3 lines: site work, names and upkeep, and a 10% upkeep reserve is a sensible floor. This table is illustrative, not data: prices vary by stone, size and region.

Price the memorial in pieces donors can buy, such as an engraved paver, a bench or a flagpole, and let foundations fund the larger structural pieces. Report the cost of the whole project and the size of the maintenance reserve together.

6 Memorial Projects Foundations Have Paid For

Each of these 6 projects matches a grant in the October 31, 2026 pull.

1. New construction. The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust gave the Vietnam War Memorial Fund in Boring, Oregon $300,000 in 2024 for new construction.
2. A memorial park. The Gullo Foundation's $300,000 went to the Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Commission in Texas for its veterans memorial park.
3. Monuments for a memorial. The La Crosse City Vision Foundation gave La Crosse Memorials $29,601 in 2022 and $19,356 in 2023 for monuments at a veterans memorial in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
4. A multi-year campaign. The Grinnell Mutual Group Foundation's $25,000 in 2023 was the second year of a 2-year pledge to the Grinnell veterans memorial campaign in Iowa.
5. A town committee's monument. The Francesco A. Mascaro Charitable Trust gave the Veterans Monument of Whitemarsh in Pennsylvania $30,000 in 2023.
6. A service club's project. The Clarence Rotary Club Foundation gave the Clarence Veterans Memorial in New York $12,870 in 2023 and $13,390 in 2024 for its development.

Common Mistakes in Veterans Memorial Grant Requests

These 5 mistakes show up when a committee writes from the heart and forgets the funder's questions.

• Applying as an informal committee. A common mistake is asking with no 501(c)(3) status or fiscal sponsor; partner with the town, a community foundation or a post that can receive the grant.
• No owner for the finished memorial. Funders want to know who owns the land and who mows, cleans and insures it in 20 years.
• Underestimating name research. Verifying every name against service records takes months, and errors are hard to fix in stone.
• Asking only veterans funders. The filings show civic, park and community foundations giving far more often than veterans charities.
• Sizing asks blindly. Use how to read a 990-PF to find each foundation's usual gift before naming an amount.

A Memorial Committee's Funding Calendar

This 12-month plan works back from a Memorial Day or Veterans Day dedication.

The Grantsights grant database tracks open federal and state notices, including park, community facility and historic preservation programs a town might use for a memorial site.

Related Guides for Memorial Committees

Local memorial grants in the pull ran as high as $300,000, yet nearly every committee also needs partners, and these guides cover them.

Older monuments and the courthouse squares around them are often looked after by local history groups, and grants for historical societies lists their funders. If the town or county will own the memorial, federal grants for local governments explains what public money is available to the owner. Restoring a monument that's listed or eligible for historic designation fits grants for historic preservation. Restoring an old monument raises the same National Register and Save America's Treasures questions a depot restoration does, and grants for historic railroads walks through both programs.

FAQ: Common Questions

Is there a federal grant for building a local veterans memorial? Not one Grantsights found; VA's memorial grants fund research and state cemeteries.

How many foundations fund veterans memorials? 198, in Grantsights' search of 990-PF community grants pulled October 31, 2026.

Why do Virginia and Ohio lead the veterans memorial funder counts? Small gifts to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and big ones to the Columbus museum.

Will the VA pay for a headstone or marker for a veteran's grave? Yes, for eligible veterans, but setting fees in private cemeteries aren't covered.

What does it take to build a memorial in Washington, DC? An act of Congress and a 10 percent maintenance donation, among other steps.

What's a typical grant to a veterans memorial? About $16,800 on average, but many local grants are $5,000 to $30,000.

Sources

• VA National Cemetery Administration: Veterans Legacy Grants Program (opens in a new tab)
• VA National Cemetery Administration: Veterans Cemetery Grants Program (opens in a new tab)
• VA National Cemetery Administration: Headstones, Markers and Medallions (opens in a new tab)
• GovInfo: 40 U.S.C. 8903, Congressional authorization of commemorative works (opens in a new tab)
• GovInfo: 40 U.S.C. 8906, Criteria for issuance of construction permit (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: About Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab)