Our Work
For 60 years, World Monuments Fund has safeguarded the world’s most treasured places against forces that threaten their survival. Our story goes beyond saving bricks and mortar—it is about a global community harnessing the potential of preservation to enrich lives and build mutual understanding across cultures and communities.
Throughout our history, we've preserved the world’s diverse cultural heritage using the highest international standards at more than 700 sites in 112 countries. Working in concert with local partners, we take a people-first approach that honors the connection between communities and their surroundings.
Together we have overcome the ravages of war, extreme weather, and neglect to protect irreplaceable heritage.
Working Across Borders
Since WMF's founding, we've defied political boundaries based on the belief that culture under threat anywhere is a threat to culture everywhere. Early projects established our role as a catalyst for action and a convener of local partners, funders, and governments in the spirit of international collaboration.
The longevity of early projects stretching over decades speaks to the depth of WMF’s commitment to these sites and the communities that surround them. This sustained engagement continues to be integral to our work, ensuring the local population are active participants in revitalizing their cultural heritage.
Global Priorities
New methods of working are needed to mitigate intersecting issues affecting heritage sites and the communities that surround them. Partnering with local communities, funders, and governments, we draw on heritage to address some of today’s most pressing challenges.
Climate Adaptation
As global warming continues to intensify, innovative methods as well as reinforcement of traditional knowledge are necessary to mitigate the impact on heritage places and help communities adapt.
Post-Crisis Recovery
Armed conflict, natural disaster, and other types of destruction can cause irreparable damage to heritage places and communities. Community-led preservation efforts can support in building resilience and regenerating the social fabric of places affected by crisis.
Inclusive Heritage
Inequities in heritage result in oversight and neglect of many significant places. Across our projects and programs, WMF works to amplify narratives that tell a more textured, just and complete story of humanity.
Balanced Tourism
Both overtourism and lack of visitation can endanger heritage places, as well as sideline or disrupt surrounding communities and their ways of life. Sustainable tourism strategies are needed to recalibrate the impact of tourism and ensure just outcomes for local communities.
Focus Areas
WMF supports communities as active participants in giving a future to their past. With our local partners, we develop sustainable solutions for individual sites that reverberate throughout a region or have applications elsewhere in the world. Our work is organized around three focus areas:
Physical Intervention
Field work is at the center of our identity. With our local partners, we develop sustainable solutions for individual sites that reverberate throughout a region or have applications to similar challenges elsewhere in the world.
Advocacy
As much as WMF has accomplished, more remains to be done to act as a voice of vigilance around the world. WMF advocacy programs such as the World Monuments Watch raise awareness of the importance of heritage preservation for people around the globe, today and in the future.
Training
The survival of heritage sites central to the cultural and spiritual life of communities is threatened by the loss of traditional construction methods. Affirming the inextricable connection between people and place, WMF trains local residents to conserve their cultural heritage so it may be passed down to the next generation. We invest directly in people, giving them the skills and the means to improve their quality of life.
World Monuments Watch
The World Monuments Watch is a nomination-based program that connects local heritage preservation to global awareness and action. Every two years, the Watch rallies support to places in need and the people who care for them, spotlighting new challenges and the communities worldwide harnessing heritage to confront the crucial issues of our time.
Since the program’s inception, the Watch has been a proven tool for raising awareness about heritage places in need of protection and galvanizing action and support for their preservation.
Awards
Since 1988, World Monuments Fund has honored extraordinary leaders making a difference for cultural heritage across the globe with the Hadrian Award and the Watch Award.
We also recognize preservationists who have demonstrated innovative solutions to preserve or restore threatened modern architecture with our biannual World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize.
Support Us
Join our global community protecting cultural heritage sites.