Grants & Fundraising

As recently announced, the Church Buildings Team have been successful in applying for the Minor Repairs and Improvements Grant, the fund being offered by the Archbishops’ Council under the Buildings for Mission project, made possible with Church Commissioners’ funding. We will receive £207k to give small grants to parishes that have urgent minor works, which must be identified in the most recent and up to date Quinquennial Inspection report for such things as repair or replacement of rainwater goods and drainage, lead repairs, slipped slates etc.

There is an eligibility and assessment guide which will stipulate which works are eligible, but the main criteria are that the total works are under £20k (or £24k for unlisted buildings as they can’t reclaim the VAT) and they can’t be part of a larger project (i.e. this grant can’t be used for match funding). The grant can also be used for improvements such as permanent disability access, upgrading toilets, upgrading kitchens etc.

The grants will be administered by the Church Buildings Adviser, Keith Halliday, and will be assessed by a grants committee. The level of grant given will be determined by the national deprivation index with those in the most deprived areas receiving up to 90% and those in the least down to 10%.

The grant application deadlines are: 20th September 2024, 20th January 2025 and 20th May 2025. All works must be completed by December 2025. Although £207k sounds like a lot of money, if all the churches in the diocese applied it would work out at £354 per church. Therefore, not all applications will be successful, the most urgent and those which stave off further degradation will be given priority.

The application form and your supporting documents must be submitted electronically. Please make sure you have read through the eligibility and assessment criteria in detail before sending your application with the requested documents to Keith Halliday

The NLHF funds activities that connect people with heritage (and those activities may include some capital works to historic fabric). 

Applications for grants from £10k – £250k under the NLHF’s new 10 year strategic framework ‘Heritage 2033’ reopened in early 2024. NLHF’s investment principles and what they will achieve by 2033 include:

1. Improved condition and understanding of heritage
2. Reduced amount of ‘heritage at risk’ 
3. Transformational long-term projects delivered
4. Digital heritage made more accessible

The main change is that “heritage at risk” has been highlighted and identified. Hopefully the new strategy will acknowledge that some rural communities cannot encourage the sort of footfall or activity that urban churches can achieve more easily.

Further information about Heritage 2033

Read about the sort of projects the Heritage Fund might support in connection with places of worship and to see how to apply for funding.

The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme gives grants that cover the VAT incurred in making repairs of over £1,000 to listed buildings in use as places of worship. The scheme (continuing until 31^st March 2025) covers repairs to the fabric of the building, along with associated professional fees, plus repairs to turret clocks, pews, bells and pipe organs. Apply online through the new application portal.

The Benefact Trust (previously All Churches Trust) has six grants under its “new grants framework”. The most relevant of these to our church buildings are:

1. Building Improvement Grants; For the essential repair and improvement of churches and Christian buildings.
2. Community Impact Grants; A programme of funding aimed at supporting projects that directly address the social challenges faced by some of the most vulnerable communities in our society.
3. Heritage Skills for Christian Buildings Grants; Focused on the preservation of essential heritage skills and careers through apprenticeships, scholarships, and training courses.

The roof alarm grant is also continuing.

The Building Improvement Grants is the newest strand to their funding and includes the following:

• Essential, one-off repairs or other capital works to ensure the continued use or viability of a building (capital work must be considered urgent or necessary within 12 months)
• Minor capital works or equipment purchases to meet operational or accessibility requirements (e.g. essential operational equipment, AV equipment, hearing loops, ramps, etc)
• Conservation or restoration of historic features (e.g. stained glass, carvings, interior furnishings, clocks, tower bells, organs etc) which contribute to preservation and appreciation of a building’s heritage
• Other aesthetic enhancements (e.g. interior decoration, furnishings or public realm improvements) to improve indoor or outdoor spaces for users
• Energy efficiency/renewable energy measures (e.g. heating/lighting upgrades, solar panels, etc) which improve the sustainability of church buildings/facilities and enable their continued use

The Benefact Group also has an annual giving programme called ‘Movement for Good’.  For a charity to have a chance of receiving a donation through this scheme all that is needed is a simple nomination through the Benefact Group website.  More details on this can be found here;  Movement for Good – Nominate a charity for an award and to make it even easier to nominate a church Benefact have developed a tool for churches to create and display their own bespoke poster. This can be found here; https://movementforgood.com/poster-generator.php The poster includes a handy QR code that goes straight to the nomination form and a church logo can also be added. There is also a short video you can watch which will walk you through the steps to generate a poster to encourage people to nominate your church.

Grants for conservation reports:these are an essential first step in projects involving the repair and conservation of artworks and historic furnishings in churches and are also a key document to support faculty and grant applications. ChurchCare can award grants of up to £5,000 to assist with the commissioning of such reports (as well as grants towards the conservation works themselves) including environmental surveys and other technical investigations (e.g. paint analysis). These grants are available throughout the year.

Grants for urgent fabric repairs and conservation: these are given for urgent fabric repairs and the conservation of historic church interiors and churchyard structures in partnership with The Wolfson Trust, Pilgrim Trust, the Radcliffe Trust, the Oswald Allen Bequest, and the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Application deadlines for repair/conservation grants are as follows:

• Bells and Bell frames 31st March 2025
• Books and Manuscripts 14th October 2024
• Church Plate 14th October 2024
• Churchyard Structures 14th October 2024
• Clocks 7th April 2025
• Monumental brasses, metalwork 14th October 2024
• Monuments 14th October 2024
• Organs 7th October 2024
• Paintings & Wall Paintings 27th January 2025
• Stained glass 11th August 2025
• Textiles 14th October 2024
• Wooden objects 14th October 2024

Full details of all these grants and how to apply.

• Small grants – up to £5,000 where the maximum project costs are £20,000. These are intended to support small but urgent maintenance and repair issues or help fund small investigative works. The next deadline for applications is 30th August 2024.
• Medium grants – up to £10,000 where the project costs are between £20,000 to £80,000. These are to fund small repair work or the development of projects such as preparing for a major project or preparing to approach a major grant funder. The next deadlines for applications is 17th December 2024.
• Large grants – these grants fund toilet and kitchen projects costing more than £30,000 and repair projects costing more than £80,000. The next stage 1 grant application deadline is 5th November 2024.

Further information

The YHCT provides funds for churches and chapels within Yorkshire. Funding ranges from small schemes such as investigatory works, repairs to monuments, to larger schemes including large scale stonework repointing, complete roofing repairs and other more complex conservation works. Applications are welcomed, the process is straightforward and found in the grants section of the YHCT website. The current round of applications closes on 11th October 2024. Please contact Jonathan Stamp, the Grants Secretary, at grants@yhct.org.uk if you need any help with your grant application. 

The YHCT also invites individual PCCs to become ‘Church Members’ and to support the Trust by opening their churches on Yorkshire Churches Day on 14th September 2024 or taking part in the Ride and Stride sponsored event. All this is found on the YHCT website.

Grants of £250 – £2,000 are available for conservation work to the fabric and contents of historic listed churches that would not normally be undertaken in the regular cycle or repair and maintenance. Examples include work to listed headstones and monuments, wall paintings, rood screens, fonts, carved stonework, stained glass and altar cloths. See their website to download an application form.

The Archdeacons of Cleveland, East Riding and York are able to approve modest grants to parishes in the Diocese of York towards building-related costs, or local projects that support the strategy for growth, where there is insufficient local income or reserves to pay for them.

Visit the Finance Loans and Grants page for more information.

The Diocesan Board of Finance offers a Parish Loan Scheme to help parishes complete building works and enable mission projects. Loans will be for a max. £20,000. For full details of eligibility and the application process, visit the Finance Loans and Grants page.

A really useful publication (last updated July 2023) from the National Stewardship Team which includes lists of available grants for conservation, preservation and restoration works, bells, organs, windows, community projects and the provision of improved facilities.

Their grants are available exclusively for the conservation of historic and/or artistically significant stained and architectural glass.

Grants of £500 to £5,000 are awarded for the conservation of decorative features and monuments carried out in accordance with the principles of SPAB. Application deadlines are 31st March and 31st August each year. You can find out how to apply.

The Fund provides grants of between £2,000 and £100,000 to not-for-profit organisations for amenity projects eligible under Object D of the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF). Only applications for projects sited within 10 miles of an eligible FCC Environment waste facility can be accepted. For eligibility and the application process.

This webpage has a lot of helpful guidance and links, including sources of funding,12 guides on Capital Fundraising and 6 guides on Church Fundraising.

Ecclesiastical Insurance have compiled a ‘fundraising toolbox’ focussing on rural churches with small congregations and few volunteers (March 2023). They have also updated their list of funders (31^st January 2024), all of which are open to churches and which detail the funder’s interests, contact information and how to apply.