Church organizations often rely on donations to support their church and the programs they host, but sometimes there simply isn’t enough income coming from a congregation to support such an organization. Luckily, churches can apply for faith-based grant programs. Those looking to apply for such grants should keep in mind that these programs will most likely not allow any rewarded funding to be utilized for operational expenses directly, but should be allocated to outreach programs that benefit the greater community. These grants could also go towards repairs and renovations to the building itself that simply could not be done without financial help from such a program.
The first place to start looking for non-profit grants for faith-based organizations is within the church’s own denomination, as they often provide many grant programs for their community congregations. Since many churches provide valuable services for the community there are many grants that fund programs that are part of the outreach that they do especially with money for soup kitchens, food pantries, drug and alcohol abuse help and after school programs.
This includes private foundations and organizations are another viable avenue for finding church grants. In order to qualify for such programs the church must be registered as a nonprofit 501c3 with the federal government. They also require the church to use any possible grant awards to better the larger community rather than focusing only on members of their congregation.
Government grants are also available for faith-based organizations, although they are strictly allocated only to the designated project or projects that the group applied with. Due to these constraints on government grants, churches looking for grants for programs, repairs or renovations often go the private route to have more flexibility with the financial award.
Whatever a congregation decides is the best route to pursue extra funding, private and government grants for faith-based organizations are a viable and beneficial option for obtaining extra financial support for a church.