Religious organizations often receive financial assistance from generous donations from their congregations and communities, but there are times when that funding can come up short for the programs the organization would like to provide to their community. When this occurs, a religious group can look into grant programs for faith-based, non-profit organizations benefitting the community and could find just the funds they need.
Most of these grants are designed to assist a faith-based organization in funding for their community outreach programs, benefiting those both inside and outside of their religion. There are few if any programs that will allow a group to put funds towards operating costs of their building of worship itself, so things like paying the electric and water bills will need to be financed elsewhere. However, if a house of worship is in need of some repairs and is unable to find the funds to support such a project themselves, there are grants available to assist with such renovations.
Whatever religion a faith organization may be, their first stop should be to those higher up in their religious community. For example, a local church needing to do roof renovations can look to their denomination for possible sources of funding and grant programs. If those are unavailable or do not cover whatever the group is hoping to fund, there is also the private foundation pathway that could provide quality leads. There are many foundations across the country wanting to give towards groups and programs that benefit communities, and depending on the sort of programs one’s faith-based organization holds, there are often grants that fit such a group.
The government also has some programs that religious organizations can apply to similar to those listed above, but the rules on how the money is allocated are extremely strict and the last thing one would want is to have to pay back awarded money because of a small violation of a rule. No matter what avenue a faith-based organization decides to go down, the first step should be validating that the group is a registered nonprofit 501c3 so they are eligible for all the grants listed previously. From there it takes a good amount of research and time, but the reward and benefit to the community can be great.