Grants

In 2024 and 2025, parishes will be able to apply to the diocese for grants towards the costs of future minor repairs (and certain categories of improvements) for church buildings. In 2025, applications must be submitted before 30 June 2025, as projects must then be carried out and completed by the end of the year. Funds awarded will typically be around £4,000 per parish (and grants above £10,000 are only on an exceptional basis, due to demand) and will be drawn from a total of £72,000 per year.

For a summary of the scheme, please read our introductory blog. Details of how to apply are explained fully in our downloadable guidance.

To apply, please do so by filling out our online Microsoft Forms questionnaire.

Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions.

We are again seeking applications for small grants with the aim of supporting new and innovative projects that will enhance parish mission. The maximum grant available for these will be restricted up to £5,000 and preference will be given to applications for new initiatives from parishes that have not yet received a grant.

Please complete the online application form via this link.

If you would like to talk about a grant application, please contact Romana Nelson at the Kingston Area Office.

If you have a new, innovative project aimed at enhancing parish mission, why not consider applying a mission grant from the Woolwich Episcopal Area?

Application form Area Mission Money 2025

Invitation to apply for Area Mission Money 2025 (Letter)

The Diocese has created a fund to help Fresh Expressions of Church (fxC) get started.

Small grants are typically £500-£1,000 and go towards the cost of training or small pieces of equipment.

Larger grants are typically £1,000 to £5,000 and are aimed at helping new projects to get off the ground and include staffing costs.

Criteria and grant forms are available to download below:

FxC Grants Purpose-Process-Criteria-2025 (.docx, 94kb)
FxC Grant Application (.docx, 31kb)
FxC Grant Evaluation Report (.docx, 18kb)

To make the most of grants, training is really important and we suggest that churches needing a large grant undertake training as they embark on the journey to seeing an fxC come to maturity. In addition to formal training, we also have mentors to offer support.

For more information and assistance please contact Revd David Cundill, Pioneer Development Officer [email protected] or email: [email protected]

• Innovation Grants Guidance

Thanks to nine-year funding from the national Church, this is a grant of up to £250,000 which the Diocese can award once every three years.

The grant is to provide funding for an innovative, creative missional idea that has the potential to create a step change in missional growth to benefit others in the Diocese and potentially the wider Church. We would expect some clear evidence of why you think this will work. If your church is interested in applying, you need to:

1. Find out about the process and what we are looking for. You can do this at one of our online workshops, which will explain the and give you the information you need to submit an idea. Anyone from our churches or deaneries can attend these workshops (see below for links, dates and times) and ask questions.
2. Parishes, teams or deaneries should then consider whether they have an innovative idea that might meet the criteria contained in the guidance.

Following this, there is a two-stage process.

• We ask you to submit a single page giving a brief outline of the idea you would like to propose by midday on Friday 28th February 2025. At this stage, it does not need formal support from your PCC but you will need to have had an initial conversation with the Director of Mission or Pioneer Development Officer (David Cundill) about your idea prior to submission. The panel will look at these and give feedback as to whether this might have the potential to be worked up into a proposal.
• If we think that there is potential in the idea then we will work with the parish/ team/ deanery to help it prepare for the second stage which is the formal submission to the Diocesan panel.

We are holding several online workshops to give you more information. Please book your place via the dedicated Eventbrite page

• Wednesday 13 November 7-9pm
• Tuesday 19 November 7-9pm
• Wednesday 20 November 11am-1pm
• Thursday 28 November 3-5pm

If you want to discuss an idea or you can’t make any of these dates then please do contact us at [email protected] with the heading “Innovation Fund” and we will get back to you.

Women’s Ministry

The Gilmore Fund is open to grant applications from women in ministry in Southwark Diocese. We consider carefully all applications for courses, projects, retreats etc which will enhance your ministry but our funds are limited so do give as much detail as you can of the costs and how you and the wider church will benefit.

The next meeting of the Gilmore Fund Committee is in November and the deadline for applications is Wednesday 7 May 2025

Please read the guidance notes in the application form carefully.  Please note that we are making the Gilmore Fund more widely available to those women who are not clergy, readers or SPAs but with specific and significant lay ministry roles in churches and chaplaincies to reflect the focus of the diocesan strategy for ministry and mission.  Feel free to pass this email to those who are in that category and might be appreciative.

Email completed forms to [email protected].

Download Gilmore Fund application form

If you have any questions please feel free to contact Esther Foss, Dean of Women’s Ministry

Mission micro grants

Is your church or parish planning a new project for your area?  We offer micro-grants of up to £300 to help towards the cost of running events, providing resources, and outreach projects in the community.

We also offer a £100 grant towards the production of “welcome back to church”  cards.

For either grant, please fill in the grant application form and send it to [email protected].

We can offer micro-grants of up to £300 to support social or environmental action in your parish or Deanery. This might for example cover the cost of a training day or some equipment and supplies for a community café. Please contact the JPIC Team for more information and a short application form.

In 2025, the diocese will be giving out to parishes a small number of Net Zero Carbon Programme grants towards the costs of ‘quick wins’ decarbonisation works for church buildings. Due to limited available funding, these grants will be prioritised for those within the highest category of carbon-emitting churches.

To ask about eligibility, and for details of the guidance and application-form, please contact Jonathan Walter, Net Zero Carbon Programme Manager

Churches are jam-packed full of potential and Cinnamon can help to release it. Each year the organisation interacts with more than 1,000 local churches across the UK and Ireland. It conducts research, provides advice, delivers training courses and helps churches to start social action projects that transform their communities.

Parishes who are seeking sources of grant-funding are advised to start with the ‘National List of Charitable Grants for Churches’ and other helpful guidance provided to PCC Treasurers by Parish Resources.

There are several specific regional funders for areas covering Southwark Diocese:

Heritage of London Trust

City Bridge Trust

Surrey Churches Preservation Trust

Friends of Kent Churches

Marshall’s Charity

Please find below a summary of the main funders for church building works (mostly, but not all, for listed buildings):

Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (VAT reclaim for repairs in/to listed churches):

National Churches Trust

Benefact Trust

ChurchCare fabric repairs and historic interiors/objects/structures conservation:

National Lottery Heritage Fund (previously Heritage Lottery Fund)

National Lottery Community Fund

Garfield Weston Foundation

Landfill Communities Fund

The Ecclesiastical Insurance Group Ministry Bursary Awards Scheme is open to those in full time stipendiary ministry and can assist financially with a work-related project, a study course away, or support research in the UK or abroad. Applicants must normally have completed at least 10 years full time stipendiary ministry. The closing date for applications for awards for each year is generally the end of September of the previous year. For more detail, see the EIG website

www.ecclesiastical.com/mba

Sion College makes grants to clergy in London Metropolitan Boroughs south of the River Thames. Membership for at least one year is required for a grant application and costs £20.00 per annum, or £15.00 if you are willing to receive emailed information only. See the College website for more details:
http://www.sioncollege.org/grants.html

The St George’s Trust offers grants, including clergy grants towards sabbatical expenses. Write, with details of the project its likely cost and an indication of available funds, as far in advance as possible before March or September each year, with an sae to St George’s Trust, Senior Trustee, St Edward’s House, 22 Great College Street, SW1P 3QA

The Alexis Trust: Grants (c£50) for Christian activities.
Write to Prof D W Vere, 14 Broadfield Way, Buckhurst
Hill, IG9 5AG

The English-Speaking Union offer a grant of up to £1,800 to members of the clergy from all denominations to undertake a tour in the US for up to four weeks with the aim of fostering understanding and the exchange of ideas. Recent scholars have explored pastoral care
and ecumenical links. There is one grant each year. The application deadline is in June, with interviews in July. More details are available from
http://www.esu.org/programmes/scholarships/clergy/
american-memorial-chapel-travel-grant