Community funding opportunities

Organisations offering funding and grants for community work.

National Churches Trust – The National Churches Trust provides financial support to Christian places of worship across the UK, offering Medium Grants (averaging £6,000) and Large Grants (averaging £21,000) alongside specialized Wolfson Fabric Repair Grants to fund urgent structural maintenance, building project development, and kitchen or accessible toilet installations.

National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund (England) – This fund make grants of over £10,000 for up to five years to organisations with ideas that would enable communities to thrive. The initial application involves the idea only. Salaries, equipment, refurbishment and capital costs can all be funded. There are no deadlines.

The Steel Charitable trust – The Trustees make discretionary grants where they believe that their contribution will make a real difference. Applications are welcome from eligible applicants from all areas of the UK although applications from Bedfordshire generally, and Luton specifically, are particularly encouraged.

Rank Foundation Pebble Grants – A small funding stream for UK registered charities and recognised churches which are raising money for projects where the total cost is less than £1 million. If you are raising money for a particular project for which the mainstay is capital costs (building work, refurbishment or the purchase of long-term equipment) or a one-off short-term activity (such as an annual respite break or holiday for disadvantaged young people) and have already raised a third of the total costs, you may be eligible for this.

The Benefact Trust– One the of UK’s largest charitable trusts and is the charitable owner of the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group. Over the past three years, the Benefact Trust has given £34.6 million in grants. Last year it gave grants totaling more than £13 million to charities and church groups all over the UK and Eire, empowering them to tackle homelessness, isolation, poverty, addiction and issues of mental health. It also helped restore historic buildings and develop projects in schools, colleges, hostels and prisons.

Charity Excellence – A free one-stop-shop to find grant funding (registration required), with a section dedicated to UK charitable grants for churches and funding for religious organisations, including foundations that give grants to churches for repairs and buildings and the Listed Place of Worship Grant Scheme grants for church repairs.

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland – Provides a list of possible sources of alternative funding and support for charities, Christian organisations, churches and community projects.

Grants & funding opportunities

Find out about the grants and funding opportunities the URC offers churches, community groups and individuals