About
The National Churches Trust is a UK charity dedicated to supporting churches, chapels and meeting houses across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The organization provides grants for urgent repairs, new facilities and essential maintenance to keep these historic places of worship open and in use. Through campaigns, research, awards and special projects, the Trust works to preserve church heritage, promote church tourism, and ensure these buildings continue to serve their communities. Since 2007, they have helped over 2,000 churches and chapels remain open and in good repair.
Funding Opportunities
Wolfson Fabric Repair Grants
On behalf of the Wolfson Foundation, the National Churches Trust awards grants towards essential fabric repairs at churches in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These grants are usually up to £10,000 and are offered in partnership with the Wolfson Foundation. Historic places of worship can apply for a Wolfson grant via the National Churches Trust's Medium and Large grant programmes depending on the size of the project. The grants support fabric repairs at church buildings of all Christian denominations that are of heritage significance and appropriately listed. Repairs are usually identified as Category A or B recommendations in the most recent Quinquennial Inspection report, or as urgent repairs in condition surveys. Typically projects include roof repairs, masonry repairs, rainwater disposal and drainage, and floorwork. The Wolfson Foundation provides £400,000 per year towards the fabric repair of historic church buildings, administered through this programme since 2020.
Large Grants
The National Churches Trust Large Grants programme offers grants of up to £50,000 towards the cost of major urgent structural repair projects for Christian places of worship across the UK. The programme supports projects with total costs over £80,000 (including VAT) for urgent repairs, or over £30,000 for facilities such as kitchens and accessible toilets that enable increased community use. Grants of £40,000 to £50,000 are extremely limited and reserved for exceptional cases demonstrating very high investment value. The average grant size awarded in 2024 was approximately £21,000. Grants will never exceed 50% of the project cost, meaning applicants must have already raised at least 50% of their total project cost before applying. The programme operates through a two-stage application process with decisions made by a Grants Committee comprised of experts from the church and heritage sectors, which meets three times a year.
Medium Grants
The National Churches Trust Medium Grants programme offers grants of up to £10,000 towards urgent and essential maintenance and repair projects costing up to £80,000 for Christian places of worship across the UK. The programme supports both repair and maintenance work as well as project development and investigative work up to RIBA planning stage 1, helping churches prepare for major projects and develop proposals to approach major grant funders. Grants will never exceed 50% of the net project costs. Eligible applicants include listed and unlisted Christian places of worship of any denomination across the UK that meet specific criteria including being open for at least six services of public worship annually and accessible to the public for a minimum of 100 days per year beyond worship use. The programme also offers grants to local churches trusts for organizational development projects. Applications are reviewed by a Grants Committee comprised of experts from the church and heritage sectors, which meets three times per year. In 2024, the average grant size was approximately £5,000.
At a Glance
- Total Funding Opportunities
- 3
- Active Now
- 3
- Source Domain
- nationalchurchestrust.org
Catalog Data
This funder profile was automatically extracted from grant listings. Information may be incomplete.
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