THE NATIONAL CHURCHES TRUST: SMALL GRANTS PROGRAMME
Grants of between £500 and £5,000 are available for UK listed and unlisted places of worship of any denomination for projects that support interventions to investigate or address small structural problems before they turn into large, expensive repairs.
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o Application deadline: TUESDAY 12th AUGUST 2025 at midnight for the Trust’s Small Grants Programme. The next application deadlines for the Trust’s other grant programmes are provided below.
o Funder: The National Churches Trust (the Trust was established in 2007 to carry on the work of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust (HCPT), which was set up in 1953. Charity number 1119845. Total charitable expenditure for the year ended 31 December 2023: £3,548,241 (2022: £2,924,180)).
o Who can apply: UK listed and unlisted places of worship of any denomination.
o Key words: Capital, Repairs, Investigative Work, Surveys, United Kingdom.
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The National Churches Trust has a number of grant programmes with application deadlines over the next few months, namely (if you click on each of the headings below, it should take you to the relevant grant programme):
1. SMALL GRANTS PROGRAMME (further details below) – grants of up to £5,000 are available for listed and unlisted Christian places of worship of any denomination across the UK for projects and initiatives that support interventions to investigate or address small problems before they turn into large, expensive repairs. The next application deadline is Tuesday 12th August 2025.
2. MEDIUM GRANTS PROGRAMME – grants of up to £10,000 are available for listed and unlisted Christian places of worship of any denomination in the UK to support project development and medium size repairs. The next application deadline is Tuesday 12th August 2025.
3. LARGE GRANTS PROGRAMME – grants of up to £50,000 are available for the conservation and sustainable use of church buildings in the UK. The Large Grants Programme places a focus on larger and more complex projects with priority given to urgent structural repairs and the introduction of kitchens and accessible toilets. The next deadline for Stage 1 applications is midnight on Tuesday 1st July 2025.
4. CHERISH GRANTS – grants of up to £10,000 are available for places of worship in Scotland, Wales and Northwest of England (Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria) for small repairs and maintenance to help keep historic churches and chapels thriving. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 12th August 2025.
The National Churches Trust Small Grants Programme provides grants of between £500 and £5,000 (with capacity to award up to £10,000 where the case for investment and need are demonstrated to be very high, and funds are available to award) towards urgent maintenance works and small repairs identified as high priority within a recent Quinquennial Inspection, Building Survey or Condition Report. The Small Grants Programme can also fund small investigative works and surveys.
Project costs should be up to £20,000 including VAT. Awards will never exceed 50% of the costs. Decisions are made on a rolling basis.
The Trust will consider applications from listed and unlisted Christian places of worship of any denomination across the UK. Please note that applications from Scotland are particularly welcomed.
The Trust lists all 258 churches and chapels supported during the year ended 31st December 2023 on pages 50-53 of its annual accounts.
The application process begins with an Eligibility Quiz. Applicants who are unable to answer ‘yes’ to every question will be deemed ineligible and therefore unable to apply.
The questions include:
o Is yours a Christian place of worship (but not a cathedral) within the UK, and open for at least six services of public worship each year?
o Do you own the building or have the right to carry out the work? If the church is not part of a major denomination then is the denomination registered with Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, or has it got charitable status?
o Was your place of worship built as a place of worship originally and is it more than 30 years old? And are the works to the main building?
o Is the building open to the public for a minimum of 100 days a year beyond worship use?
o Is the project yet to start (we don’t accept applications for projects that have already started)?
o Are required permissions in place? And
o Are two quotes in place for each element of the work in this application?
Further information and details about how to apply to the Small Grants Programme can be found on the Trust’s website.
The programme has regular application rounds. The next deadline is Tuesday 12th August 2025.