Helpful Resources

Looking for Grants?

Here’s a list (not exhaustive by any means) of resources to get you started!

  • GuideStar – create a profile for your nonprofit so potential funders can look you up; can find information on foundations/potential funders you have identified and view their latest 990 tax filing to see who they are funding and how much; search for local community foundations, etc.
  • Local community foundations – find out what they are funding and if they manage any DAFs that give to the kinds of programs and services you provide. Try searching with your town, city, or county name and “Community Foundation”. You can also search for these on The Grantsmanship Center’s website under Resources – just click on your state, then scroll down to “Community Foundations”.
  • City grants – search “City of (your city) grants”
  • County grants – search “(your county), (your state) grants”
  • FEMA Nonprofit Security Grant, and an article by Christine about the grant and how it applies to churches
  • Your State Administrative Agency (SAA); search for “‘Grants”
  • SAM.gov – search for government grants that may fund programs you offer
  • Direct Pay clean energy benefits for tax-exempt entities Direct Pay: Nonprofits Can Now Benefit from Clean Energy Tax Credits | Article | EESI; another informative article on direct (or “elective” pay) from the Nonprofit Law Blog here. They also list several additional resources.
  • Candid – Their Foundation Directory offers paid subscriptions for searching for grants and funders. A very useful tool is the reverse lookup – you can look up a church or nonprofit in your area that’s similar to yours and see who is funding them. Foundation Directory is not cheap, but you can purchase just one month and do the bulk of your research in that time.
  • Corporations such as WalMart, Bank of America, Carnegie, and Coca-Cola that have foundations for charitable giving
  • Other paid grant databases such as GrantWatch
  • Your denomination or diocese
  • For Wesleyan churches – The Foundation for Evangelism
  • For Indiana congregations – The Center for Congregations annual Resource Grant. They also have some national grants that are not restricted to Indiana.
  • The Brotherhood Mutual Kingdom Advancing grant
  • The Lilly Endowment National Clergy Renewal Program
  • Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Worshiping Communities grant
  • Oldham Little Church Foundation – grants for small churches for a small ($10,000 to $15,000) project in a larger facility construction, repair, or renovation project
  • John C. Lasko Foundation Trust – new church construction (sanctuary portion only)
  • Joni and Friends The Christian Fund for the Disabled matching grant of up to $2500 for churches to start or expand their services to individuals navigating disability

Here are some articles you may find useful:

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