Faith Based Grants
Faith based grants for churches is a great way a congregation can supplement their funding in order to keep up with the programs and services it provides to the members and public. Towns around the country depend on churches to help with numerous social issues affecting the community in which they are based. Churches are a source of social services that a community, especially in a depressed area, cannot do without. Many of these congregations take care of the homeless, run food pantries, soup kitchens, and collect money for the poor.
Trying to keep up with the demand for all this is not easy for churches and they can to be pushed to the budget limit when trying to run the church but still be able to keep up with the social services it offers. The economy has increased the demand for assistance and services from those who are in need; however these churches often lack the funding to provide this additional assistance. Churches that have their non- profit status can apply for faith based grants which would give them the funding needed to operate their traditional services and provide additional assistance to individuals in need.
If the church decides to look into church grants as a way to supplement their funding it must be registered as a 501 (c) (3) by the IRS that declares an entity as a charitable organization. Once registered the church has to decide what projects and services they would like the nonprofit grant to fund, then start searching the internet for faith-based grants for those specific areas of need.
The best place to start the search for federal government nonprofit grants is Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) on the web at https://www.cfda.gov Foundations and organizations can be researched on the web to see if they have nonprofit grants that match a program or service that the church is providing. Once grants are found the church can complete the grant application process to try and get the grant award. It may be a long overwhelming process but the time is worth it if the church is awarded the nonprofit grant.
