Church grants

Church Access Fund Guidelines

The Church Access Project was a Cloudesley initiative run in partnership with Islington Deanery and the Diocese of London. 

The project ran from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2025. As part of the project, eligible Church of England churches within the London Borough of Islington were invited to apply for a grant from the Church Access Fund.

Eligible churches could apply for a Church Access Fund grant of up to £10,000 towards projects that improve access to church buildings and church worship activities. To apply, a church must have first undertaken an Access Audit on their church building, whether funded by Cloudesley and delivered by the Centre for Accessible Environments (CAE), or undertaken separately by an appropriate professional in the last five years.

Criteria

• The Church has completed an Access Audit, either funded by Cloudesley or undertaken separately in the last five years
• The project is focused on improving access to church buildings and church activities, preferably as recommended by the audit
• The project falls within Cloudesley’s Church Object to make ‘grants towards the upkeep and repair of the fabric of, and the maintenance of the services in, any churches of the Church of England in the London Borough of Islington’
• Any other funding needed for the project has been secured
• The project is due to start imminently
• The project and grant application have been approved by the PCC
• A quote for the work has been provided

Grant size and duration

Applicant organisations could apply for a grant of up to £10,000 which must be spent within 12 months of the award date.

Application time period

This fund is now closed. Once an application is submitted, assuming all the necessary information has been received, we will aim to notify you of our decision in three weeks.

Number of grants

This was a non-competitive process so all churches were able to access one grant each if the project fits the eligibility criteria. Churches could not apply for more than one grant under this programme, although a grant could be for more than one item or project up to a total of £10,000.

Monitoring

Cloudesley is keen to understand the impact of its funding and to learn from the grants that it makes. To help with this, churches are asked to provide a brief report to the charity once a funded project/works have been completed. Within six weeks of completing a funded project/work, please email Cloudesley with a brief written report and a photograph. Your report should include:

1. A brief summary of the purpose of the award
2. The amount of the award and the final total cost of the works/project, with details of other funding sources
3. A brief assessment of whether the work that was funded achieved what it aimed to do
4. An indication of the impact and effectiveness of the work/project, as known by the date of submission
5. Any broader learning points from carrying out the works/project (e.g. key points that you have learnt that you might want to share with other churches)

You can use Cloudesley’s Church Grants Monitoring Report Form, which will be provided to you, or if you have already prepared a similar report for the Diocese or another funder for this work which covers the above points, you are very welcome to submit that to us instead.

Further guidance for applicants

• It is anticipated that this Fund will be used for smaller projects, or feasibility for larger projects, so that a grant of £10,000 would cover the majority of the costs. If you have a larger project, please apply to the main Church Grants programme through the usual Spring and Autumn grant rounds.
• The purpose of the Fund is to enable churches to take forward some of the recommendations from the Access Audit. As such, we expect that the projects will directly relate to the Audit recommendations. If you would like to apply for an access project that is not recommended in the Audit, please speak to your Grants Manager before applying. This may still be possible, but we will need to understand why you are prioritising the project over the Audit recommendations, and why it did not feature in the Audit. The Grants Manager will then be able to advise whether it is likely to receive funding or not ahead of an application.

Accessibility

If you require this information in a different format, please contact [email protected] or phone 020 7832 5805.

Contact us

Church Access Fund application form questions