Church Grants Review 2025

During 2025, Cloudesley undertook a review of the Church Grants programme to determine a new funding framework and priorities for the period 2026-2030.

What we did

Cloudesley  convened a Church Grants Review Group to oversee the process. This included representatives from eligible churches alongside Trustees and Grants Committee members. To inform the review, we carried out a consultation with funded organisations and undertook research, to gain a better understanding of church needs and gather views on the charity’s existing Church Grants programme and grantmaking practice. This involved the following:

  • A survey of the 27 eligible Islington churches – respondents were asked about their experience of Cloudesley, their views on Cloudesley’s current funding priorities and processes, the non-financial support offered, the challenges facing their churches and their building work priorities for the next five years.
  • Two focus group meetings were held with representatives from the churches. The groups were asked about the current challenges and needs of the church, their thoughts on what Cloudesley’s funding priorities should be, and the two recent special projects – the Church Access Fund and the Sustainable Church Buildings Project.
  • Consultation with other funders and stakeholders including Historic England, the Diocese of London, Benefact Trust, and the National Churches Trust.
  • Analysis of funding during the 2020-2025 Grants Programme including average grant size, how grants are used and typical duration of projects
  • Research on the eligible churches, the wider funding landscape, and issues and policy changes affecting the churches

What we found

Churches have been generally positive about their experience of Cloudesley, and our existing processes and priorities. When asked about challenges, three common themes emerged – lack of funds, lack of capacity and building issues. Other challenges identified included the changes to the Listed Places of Worship Scheme (the Scheme has since ended), the need for sustainable heating solutions due to Faculty changes, and the age of most Islington churches. There are limited options for alternative funding due to the high competition levels on a national scale. The most common priority for churches was general maintenance.

What we decided

Details of the Church Grants Programme 2026-30 can be found here. As a result of the review, we implemented the following:

Grant size

  • Maintain the current grant size of £5,000 – £65,000
  • Introduce a minimum cap of £20,000 for the Major works and buildings projects category
  • Increase the upper cap on all other categories to £40,000

Criteria

  • Prioritise applications that:
    • address problems that could result in deterioration or disruption if not addressed; or
    • involve the upkeep and repair of the fabric of the building.
  • Enforce the existing requirement for churches to contribute some funds to the project. Ensure that communication makes this clear.
  • Introduce guidance that churches applying for multiple grants across different rounds for the same project should demonstrate that they have made efforts to secure funding from other sources in the interim.
  • Remove the requirement for team parishes to prioritise applications
  • Increase the threshold for requiring only one quote from £10,000 to £15,000, to reflect the increased costs of construction work.

Funding areas

  • Rename Funding priorities as Funding areas
  • Move facilities and equipment from the Major works category to the Preventative works and simple repairs category, now known as “Preventative works, simple repairs and facilities”.
  • Move organ repairs to the Major Works category

Type of grant

  • Continue offering top-up grants within the programme
  • Conclusions on multi-church applications were as follows:
    • that a two-stage process is implemented, with churches required to speak to the Grants Manager in the first instance, who would then invite them to submit an application should the proposal be likely to receive support.
    • multi-church grants could be used for project-based or temporary staff, but not usually permanent staff members. Funding for additional, ringfenced hours for existing staff members could be considered for funding depending on the circumstances

Grant period

  • Increase the initial grant period for grants from the Main Church Grants Fund to 18 months from 12 months.
  • Reduce the grant period for Urgent Grants from 12 months to six months, in recognition that the grants are designed to enable immediate repairs.

Process

  • Discontinue the Church Information Sheet
  • Raise accessibility and environmental considerations during the assessment stage if it is relevant to the particular application.
  • Simplify the Guidance document and split it into two – the Church Guidance document and a new “Managing Your Grant” document.
  • Add conditions stating that it is expected that the grant will only be accepted if, to the best of the signatories’ knowledge, the building is expected to remain in use and the equipment would be used for at least five years or until it ceased to work.