Leadership and Ministry Grants

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Duke Endowment

By developing rural United Methodist churches and supporting their clergy leaders, we aim to expand church outreach across North Carolina. We work collaboratively with the North Carolina and Western North Carolina conferences of the United Methodist Church and Duke Divinity School to help rural churches serve their neighbors.

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Excellence in Clergy Leadership Scholarship
Offered through the Office of Loans and Scholarships at the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM), this scholarship was created to help United Methodist clergy avoid excessive educational loan debt, minimize financial stress and build financial acumen.  In 2017, more than $1.66 million was awarded to 206 scholarship recipients.  The scholarship is designed for full-time Master of Divinity students attending one of the 13 United Methodist seminaries / schools of theology, and is based on merit, leadership capacity, and financial need.  All seminary students are encouraged to apply.  Scholarship applications will be open between January 3 and March 1 of each year.

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Technical Assistance - Institute for Rural Vitality

The Institute for Rural Vitality at SUNY Cobleskill has a clear mission that encompasses a broad range of initiatives and activities: to engage the substantial resources of SUNY

Cobleskill in collaboration with regional partners to enhance community and economic vitality in rural New York.

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Duke's Reflective Ministry Grant

The Reflective Leadership Grant program offers lay and ordained Christian leaders up to $15,000 to step away from their current work to reflect on accomplishments, broaden perspectives, and discern next steps. 

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The Reynolds Foundation, housed in the WNC United Methodist Foundation

The Foundation is blessed to be in the ministry of making grants to churches and church related institutions who are carrying out the mission of the United Methodist Church. We have two available funding pools for grants, The Reynolds Ministries Fund and the UMF Ministry Fund.

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Louisville Institute in Pastoral Leadership

The Pastoral Study Project (PSP) awards pastoral leaders up to $15,000 to pursue a pressing question related to Christian life, faith, and ministry. Grants are available for study projects involving full or partial leave from job responsibilities.

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Louisville Institute: Sabbatical Projects

The Sabbatical Grant for Researchers (SGR) offers grants up to $40,000 to assist research and writing projects that will advance religious and theological scholarship in ways that also address practical issues concerning Christian faith and life, pastoral leadership, and/or religious institutions. Typically, applicants are fully employed in accredited academic institutions and eligible for up to a full academic year leave from teaching and administrative responsibilities. 

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Lilly Clergy Renewal Grants

The Lilly Endowment National Clergy Renewal Program at Christian Theological Seminary (CTS) seeks to strengthen Christian congregations by providing opportunities for pastors to step away briefly from the persistent obligations of daily parish life and to engage in a period of renewal and reflection. Renewal periods are not vacations, but times for intentional exploration and reflection, for regaining the enthusiasm and creativity for ministry, for discovering what will make the pastor's heart sing. 

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Lilly Thriving Congregation Grants

Thriving in Ministry seeks to help pastors develop meaningful relationships with wise colleagues who can help guide them through key leadership challenges, especially during transitions in their ministerial careers. The initiative builds upon recent studies that have examined the importance of colleagues and mentors who help pastors face and overcome common professional challenges.

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Wabash Foundation

The Wabash Center provides funds for activities that enhance teaching and learning in the fields of religious and theological studies as taught in colleges, universities, and theological schools. We fund projects that focus on at least one of three areas: improving teaching and learning practices encouraging research and study of pedagogical issues nurturing supportive teaching moments. 

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USDA Funds

AMS is helping communities scale up local and regional food systems and strengthen their economies. Whether you are an individual farmer looking to extend your growing season, a cooperative of growers looking to rebuild a food hub, a farmer's market that wants to accept SNAP benefits, a school that needs cold storage to store locally procured meant, or anyone in between, we can help you identify funding opportunities to support your local food efforts based on where you are in the supply chain.

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Wesley CDC

Wesley works with churches to rethink how existing church-owned real estate that is not being fully used can be deployed to meet community needs. Wesley has also worked with local churches to develop more than 80 single-family homes, 50 apartments for families and individuals, and 150 apartments designed specifically for seniors to age in place. 

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NC Council of Churches Mental Health Grants

We are excited to partner with congregations across the state to engage our faith communities and larger communities in living happier, healthier, more abundant lives. We have proudly done this for years through our PHW Collaborative program and PHW Mini-Grant program. The congregations that have participated have done and are doing amazing work. We want to recognize depth and sustainability, and the good work that congregations of all sizes are doing not only to promote health, but to live it out in their communities. 

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North Carolina Conference Grant Sources

Here's a link to a page that our friends at the North Carolina Conference have put together with information on grant sources. Feel free to take a look to see whether they might apply to you and your ministry idea. 

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Board of Higher Education and Ministry - Young Clergy Initiative Grants

The Young Clergy Initiative is a $7 million fund created by General Conference in 2012 and 2016 that is charged with increasing the number of young clergy within jurisdictional conference of The United Methodist Church by encouraging opportunities that leverage for denominational change on systemic and cultural levels through various conversations, events, experiments, resources, research, and training. The YCI invites grant requests that assist young people to listen for, discern, and respond well to God's call to ordained ministry.

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Environmental Stewardship

The Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation will award up to $1.5 million through a competitive Environmental Education and Stewardship grants program. Eligible organizations include nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations and public and private K-12

schools in communities served by Dominion Energy companies (see Geographical Eligibility below.) The Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation considers grant requests up to $25,000 that focus on specific, short-term projects that promise measurable

results to improve the environment, and K-12 requests up to $5,000

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Partners in Health and Wholeness Mini-Grants
Partners in Health and Wholeness (PHW), an initiative of the North Carolina Council of Churches that aims to connect health as a faith issue, offers mini-grants to support the congregation’s health ministry.

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Ethnic Local Church and Diversity Grants

 

Ethnic Local Church Grants
Offered by the UMC General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), these grants will strengthen ethnic local churches through education, public policy, advocacy, or leadership training and development as they engage

in social justice ministries.

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Racial Ethnic Local Church Concerns (RELCC) Grants
Offered by the UMC Discipleship Ministries, these grants provide funding to strengthen the ethnic local church through leadership training, small groups, worship, stewardship and spiritual formation.  Priority is given to new programs/ministries that move churches to places where disciples are formed and grow.

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CORR Action Fund Grants
The CORR Action Fund (CAF) grant program is established by the General Conference of The UMC for the empowerment of diversity, inclusion and racial justice work within and outside the Church.  Rhems UMC in New Bern was one of seven United Methodist groups that received nearly $98,000 in grants in 2013.

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Comprehensive Plan of Inclusiveness (CPI) Grants
The project must relate to the Comprehensive Plan of Inclusiveness (CPI) and must be developed by one or more United Methodist local church(es) with priority given to ethnic churches.  The project must address one or more chronic social problems or concerns that impact United Methodist ethnic local churches or ethnic persons.  Priority is given to new and pilot projects.  Funding is offered by the NC Annual Conference.

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