National Churches Trust - Cherish Grants

Aims/priorities: The funding is for listed and unlisted Christian places of worship, of any denomination, to help with the costs of urgent and essential maintenance and repair projects as well as the costs of developing a church building project.

Who can apply? To be eligible, applicants must meet all of the following criteria:

Congregations can be of any Christian denomination and the building can be listed or unlisted.
The building must be a Christian place of worship (but not a cathedral) located within North-West England (Cumbria, Lancashire or Greater Manchester only), Wales, or Scotland.
The building must originally have been constructed as a place of worship and must be at least 30 years old.
The proposed works must be to the main church building or an extension of it.
Applicants must be the owners or have the right to carry out the work. If the church is not part of a main denomination, or registered with Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, it must be a registered charity.
In England and Wales, any place of worship whose annual income exceeds £100,000 must be registered with the Charity Commission. In Scotland, charities must be registered with OSCR and be on the Scottish Charity Register.
Buildings must be open for regular public worship for a minimum of six services per year. Buildings that have been closed to the public must have plans to reopen for regular worship and public access and a congregation waiting to use the building on completion of the works.
Buildings must be open to the public for at least 100 days per year in addition to worship times, or meet this requirement within a year of project completion. Priority will be given to those with regular opening hours.
Repair projects must be led, overseen and supervised by a suitably qualified professional.

Grant amount: Grants of between £500 and £10,000 are available for projects costing between £1,000 and £80,000 (including VAT).

Projects must not have started before the online application is submitted but must be achievable within one year maximum of the grant decision being made.

Application process: The guidance notes, FAQs, and online application form can be found on the National Churches Trust website.

Decisions on all grant applications are made by the National Churches Trust Grants Committee comprised of experts in the church and heritage sectors from across Great Britain. The Committee meets three times a year. Notification of decisions following the Grants Committee meeting.

Contact the Cherish Support Team for further information: