Church Admin

Faith in Maintenance Day - 21st August 2026 - Brailsford: All Saints

Keep the date free - more information available soon.

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Funding

Raising funds either loaclly or from external sources (charitable trusts, government funding streams, the National Lottery etc) can be daunting.

If you have a project brief or specification worked up, and are now ready to look in to what funds maybe available, contact Gareth Greenwood, the Church Buildings Support Officer.

From time to time specific trusts or funding streams are drawn to our attention and we will list key ones here. Please do keep in touch with us, we may be able to offer support and help and we would love to hear how you get on, successful or otherwise, so that others can learn from your experience.

This page focuses on funding - if you are looking for wider buildings support information the following links will take you to it:

All things permissions and Diocesan Advisory Committee

Broader advice helpo and signposting regarding managing, maintaining or developing your buildings

Green Grants

There are several grants aimed at making churches greener and helping them to lower emissions and become more efficient.

The first step is to get in touch with Gordon Sephton at:

gordon.sephton@derby.anglican.org

Gordon will talk about what you want to do and help you to decide which grant would be the right one to go for.

A brief overview of the grants available:

Quick Wins

Best for churches which have a relatively immediate opportunity to undertake small decarbonising projects in the range of £3k-£6k.

Give To Go Green

Medium scale projects with costs up to about £20k (though there is some flexibility here) in parishes wanting to grow their fundraising capabilities and confidence. This works well where churches have a good capacity for volunteers and PCC members to commit to a fundraising campaign. Funds raised are then matched, up to £10k, giving a total of £20k.

Decarbonising Churches Grant

Largest scale projects. Supports high emitting churches (over 10 tonnes pa) and those with failing heating systems to plan and deliver major carbon cutting projects. It focuses on improving energy efficiency and moving to electric heating, so that buildings feel warm, welcoming and are fit for the future.

These grants will have different rounds throughout the 2026-2028 period. More details are available here: Net Zero Carbon Programme Grants for Churches | The Church of England

Places of Worship Renewal Fund

Bradbourne All Saints

Places of Worship Renewal Fund is open for business

The Places of Worship Renewal Fund (PWRF) is designed to support the repair of England's treasured places of worship and targeted at places of most need. A total of £92 million has been allocated to the fund over a 4-year period, with £23 million per annum.

If you are thinking about a minor repair or larger capital project and your church building is listed (Grade1, 2 or 2*), then now is the time to put in an expression of interest regarding your project.

The key things to pay attention to are the priorities, objectives, and criteria for the fund, which are clearly explained oin the Historic England site.

In order to support different sizes of project, the fund will be divided into 3 streams. These are: 

£10,000 to £50,000 (small grants) 
£50,001 to £350,000 (medium grants) 
£350,001 to £1,000,000 (large grants)

The deadline for submitting EOIs for the first round of grants is Sunday the 14th June 2026. A second round will follow soon after in September 2026.

Please follow this link for all the relevant details made available by Historic England who are managing the grant on behalf of the Depatment for Culture, Media, and Sport.

If you would like someone to read through your EOI before submission contact Gareth Greenwood, Church Buildings Support Officer

Parish Accessibility Fund

Internal ramp to chancel inside church

The Parish Accessibility Fund offered through the Disability Project aims to help parishes to enhance accessibility and inclusion for those who are Deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent.

Having rolled out this scheme initially to parishes in the Northern Dioceses, we are pleased to now be able to open this welcome grant-funding to parishes in the Province of Canterbury. Parishes will be able to apply for funding for small projects with a grant of up to £5000, or larger works with a grant value of up to £50,000.

Small projects might include ideas such as implementing a new supportive group for disabled people, improving signage and imagery with inclusivity in mind, enabling dementia-friendly church, or perhaps training for staff, volunteers and congregations.

Larger projects could include structural alterations to buildings, installing technology such as a hearing-aid loop, purchasing appropriate seating, redesigning the height of surfaces/information boards, providing large-print resources and so much more.

You should consider 3 key things in order to make a strong application to the fund:

Does our church building have a Completed Accessibility Audit.
Have those with personal experience of disabilities been consulted in designing the project or scheme
Are the main beneficiaries of the project or scheme, those who are disabled and/or neurodivergent

You can read more about Accessibility in church buildings here.

The application form and guidance documents can be accessed and downloaded from the Diasabilities Project Resources page at this link.

For any questions or to find out more, please email the Disability Project Team.

There is also other helpful information and advice available on the Disability Inclusion Page of this website

Common Fund Reports 2026

>> June 2026 [PDF]

>> May 2026 [PDF]

>> April 2026 [PDF]

>> March 2026 [PDF]

>> February 2026 [PDF]

>> January 2026 [PDF]

Clergy wellbeing survey

The survey for 2026 has now closed

All clergy including curates and self-supporting clergy within the diocese were invited to participate in the survey between Tuesday 17 February and Tuesday 24 March.

External Grants & Trusts

Grant Funding Header

Buildings for Mission

The Church Building Support Officer is currently refreshing the content for this page, so keep returning to check out new resources and links to other sites

If you would like to explore the management and or development of the church building for which you are responsible, please contact the Church Building Support Officer at gareth.greenwood@derby.anglican.org

Here is some Guidance from the Diocesan Advisory Committee including links to heritage societies and key funding bodies.

Ready for the next steps on your decarbonisation journey but could do with some advice, contact our recently appointed Church Decarbonisation Officer gordon.sephton@derby.anglican.org

There will be a lot more resources appearing on this page soon, but don't forget to 'use all the brains in the room' - and this private Facebook Group is the perfect, safe space, to dip into the knowledge and experience of many other Wardens, facing the same challenges as you. Simply scan the QR code in the picture below.

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Conservation Grants Programme

The Cathedral & Church Buildings Department’s expanded £5million conservation grants programme is now open for applications at Conservation Grants.

If you have a conservation project in mind relating to bells and bell frames, books and manuscripts, church plate, churchyard structures, clocks, monumental brasses and decorative metalwork, monuments, organs, paintings and wall paintings. stained glass, textiles or wooden objects, you can now include related fabric repairs up to a maximum of £25k.

An example might be a PCC looking to conserve an alabaster sculpture in a niche where there is existing water ingress due to a building defect adversely affecting the area. As part of the application for money to conserve the sculpture, a request for additional monies to rectify that defect can now be considered.

You will be familiar with our conservation grants programme (long funded by The Pilgrim Trust, the Radcliffe Trust and other funders) to support the conservation of special features in church, including bells, clocks, organs, stained glass, wall paintings and monuments. All this remains, with additional funding to help more churches. The expanded programme allows us to make grants towards building repairs of up to £25,000 that are linked to the conservation of an object.

Bids for specialist surveys and help for existing recipients’ conservation projects to reach completion will be considered for funding as well.

For further information, please contact colleagues in CCB via conservationgrants@churchofengland.org

Deadlines

2025

Conservation Reports
rolling deadline - 2 week response time

Monuments, Textiles, Wooden Objects, Books & Manuscripts, Church Plate, Curchyard Sytructures, Monumental Brasses and Decorative Metalwork
13 October 2025 - decision by 28 November 2025

Organs and organ cases
2026 dates to be confirmed