ELCA Church Ministry Grants
ELCA’s Impact Church Ministry grants support efforts in the United States and U.S. territories to build more vibrant church communities with love, compassion and faith.
Fund Your Passion
The ELCA’s Impact Church Ministry Grant program brings the power of God’s grace to your community by funding outreach program development, investments in innovation, expansion of youth ministries and other initiatives that praise Christ’s Spirit. Explore the options to bring your ideas to life.
Eligibility requirements and funding vary by grant, but we make it easy for women in ministry, directors for evangelical mission, members of the Congregations Lead Initiative Cohort and others to find the program that will serve their community the best and guide them through the application process.
Inspiring devotion to the church and praise of Christ’s good works is a mission we want to help nourish. Our grants are here to help you answer your calling to shine a brighter light on God’s boundless love in your community and amplify the voices carrying Lutheran teachings to the world.
Available Grants
The ELCA Innovation Lab assists in the implementation of user-centered experiments by providing monetary support for congregations, synods or other organizations that have worked with the ELCA Innovation Lab to define, prototype, test and evaluate their innovative project ideas. Applications for the innovation grants are currently available on an invitation-only basis to members of the current Congregations Lead Initiative Cohort.
Applications are accepted year-round to obtain grants for evangelism initiatives, congregational outreach ministry (COM), synod-authorized outreach ministry (SAOM), synod-authorized worshiping community (SAWC)/SAWC exploration, strategic ministries, synod vitality strategies, anchor churches and holy innovations. Among them, evangelism initiative grants advance evangelism efforts through congregations and synods and COM grants are congregation-based and center on sharing the good news of Jesus.
These small grants support incremental steps toward positive change for women in ministry. Pop-up grants are short-term, collaborative and designed to empower women in ministry to initiate change within their synod.
The Total Inclusion program’s grants are awarded to overnight youth camps to boost the understanding of and commitment to inclusion of historically marginalized groups, including people of color, people who identify as LGBTQIA+ and people living with disabilities.
The ELCA’s Young Adult Ministry awards community resource grants to organizations whose mission serves to connect young adults (ages 18-35) from a defined region for in-person gatherings centered on community, justice and love. There are also plans to develop a sustainable forward-thinking platform for community building and engagement of young adults. Eligible applicants submit proposals for projects.
Strengthening Ministries Through Faithful Giving
Awarded $20,000 in grants in 2023 to recruit, train and deploy leaders to engage in faith formation with and for children.
Awarded $50,000 in total grants for 2024, with individual grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.
The ELCA allocated $33,000 in Strategy Toward Authentic Diversity seed grants to support diversity, equity and inclusion.