Funding Guidelines

How To Submit Proposals

A letter should be submitted that briefly and concisely describes the purpose for which the grant is sought, including benefit to the church; a statement of the aims and background of the applicant organization; the project’s time frame and anticipated results; and methods for evaluation and dissemination of results. These documents should be attached to the letter:

• An expense and income budget for conduct of the program;
• Financial statements for the previous year, including sources of income and most recent audit;
• Description of a viable plan for financing the program’s continuation;
• List of the applicant organization’s Board of Directors.

Evaluation of projects or programs can occur during a project, as well as at the end of a grant period. Evaluation procedures should be formulated as initial planning is being done. These are useful questions to be asked in making evaluation procedures an integral part of program design:

• What are the general, long-term goals of the proposed project, program or organization?
• Within these goals, what are the short-term, measurable objectives against which results will be compared at the end of the grant period?
• To achieve these goals and objectives, what specific activities are planned?
• What data collection procedures are there?
• How will results/learnings be disseminated?
• What mechanism is there to reevaluate project objectives if circumstances change?

The Trinity Grants Board will not entertain proposals for the following:

• Support for programs that do not have the active involvement and participation of an Anglican/Episcopal Church jurisdiction;
• Scholarships for study, or assistance to individuals;
• Purchase of land, construction or renovation of buildings;
• Establishment of endowment funds;
• General operating expenses of established organizations (except through specific program/budget);
• Funding of deficits;
• Operation of neighborhood service facilities such as preschools, day-care and community centers, orphanages, shelters;
• Feeding programs, emergency relief, or disaster response (except in the case of an invited proposal or special initiative);
• Arts and cultural programs; and
• Repetition of “onetime” grants

• We only consider funding programs that have been running for at least one year.
• We do not fund more than half the program budget.
• We do not fund grants to organizations that have previously received a Trinity spiritual formation grant. Our intention is to support a wide spectrum of spiritual formation programs throughout the United States in order to generate increasing numbers of high-quality programs in spirituality.

Application Deadlines

Trinity Grants staff continuously review proposals. Approximately eight weeks before a scheduled Grants Board meeting, staff decides which funding requests will be recommended for approval. Because it may take six months or more to review a proposal, applicants are urged to submit requests well ahead of time.

The Grants Board considers new proposals in February, May, and November.

Applicants whose proposals cannot be funded are notified soon after that decision is made. The Vestry of Trinity Parish ratifies all Board decisions. Notices of awards are sent by the middle of the month following a Board meeting.

All materials are promptly acknowledged upon receipt.

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