Church Funding Guide

Don't chase these

Church grants that no longer exist (or never did)

Church-funding listicles are some of the stalest on the internet. These programs are dead, renamed, or were never an open application — with the evidence, so you can cross them off.

HHS Compassion Capital Fund

Discontinued

Still cited on 'top grants for churches' posts as federal capacity money for faith-based orgs. It is no longer accepting applications — the program's grant activity ended and its evaluation series closed in 2011.

Verified against HHS TAGGS / ACF program records on

'USDA FNS' as the food-program agency

Renamed

Effective June 1, 2026, USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) became the Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA). Old fns.usda.gov links now redirect to fna.usda.gov. Nearly all existing church-pantry guidance still says 'FNS.'

Verified against USDA FNA — TEFAP on

Lilly 'Thriving Congregations' as an open church grant

Not a grant

Presented on listicles as a grant congregations can apply for. In reality its 2019–2020 grants went to 115 intermediary organizations — it is not a congregation-facing open application.

Verified against Lilly Endowment — Thriving Congregations on

'Government grants to build your church'

Not a grant

No general federal program funds worship-space construction. USDA Community Facilities explicitly excludes the sanctuary (7 CFR 16.3(f)); the one narrow exception is FEMA security hardening of the building as a target.

Verified against 7 CFR Part 16 (eCFR) on

Faith-based grant lists rarely get updated, and a few myths (“free government money to build your church”) never had a basis to begin with. This page corrects the ones we see most.

It’s the heart of The Live-or-Dead Check in our framework: before you chase any program, confirm it’s live on the funder’s own current page — and for federal programs, check the current-year NOFO on Grants.gov, not the agency’s landing page. Even FEMA’s own NSGP page still shows last year’s numbers.

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