The Diocese Wants to Fund Your Great Ideas!
Small Grants Available for New Parish and Mission Initiatives
Applications are now being accepted for the Diocese of Easton’s Church Initiatives Grant Program. Grants are available exclusively for parishes and mission churches in the Diocese of Easton who undertake innovative programs and projects. The grant program is funded by investment returns from the St. Stephen’s Endowment Fund which was created with proceeds from the sale of St. Stephen’s Church, East New Market. That “thinking outside the box” decision in 2008 has become a valuable resource for funding 15 years of new ministries and continues to benefit parishes across the diocese.
Recent grants have funded the following innovations:
- Creation of an English language tutoring program to help Trinity Cathedral’s neighboring Hispanic community cross cultures well.
- Transformation of farmland to a community garden site to benefit local families – a joint project of Shrewsbury Parish and La Sagrada Familia de Jesus.
- Development of a lean protein by St. Paul’s, Trappe that blossomed into a region wide ministry that connects local hunters with hungry families in Dorchester and Talbot Counties.
- Formation of a parish and community network by St. Mary Anne’s – Northeast to support music students (ages 5-18) with instruments and lessons by professional instructors through a church-related platform.
As much as $15,000 is available to support new initiatives in 2024. The Church Initiatives Grants Committee is accepting grant applications now through Wednesday, January 31, 2024. Grant recipients will be announced at the Diocesan Convention with grants awarded in March 2024.
Churches may download the instructions and application as either a printable version or a fill-able-form, or they may request an application from the Diocesan office.