Duke Endowment Rural Church Grants

Kristen Richardson-Frick
KRichardson-Frick@tde.org

North Carolina Rural Church Grants provide funding to United Methodist Churches in rural areas for health and human service-related outreach programs, church development, and leadership programs.

The program's strategic priorities include:

• Cultivate and support pastoral leaders
• Reimagine church real estate
• Build congregational capacity
• Identify and test selected programs

Past programs have included:

• Food and hunger
• Literacy
• Affordable and adequate housing
• Prevention and early intervention for at-risk children
• Out-of-home care for youth
• Quality and safety of healthcare
• Access to healthcare
• Prevention
• Academic excellence
• Educational access and success
• Campus and community engagement
• Rural church development
• Clergy leadership
• Congregational outreach

Eligible applicants are United Methodist Churches that serve rural North Carolina communities.

To be considered rural for this opportunity, communities must meet one of the following criteria:

• A population of 1,500 or less
• A rural designation by the Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) code

Awards vary according to the size and scope of the project

Applicants must submit a pre-application through the program website.

The application deadlines are May 10 and October 3. The online application portal opens approximately 6 weeks prior to the deadline.