Funding for maintenance can be difficult to find. In partnership with The Pilgrim Trust, The National Churches Trust are offering maintenance grants to churches who contract work using the MaintenanceBooker service.
In 2020, the Foundation Grants programme is able to award grants of up to £5,000 to projects costing up to £10,000 with a one month assessment period to allow projects to start quickly.
Following a maintenance check of Whitefield Methodist church, an unlisted building built over the past 150 years, Property Secretary Mike Thornton noticed that key areas were in need of repair including slate repairs, re-bedding of stone copings, re-pointing and cast-iron gutter renewal. Mike turned to MaintenanceBooker, submitted his quote request and received five quotations for the work. He states:
Another key factor is that we had confidence in selecting Bullen because we knew that the NCT had identified them as a quality contractor.”
Whitefield Methodist Church also benefited from the NCT’s decision to award larger Foundation Grants in late 2019 to encourage maintenance. As a result, they received a grant of £10,000 in December. Mr Thornton summed up by saying, “Not many funders support maintenance and repair. We are very pleased that the NCT was able to provide a grant which will help greatly towards the costs of this urgent repair works.”
Catherine Townsend, Head of Church Support says “‘We are delighted that, in partnership with the Pilgrim Trust, we are able to support churches, both listed and unlisted, with their proactive and preventative maintenance needs. This funding can be hard for churches to come by and allows us to support the volunteers who look after church buildings to keep their buildings open and in good repair.
As well as foundation grants, The National Churches Trust also supports larger maintenance or repair projects costing up to £100,000 booked through MaintenanceBooker with awards up to £10,000 through the Gateway Grants programme.