Guidance Notes

Introduction

Project Grants are given in order to encourage and enable churches in our region to respond to the needs of their community as part of their ongoing work and mission. They are one-off grants for new projects, new initiatives within existing projects or to meet one-off costs associated with ongoing work. These projects must have a mission focus, in that their main aim should be to benefit people from the community which the church is seeking to serve.

Whilst any project will be considered, priority will be given to those which fall into one of the following categories:

• Innovative and creative evangelistic initiatives which will involve working with those who cannot yet be considered as disciples of Jesus Christ and/or enabling people to make a free and informed response to the invitation to faith and repentance.
• Initiatives which are intended to help alleviate poverty or the effects of poverty. Where groups are excluded from resources or deprived of certain facilities, they may be regarded as poor for the purposes of these grants

These grants are not for:

• Building projects – unless the grant application is for a clearly defined aspect of that project that links with the church’s mission strategy.
• Projects where a grant of £3,000 is not going to make any significant difference
• Projects which churches are clearly able to fund themselves.
• Projects which are not linked with a church’s ongoing mission strategy.

Applications for Mission Project grants will be considered regularly during the year and the maximum amount payable for any one project is £3,000.

After completing and submitting the application form, we will arrange for someone to come and meet with you to discuss both the project and the application.

Please note that

• Any funds that remain unspent six months after they have been given to the church should be repaid (subject to negotiation) so that the money can be used elsewhere.
• The church will be asked to provide a progress report approximately six months after the grant has been paid.
• We cannot guarantee that a Project Grant will be awarded after application and a visit by a SEBA representative. Much will depend on the financial situation of the Association.

 Completing the Form 

1. The church
   The church that makes the application must be in membership with SEBA and the Baptist Union of Great Britain.
   
    
2. The Project
   The ‘Brief Description of project’ should only be one or two sentences.
   
   The decision to apply for a SEBA Project Grant should be made by a Deacons’ Meeting (or equivalent) and a Church Members’ Meeting and we will need you to state when these decisions were made.
   
   The rest of this section is for you to tell us about the project.  Helpful information will include the nature of the project, its aims and objectives, the number/type of people who will be contacted and/or helped, how you plan to measure the success of the project and anything else that you think is relevant and will be helpful to those assessing the application.
   
   You will also need to explain how it fits into your church’s mission strategy.
   
   Please note that we will only support projects that are part of a church’s ongoing mission strategy.
    
3. The Costs
   3.1 Please itemise the anticipated costs of the project
   Note that the maximum amount you can apply for is currently £3,000
   It is important that the church can demonstrate that they have or can obtain* the resources necessary to fund any start-up costs not covered by this grant.
   
   3.2 If the project is of an ongoing nature, it is important that the church can demonstrate that they can obtain* the resources necessary to fund the continuing running costs of the project.
   
   3.3 Since we only have a limited amount of funds available we want to ensure that grants are only given to those churches where it is most needed. This means we are unlikely to fund projects where the church’s accounts show they have the necessary resources to fund the project themselves. This section gives you the opportunity to explain why, if this is the case, your application should still be considered.
   
   3.4 Normally grants are given as soon as they have been agreed. However, if it would be more appropriate for your grant to be paid at a later date, please indicate. If you are unsure at the time of application then a date can be negotiated once the grant has been agreed.
   
   3.5 The expectation is that all churches who receive a grant from Home Mission should be contributing to the wider Baptist family through Home Mission. Some church accounts do not specify how much has been given to Home Mission so we are asking for this information to be given here as well as an indication of how much the church expects to be giving in the current financial year.
   
   * e.g. grants from other organisations, funds raised by the church, government funding.
   
   Please note that the application form should be signed by both the person named on the front page and the Minister or a church officer - Secretary or Treasurer. (If the applicant is one of these people then they should just sign twice!)
    
4. Further Information
   The first two documents on the list are essential (i.e. a copy of the church’s current mission strategy and a copy of the church’s most recent annual accounts - plus a copy, if appropriate, of the project’s most recent annual accounts). Your application may be returned to you if they are not included.

Once the application form has been completed it should be sent (along with all relevant additional paperwork) to the Association.

If the form has been completed electronically it can be e-mailed to the Association. However we will also require a hard copy of section 3 with two signatures.

If you have any queries please contact David Sheldon.