PCC News

A new page on the Church of England website aims to help you: www.churchofengland.org/about/environment-and-climatechange/fundraising-for-netzero-carbon

The new resources provide you with advice on possible sources of funding for projects to reduce carbon emissions or improve nature, and gives advice on how to approach those funders in a way most likely to succeed.

A great place to start is to watch the recordings of three recent webinars on environmental fundraising. You can find them on the page above, or by going to YouTube and searching for “Church of England” and then the playlist on “Environmental Fundraising”. (www.DofN.org/EnvironmentalFundraising) Grant funders with lots of experience of environmental projects, or specific environmental programmes, may well ask you for specific figures to support the environmental claims of your project. It can sometimes be challenging to estimate these, so the page gives you some ideas about how to estimate the carbon or nature impact of your project.

You will need to show that you understand climate change issues in your community, in the Church of England and in a global context, whilst remembering that most grant makers who are funding in this area will already have a good understanding of the issues involved; you will not need to explain to the funder what the climate emergency is, or why protecting the environment is a good idea.

Most practically, there are links through to grants directories you can use: the Church of England’s own one, plus others from Ecclesiastical Insurance, National Churches Trust, The Centre for Sustainable Energy, and Community Energy England. It gives you the details you need on funders such as Garfield Weston, Veolia, Biffa, MCS Foundation, Chapman Charitable Trust, the Morrisons Foundation, and far more.