Grants for Churches in Georgia (2026 Data and Programs)

This guide is for: pastors, church administrators, safety teams, and pantry volunteers in Georgia who want to know which foundations and state-run programs actually pay Georgia congregations, what the Georgia Constitution bars, and which deadlines are next.

Full answer: Georgia churches rely on private foundations more than in most states, because Georgia's own grant programs mostly exclude them. According to Grantsights analysis of Form 990-PF grant records (mostly tax year 2023, the latest year most foundations have filed), 1,083 foundations reported 1,711 grants to churches and ministries in Georgia, about $40.9 million in all, with a median grant of $5,480. The routes that do accept churches are federal programs run by state agencies: FEMA's Nonprofit Security Grant Program through GEMA/HS, USDA food through the Department of Human Services' food bank network, and the Emergency Food and Shelter Program. The Georgia Heritage Grant, the state's preservation grant, excludes church-owned buildings by name, and the state constitution bars public money "in aid of any church."

Data note: Foundation figures come from Grantsights analysis of Form 990-PF grant records (mostly tax year 2023, the latest year most foundations have filed), as of October 2026. A grant counts when the recipient's name says church, parish, ministry, or congregation, or the stated purpose names a church. Grantsights checked Georgia Attorney General Opinion 2000-5, the Department of Community Affairs' Georgia Heritage Grant page and SFY2027 guide, GEMA/HS's NSGP page and press releases, DFCS TEFAP pages, the EFSP Phase 43 allocation list, and USAspending.gov obligations on October 15, 2026.

Last updated: October 15, 2026.

For the national picture, start with our grants for churches guide. This page covers what's specific to Georgia. For Georgia programs beyond churches, see the Georgia grants guide and Georgia nonprofit grants.

Foundation Grants to Georgia Churches by the Numbers

Georgia churches and ministries received 1,711 foundation grants from 1,083 foundations, according to Grantsights analysis of Form 990-PF grant records. Georgia ranks 10th among states by grant count, and its median of $5,480 is a little above the national median of $5,000.

Georgia has a slightly larger share of big grants than the national pattern: 21% were $25,000 or more. The total includes one gift above $1.2 million, so the median is the better planning number.

Repeat funders. According to our analysis, 789 of the 1,083 foundations (73%) gave to only one recipient in Georgia, and 123 (11%) gave to three or more. A one-church funder is usually tied to one congregation through family or membership, so the 123 multi-church funders are where a cold approach has a chance. (These counts are within Georgia: a foundation that gave to churches in several states is counted once here.)

Metro Atlanta dominates. Atlanta recipients alone got 475 grants, and with Marietta and Alpharetta the metro's three top cities account for 621, about 36% of the state:

A church in south or rural Georgia is competing for a much thinner pool, which makes local funders and denominational funds more important there.

What they paid for. Of the 1,711 Georgia grants, 46 had a purpose that named youth work, 41 named building, repair, or capital work, and only 17 named food, which is low for a state Georgia's size. Most of the rest read as general support or name no purpose. The limits: these figures cover only foundations in the Grantsights dataset, filings arrive a year or more late, and gifts recorded under other names are missed.

You can see how many foundations gave to churches in Georgia for free, with one sample foundation shown in full. Grantsights' $29 church funder list goes further: for Georgia and every other state, it names each foundation that reported grants to churches and ministries on its own IRS Form 990-PF filings, with what it gave, to whom, for what, and links to the filings. It's a single payment with a 30-day refund. Our guide to foundations that give grants to churches shows how to vet a funder before you call.

What the Georgia Constitution Says About Public Money and Churches

Georgia's no-aid clause is short and absolute in its wording. Article I, Section II, Paragraph VII, headed "Separation of church and state," provides that "[n]o money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, cult, or religious denomination or of any sectarian institution," as quoted in Georgia Attorney General Official Opinion 2000-5.

How Georgia has read it. In that May 18, 2000 opinion, the Attorney General concluded the clause barred Department of Education Reading Challenge grants from going directly to churches and other sectarian institutions that ran after-school programs, even if the program content was secular. The opinion cited a 1988 opinion reaching the same result for a county after-school contract, and the Georgia Supreme Court's 1922 decision in Bennett v. City of LaGrange.

What's changed since. Three U.S. Supreme Court decisions limit how a state can use a clause like this to exclude religious applicants from programs open to others: Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer (2017), where Missouri couldn't deny a church preschool a playground grant for being a church; Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020); and Carson v. Makin (2022). Unlike Texas and Florida, where attorneys general have said their no-aid clauses can't be enforced against religious applicants, Grantsights didn't find a Georgia court ruling or attorney general opinion applying those cases to Paragraph VII as of October 15, 2026.

What that means in practice:

1. State-funded Georgia programs may still exclude churches. The Georgia Heritage Grant (below) is a current example.
2. Federal programs run by Georgia agencies follow federal rules. Security grants, TEFAP, and EFSP are federal money. Churches are eligible, and the federal ban is on paying for worship, religious instruction, or proselytization, as our government grants for churches guide explains.
3. A status-based exclusion is a legal question. If a Georgia program open to nonprofits shuts out a church only because it's a church, that's the situation Trinity Lutheran addressed. A church that wants to contest an exclusion should talk to a lawyer; a grant guide can't resolve it.

Georgia Historic Preservation: Why Church Buildings Are Shut Out

The Georgia Heritage Grant is the state's preservation grant, and it excludes church property by name. The Department of Community Affairs' Georgia Heritage Grant page says the current cycle is open August 31 to October 31, 2026, with applications due by 11:59 p.m. on October 31 through NR-TIGERS. The SFY2027 application guide sets the rules:

• Applicants: Georgia local governments and their authorized agencies, or "private, secular 501c3 non-profit organizations."
• Exclusion: "Properties and resources owned or controlled by a church, religious denomination or sectarian institution are not eligible."
• Match: at least 40% of the project cost, according to the program fact sheet.
• Designation: the property must be listed in or eligible for the National and Georgia Registers.
• Money: the program is funded only by historic preservation license plate sales. The fact sheet says awards from 2009 to 2020 totaled $256,539 for 20 projects.

Because "controlled by" is part of the exclusion, a church can't easily route its own sanctuary through a friendly secular nonprofit. A building that a church no longer owns or controls, such as a former church now owned by a city or a historical society, is a different case.

The state tax credit. Georgia's state income tax credit for rehabilitated historic property equals 25% of qualifying rehabilitation expenses, capped at $100,000 for a principal residence and $5 million or $10 million for other properties. It's an income tax credit, so it helps a taxpayer. A church that owes no Georgia income tax should ask the Historic Preservation Division and a tax advisor before counting on it.

For a historic Georgia sanctuary, national funders and the federal 20% credit for income-producing space are the realistic routes. Our church building repair grants guide covers the National Fund for Sacred Places and other national preservation funders.

Georgia Security Grants for Churches: Watch the Window

Georgia runs FEMA's Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) through the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA/HS), and its application windows have moved around. GEMA/HS's NSGP page lists houses of worship among eligible subapplicants and gave these key dates for FY2026: applications opened June 26, 2026 and were due July 15, 2026, a 19-day window, with a projected performance period of September 1, 2026 to August 31, 2029.

The award figures come from GEMA/HS's November 4, 2024 release and September 30, 2025 release. Georgia keeps recipient names confidential "due to high security risks," so unlike Florida, there's no public list showing how many churches won.

What GEMA/HS asks for:

• Three documents: an Investment Justification, a mission statement, and a vulnerability assessment. The page warns that missing any of them in the allotted time forfeits the application.
• Online only: through the Georgia EM Grants Manager system at ga.emgrants.com.
• Two funding streams: NSGP-UA for organizations inside the designated high-risk urban area, and NSGP-S for the rest of the state.
• Up to $200,000 per site and up to three sites, according to the September 2025 release.

The GEMA/HS page mentions gathering proof of tax-exempt status. Churches are exempt without an IRS letter under federal rules, so ask GEMA/HS what it accepts if your church doesn't have a determination letter.

Federal NSGP obligations to Georgia, according to USAspending figures for Assistance Listing 97.008 on USAspending.gov, were $8.6 million in FY2025 and $12.4 million in FY2024. Grantsights didn't find a separate state-funded security grant in Georgia. Our church security grants guide covers scoring and the cost rules.

Food Programs: TEFAP, Food Banks, and EFSP in Georgia

Georgia's Department of Human Services, through the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), runs TEFAP in all 159 counties. DFCS's TEFAP overview says the state provides USDA food to local agencies, and food banks subcontract with pantries and soup kitchens across the state. Pantries and soup kitchens receive commodity foods from their local food bank "for a small handling charge."

Two Georgia specifics:

• The household limit is lower than in some states. DFCS's eligibility page sets take-home eligibility at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, by self-declaration. Florida's limit is 300%. A church pantry's intake form has to use Georgia's number.
• Eight food banks cover the state. Feeding Georgia is the statewide network of eight Feeding America food banks, including the Atlanta Community Food Bank and the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia.

Georgia's TEFAP administrative funds came to $3.5 million in FY2025, according to USAspending figures for Assistance Listing 10.568 on USAspending.gov.

EFSP has an unusually large state set-aside in Georgia. The National Board's Phase 43 (FY2025) allocations gave Georgia $3.09 million in all: awards to 71 local jurisdictions plus $665,195 for the Georgia State Set-Aside Committee. That set-aside is about 22% of the state's total, compared with $98,328 for Florida's. A church pantry in a county without its own award should ask about the Set-Aside Committee. Specifically, the largest local awards went to Atlanta/DeKalb/Fulton ($541,835), Gwinnett ($252,376), Cobb ($202,552), and Chatham ($69,953). Our church food pantry grants guide covers the rules on religious activity in food programs.

A Georgia Community Foundation That Funds Church Programs

Grantsights checked the North Georgia Community Foundation on its own site on October 15, 2026. Its grant programs page says eligible applicants include "a direct service program operated by a church, school, or government entity" with a primary location in one of 18 North Georgia counties: Banks, Barrow, Dawson, Fannin, Forsyth, Franklin, Gilmer, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Lumpkin, Pickens, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Union, and White.

The limits are clear. A church applicant can't use the money for operating expenses; it has to fund a direct service program the church provides, and capital campaigns aren't eligible. The 2026 Community Grant cycle closed August 17, 2026. That eligibility rule is a good model for what to ask other Georgia community foundations: whether a church can apply directly for a community program, or only through a separate nonprofit.

For smaller congregations, our grants for small churches guide covers denominational funds, which are often the most realistic source for a church outside metro Atlanta.

What Georgia Church Grant Lists Don't Tell You

Grantsights compared the state program rules and the 990-PF records against how church grant lists usually describe Georgia, and five gaps stand out.

1. Georgia's preservation grant isn't open to churches. Lists that point Georgia churches to "state historic preservation grants" miss the Heritage Grant's written exclusion of church-owned property.
2. The security window moves. GEMA/HS ran windows in October to November 2025 and June to July 2026. A church that waits for a fixed season will miss one. Sign up for GEMA/HS notices and prepare the assessment now.
3. Nobody can see who won. Georgia keeps NSGP recipients confidential, so a church can't learn from past winners the way it can in Florida. Ask GEMA/HS about past scoring and attend its outreach sessions.
4. Foundation money is concentrated in metro Atlanta. 36% of Georgia church grants went to Atlanta, Marietta, and Alpharetta. A common mistake for a rural church is chasing Atlanta funders that have never given outside the metro.
5. Food grants from foundations are rare. Only 17 Georgia grants named food. For a pantry, TEFAP and EFSP are the dependable routes, and foundation money is a supplement.

A 90-Day Plan for a Georgia Church

1. Weeks 1 to 2: Create a Georgia EM Grants Manager account and get a Unique Entity ID through SAM.gov so the church is ready when GEMA/HS posts the next NSGP window.
2. Weeks 2 to 6: Complete a site vulnerability assessment and draft the Investment Justification and mission statement.
3. Weeks 3 to 8: Call the food bank that serves your county about partner agency status, and ask your local United Way, or the Georgia State Set-Aside Committee if your county has no award, about EFSP.
4. Weeks 4 to 10: If the building is historic, look at national preservation funders such as the National Fund for Sacred Places rather than the Heritage Grant.
5. Weeks 6 to 12: List the foundations that gave to several churches in your area, and check whether your community foundation lets churches apply for a community program.

Use the free eligibility checker to see which open grants fit your congregation, and the church grant path index to compare routes by need. Churches in neighboring states can compare Florida church grants and Texas church grants.

Sources Checked

All sources were checked on October 15, 2026:

• Georgia Attorney General Official Opinion 2000-5 (May 18, 2000), quoting the Georgia Constitution's separation of church and state paragraph
• Georgia Department of Community Affairs: Georgia Heritage Grant, SFY2027 application guide, program fact sheet, and state income tax credit program
• GEMA/HS: Nonprofit Security Grant Program, November 4, 2024 release, and September 30, 2025 release
• Georgia DFCS: TEFAP overview and TEFAP eligibility; Feeding Georgia
• EFSP Phase 43 (FY2025) allocations
• USAspending.gov obligations by recipient state for Assistance Listings 97.008 (FY2024, FY2025) and 10.568 (FY2025)
• U.S. Supreme Court: Trinity Lutheran, Espinoza, Carson
• North Georgia Community Foundation grant programs
• Grantsights analysis of Form 990-PF grant records, as of October 2026