Grants for Churches in Kansas (2026 Guide)

This page is about Kansas; the national grants for churches guide covers the federal rules on what congregations can and can't fund. For programs beyond churches, see federal grants by state, and for congregations on the Missouri side of Kansas City, the Missouri church grants guide.

Foundation Grants to Kansas Churches by the Numbers

Kansas ranks 28th among states, with 1,484 foundation grants to churches and ministries, according to Grantsights analysis of Form 990-PF grant records. That's 1.1% of the 139,417 faith-related grants in the national dataset, and Kansas' 491 funders are 1.5% of the 31,737 foundations nationwide.

More Kansas funders take requests. According to our analysis of the same filings, 181 of Kansas' 491 foundations name an application route, 37%. That's the highest share of any state with 1,000 or more church grants in the dataset. Iowa is next at 31%, and Colorado and Arizona sit at 22%. A Kansas church has better odds with a cold inquiry than a church in most states.

Smaller gifts at the top. Kansas' largest single gift is $1.25 million, and its average of about $21,000 is below the national $24,700. Without a handful of very large gifts pulling the average up, the $5,000 median is a fair guide to what a Kansas foundation typically gives a congregation.

Missouri and Oklahoma give more. According to our analysis, Missouri has 2,925 church grants totaling $90.9 million, nearly three times Kansas' dollars, and Oklahoma has 1,898 totaling $68.2 million. Nebraska, with 1,027 grants, carries a higher $6,000 median. A church near the Missouri line, especially in the Kansas City suburbs, should check funders on both sides.

Missions lead the stated purposes. Purposes are mostly blank, so the buckets undercount, but 90 of Kansas' 1,484 grants named missions, 62 named community work, 47 named schools, 46 named youth, and 39 named building or repair.

You can see how many foundations gave to churches in Kansas for free, with two named and one shown in full. The Grantsights church funder list costs $39 and covers Kansas and every other state. For each Kansas funder it shows the church or ministry grants from the foundation's own IRS filings: amounts, recipients, stated purposes, and a link to the filings. It's one payment, not a subscription, and you can get a refund within 30 days.

Where Kansas Church Grants Go

Four Kansas ZIP areas hold 899 of the state's 1,484 church grants, 61%, according to our analysis of the same filings. That's a lower share than most states, which means small-town Kansas shows up more in this data than rural areas do elsewhere.

Johnson County has the dollars, Wichita the count. According to our analysis, the Overland Park area's 280 grants total $8.4 million, more than Wichita's $5.5 million from 306 grants. Johnson County also has the most funders, 133.

Salina runs on a few funders. Its 155 grants came from just 43 foundations, about 3.6 grants per funder, the deepest relationships in the table. A north central Kansas church should study which of those 43 already give to congregations like it.

Lawrence gives small. Its $2,500 median is half the state's. A Douglas County congregation should plan smaller asks.

The rest of Kansas holds 585 grants. That's 39% of the state outside these four areas, from Garden City to Pittsburg. For a church in western Kansas, local funders in the data are thinner but real, and the Heritage Trust Fund below has paid churches in Ellis, Barton, and McPherson counties.

Working the $39 List in Kansas

The list covers all 491 Kansas foundations above. Three ways to use it here:

1. Start with the 181 that name an application route. In Kansas that's more than a third of funders, so the list of cold-inquiry candidates is unusually long.
2. Use the Missouri side too. A Johnson or Wyandotte County church can also study the foundations that gave to churches on the Missouri side of Kansas City, which the list covers as well.
3. Match the ask to Lawrence or Salina, not Johnson County. A $2,500 to $5,000 request for one defined project fits most Kansas funders.

Before writing to a Kansas funder, the guide to foundations that give grants to churches explains which lines of a 990-PF show whether it takes applications.

What the Kansas Constitution Says About Public Money and Churches

Kansas' constitution protects religious liberty in broad terms but, unlike Colorado's or Arizona's, doesn't name churches as barred recipients of public money. Grantsights read the text on the Kansas Revisor of Statutes' site (opens in a new tab) on November 2, 2026. Section 7 of the Bill of Rights says "The right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience shall never be infringed; nor shall any person be compelled to attend or support any form of worship; nor shall any control of or interference with the rights of conscience be permitted, nor any preference be given by law to any religious establishment or mode of worship."

The only clause that speaks to money directly is in the education article. Article 6, Section 6(c), on the Revisor's site (opens in a new tab), says "No religious sect or sects shall control any part of the public educational funds." That's about school funds, not church buildings.

What happens in practice. The Kansas Historical Society's Heritage Trust Fund, a state program, has funded church buildings in each of its last three rounds, including two $100,000 awards in 2026. Grantsights didn't find a Kansas court decision limiting those grants. The "compelled to support" language is the clause a challenger would cite, so a church should expect preservation money to go to the building's historic fabric rather than worship.

Federal law, the same in every state. Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer (opens in a new tab) (2017) held that a state can't exclude a church from a generally available public grant solely because it's a church. Federal money that Kansas agencies pass through, including NSGP, TEFAP, and EFSP, still bars spending on worship, religious instruction, or proselytizing. A Kansas church can check those limits against its own project in the government grants for churches guide.

Kansas Security Grants for Churches

Kansas' FY2026 target allocation for the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program was $1,852,500, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol's FY2026 NSGP notice (opens in a new tab), posted July 2, 2026. The Highway Patrol is the state administrative agency, and it called the process "very competitive."

The Kansas City split is the common mistake. A Johnson County church that files with the Highway Patrol is in the wrong program; the Kansas City region's urban-area money runs through Missouri, and the Missouri church grants guide covers that side. Every other Kansas county applies to the Highway Patrol.

FEMA's NSGP page (opens in a new tab) lists $300 million nationally for FY2026, split evenly between the urban-area and state tracks, and names places of worship among the groups it serves. Grantsights didn't find a Kansas-funded security program for houses of worship. The FY2026 window is closed, so a church planning for 2027 should subscribe to the Highway Patrol's NSGP announcements in Astra, get a vulnerability assessment, and collect contractor quotes now. The church security grants guide covers the package, and the SAM registration guide explains the unique entity identifier.

Historic Preservation: The Heritage Trust Fund

The Heritage Trust Fund made 13 awards totaling $1,083,215 in its 2026 round, and two of them, $200,000 in all, went to church buildings, according to the Kansas Historical Society's Heritage Trust Fund page (opens in a new tab). Churches have won in each of the last three rounds:

The list shows how far the money reaches: one county in central Kansas, McPherson, won $100,000 for a church in 2026, and Ellis County in western Kansas won the same in 2024.

The rules, from the same page:

• Properties. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places or the Register of Historic Kansas Places. State- and federally owned properties aren't eligible; local governments, private individuals, nonprofits, and for-profits are.
• What it pays. Reimbursement for professional fees and construction costs on projects that preserve or restore historic properties.
• Size and match. Up to $100,000, matched 80/20 by the recipient.
• Competition. The 2025 round funded 11 projects for $912,796 and the 2024 round 15 for $1,213,904. The page calls yearly rounds "highly competitive."
• Timing. Applications for the 2027 round opened September 1, 2026 and were due Monday, November 2, 2026. Past rounds were due November 1, 2023, November 1, 2024, and November 3, 2025, so plan for the first days of November 2027.

A red flag on timing. A church that starts in October is too late; the workshop ran September 15, and a church that isn't listed yet needs a register nomination before it can apply. Start that nomination now for a later round. The 20% match also has to be real money the church can front, since the fund reimburses.

The national round. No Kansas congregation was among the 30 awardees in the National Fund for Sacred Places' October 2026 round (opens in a new tab), which funded 30 of 466 applicants with grants of up to $500,000. The historic churches guide and the church building repair grants guide cover national building funders. The National Park Service says the 20% federal tax credit is available only to properties rehabilitated for income-producing purposes (opens in a new tab), so a worship-only sanctuary doesn't qualify.

Food: TEFAP at 185% and EFSP

Kansas raised its TEFAP household limit from 130% to 185% of the federal poverty guidelines in 2025, according to USDA's April 10, 2025 approval letter in the Department for Children and Families' TEFAP state plan (opens in a new tab). The DCF TEFAP page (opens in a new tab).aspx) lists the current limits, effective March 1, 2026:

What a church pantry needs to know: TEFAP food ships five to six times a year to participating providers, which decide when and how often to distribute. Households must live in Kansas, self-declare, and pick up at only one location in their community. Under the state plan, a participating agency must be public or tax-exempt, serve needy people, and sign an agreement with the state or with another agency that has one, so a church pantry can join through a food bank or another agency that has signed.

EFSP. Kansas' Emergency Food and Shelter Program allocation for Phase 43 (FY2025) totals $987,703 across 31 jurisdictions, according to the EFSP National Board's Phase 43 allocation table (opens in a new tab).

Kansas' State Set-Aside is its single largest line, 21% of the total, and that's good news for rural congregations. A church pantry in a county that doesn't qualify on its own competes for a pool larger than Sedgwick County's. The smallest qualifying counties get little, such as Bourbon County at $4,898. Local boards, usually convened by the United Way, choose recipients. The church food pantry grants guide lists the sign-in, income, and civil rights records a Kansas EFSP board or food bank may ask a church pantry to keep.

Denominational and National Funds in Kansas

Kansas judicatory grants are small and irregular, and the national funds are competitive. Grantsights read each Kansas-relevant funder's page on its own site on November 2, 2026.

Grantsights didn't find a 2026 Alleluia Fund round on the diocese's site, and didn't verify current grant programs of the Great Plains United Methodist Conference, the ELCA's Central States Synod, Kansas' Catholic dioceses, or Kansas community foundations. Many community foundations fund churches only for community programs that don't require religious participation, so read each one's exclusions first.

What Kansas Church Grant Lists Don't Tell You

Most Kansas church grant lists stop at national foundations. Five things they miss:

1. The state preservation fund pays churches. Five church projects won Heritage Trust Fund money in three rounds, up to $100,000 each.
2. Kansas funders are more open. 37% name a way to apply, the highest among large states in the dataset.
3. Kansas City suburbs apply through Missouri. Johnson, Wyandotte, and Leavenworth counties use Missouri's urban-area NSGP.
4. The EFSP set-aside is the biggest pot. $207,337, more than any single county.
5. Small towns appear in the data. 39% of church grants went outside the four metro ZIP areas.

A 90-Day Plan for a Kansas Church

1. This month: register status. If your building is old, find out whether it's on the National Register or the Register of Historic Kansas Places. If not, ask the State Historic Preservation Office about a nomination aimed at a November 2027 Heritage Trust Fund application.
2. Weeks 2 to 6: foundations. Use the funder list to pull the Kansas foundations in your ZIP area that name an application route, and send short inquiry letters for one defined project.
3. Weeks 6 to 10: security. Subscribe to the Highway Patrol's NSGP announcements (or Missouri's, in the Kansas City counties), complete a vulnerability assessment, and get contractor quotes.
4. Weeks 10 to 12: food. If you run a pantry, ask your food bank about TEFAP partner status and your county's EFSP board, or the state set-aside committee, about the next phase.

Not sure which Kansas program fits first? The free eligibility checker matches an organization to open programs, and the church grant path index lists church options by project type. A small Kansas congregation can find the paperwork steps in the grants for small churches guide and how to apply for church grants.

Limits of This Data

Kansas' foundation figures understate the money. The counts cover only filers in the Grantsights dataset, 990-PF filings arrive a year or more after grants are paid, and name matching misses churches recorded under other names. ZIP areas follow the recipient's mailing address, which can be a diocese or ministry office. Grantsights couldn't confirm whether the Heritage Trust Fund applies a religious-use test beyond its published rules, whether Old Runnymede Church still has an active congregation, current denominational grant cycles in Kansas, or the FY2027 NSGP schedule.

Sources Checked

Every Kansas source below was checked on November 2, 2026:

• Kansas Constitution, Bill of Rights Section 7 (opens in a new tab) and Article 6, Section 6 (opens in a new tab), Kansas Revisor of Statutes; Trinity Lutheran (opens in a new tab)
• Kansas Highway Patrol FY2026 NSGP notice (opens in a new tab); FEMA NSGP page (opens in a new tab)
• Kansas Historical Society Heritage Trust Fund (opens in a new tab) program page and 2024 to 2026 award lists; National Park Service tax credit eligibility (opens in a new tab); National Fund for Sacred Places 2026 awards (opens in a new tab)
• Department for Children and Families TEFAP page (opens in a new tab).aspx) and TEFAP state plan (opens in a new tab); EFSP National Board Phase 43 allocations (opens in a new tab)
• Funder pages: Episcopal Diocese of Kansas Alleluia Fund (opens in a new tab), National Trust grants (opens in a new tab)
• Grantsights analysis of Form 990-PF grant records to Kansas recipients, tax years 2021 to 2025, pulled October 29, 2026