Grants for Churches in Vermont (2026 Guide)

This page covers Vermont only. The national picture is in our grants for churches guide, and programs open to other Vermont nonprofits are in the Vermont grants guide. Churches near the state lines can compare the New Hampshire church grants guide, the Massachusetts church grants guide, and the New York church grants guide.

Vermont Church Grants by the Numbers

Vermont ranks 41st among the 50 states by church grant count. Without the excluded Plymouth recipient, it has 484 grants from 157 foundations to 224 different recipients, totaling $4,288,782, according to Grantsights analysis of the filings.

The share rows come from the full recount, which includes the five excluded grants; removing them barely moves any percentage.

Why five grants are set aside. Counted in full, the filings show 489 grants and $6,939,657. The difference is five grants totaling $2,650,875, 38% of Vermont's church dollars, paid by two foundations in tax years 2023 to 2025 to a single Plymouth organization. It's incorporated with "church" in its name, but its stated mission is an ecological philosophy, and Grantsights couldn't match it to a worshipping congregation when it searched on November 8, 2026. Leading with $6,939,657 instead of $4,288,782 would inflate what Vermont congregations received by 62%, so this page uses the smaller total.

Small gifts, few open doors. Vermont has the most church grants of the nine smallest church-grant states Grantsights compared this month, but the lowest route share among them. Just 25 foundations in the full count name an application route; 84% say they give only to preselected organizations. That's a red flag for any plan built on mass mailings. In the same group, Delaware's share is 28.2%, as the Delaware church grants guide shows.

A few repeat givers, mostly loyal ones. Just 31% of Vermont's funders gave to two or more different recipients in the state, against 49% nationally, and only 11% gave to three or more, while 66% funded the same recipient in two or more tax years. That's the profile of family foundations backing one home congregation, and a cold letter to all 157 would mostly reach people who've already chosen their church.

Who the recipients are. By name, Catholic parishes lead (123 grants), followed by Congregational churches (97), Methodist (47), Episcopal (33), and Baptist (27). Purpose lines are often blank or generic, so keyword counts are floors: 31 grants mention community work, 22 building or repair, 10 missions, and 6 prison ministry.

A free preview lets you see which foundations gave to churches in Vermont; its counts can differ slightly from this page's because it reads a different pull.

Where the Money Lands: Saint Albans, Rutland, Burlington, and Barre

The 12 busiest recipient cities account for 209 of the 484 grants, 43%, and the rest are spread across 107 cities and towns in all. Cities below are mailing addresses on the filings, not ZIP areas.

Burlington is the best bet for an unsolicited proposal. Only 23 grants land there, but 5 of its 12 funders publish a route, the best ratio of any busy Vermont city. Essex Junction, next door, adds 3 more funders with a route.

Rutland's total is one church's story. Two unrestricted gifts to a Rutland United Church of Christ congregation in tax year 2024, $202,129 and $177,435, make up about 57% of the city's $664,853. Rutland's $2,539 median is the figure a neighboring parish should plan with.

Saint Albans and Barre run on small, steady checks. Saint Albans has the most grants in the state, 34 from 10 funders, at a $2,566 median, and Barre's 23 grants have a $2,000 median. Peru's 10 grants have a $500 median. In much of Vermont, a four-figure request is the norm, not the floor.

Brattleboro and Poultney are closed shops. Neither city has a single funder that publishes a route, and Poultney's 11 grants came from just 2 foundations. A church there should treat those funders as relationships to earn, not addresses to mail.

The largest single gifts outside Rutland went to a Groton Methodist church ($126,820, tax year 2024) and a Catholic parish in Alburgh ($100,000, tax year 2024). Both purpose lines are generic, "charity" and "general," which says little about what a new applicant could win.

Working the Funder List in Vermont

With only 25 Vermont church funders naming a route, the Grantsights church funder list is most useful for ruling foundations out. It covers every state and shows each foundation's church and ministry grants from its own 990-PF (amount, recipient, year, purpose, filing link) and whether the filing says it takes requests, for one payment, no subscription, with a refund within 30 days. In Vermont:

1. Start with the 25. Sort to foundations whose filings describe how to apply. That short list is Vermont's open market.
2. Look for spread. Of those, favor funders whose past Vermont grants went to more than one congregation. A foundation that has funded three different parishes is a far better prospect than one that wrote ten checks to the same church.
3. Match the line item and the size. Pick funders whose past purpose lines mention your kind of project, and if their Vermont gifts cluster around $2,500, don't ask for $25,000.

Writing to every name is the common mistake here, since 84% of Vermont funders report giving only to preselected groups. Our guide to foundations that give grants to churches explains how to read Part XV of a 990-PF before sending anything.

Article 3, the Cabot Case, and Public Money

Chapter I, Article 3 of the Vermont Constitution (opens in a new tab) still says that no person "can be compelled to attend any religious worship, or erect or support any place of worship, or maintain any minister, contrary to the dictates of conscience." Courts call it the Compelled Support Clause. Unlike the Blaine-style clauses in many states, it doesn't say "no public money to any church." Its focus is conscience and worship.

Chittenden Town School District (1999). The Vermont Supreme Court struck down a district's tuition payments to a religious school because nothing stopped the money from paying for religious instruction, which the court couldn't separate from worship. The court stressed that its ruling was narrow. It didn't say religious schools could never receive public education money; the defect was the absence of restrictions.

Taylor v. Town of Cabot (2017). In Taylor v. Town of Cabot, 2017 VT 92 (opens in a new tab), two taxpayers challenged $10,000 that Cabot voters approved at Town Meeting in 2016, drawn from a town fund built on a federal Urban Development Action Grant, for "repairing the steeple, stairwell and other interior sections" of the United Church of Cabot. The trial court blocked the payment. The Vermont Supreme Court found the taxpayers had standing but vacated the injunction, reading Chittenden to mean that "whether the funds are used to support religious worship is the critical question." Neutral money from a broad secular program that pays for structural repairs, it said, doesn't support worship in Article 3's sense. The case went back for a merits ruling. Grantsights didn't find a later merits decision when it checked on November 9, 2026.

Federal law points the same way. Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer (opens in a new tab) (2017), which the Cabot court discussed, held that a state can't shut a church out of a generally available grant just because it's a church. Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (opens in a new tab) (2020) and Carson v. Makin (opens in a new tab) (2022) extended it to state no-aid clauses and tuition programs. No case guarantees an award, and federal funds still can't pay for worship, as our government grants for churches guide explains.

The practical lesson from Cabot. The trial court worried that the town's vote didn't expressly bar repairs to the pulpit or altar. A church taking town or state money should put that limit in the agreement: name the roof, sills, or steeple, and exclude worship furnishings.

Security Grants for Vermont Houses of Worship

Vermont's FY2026 Nonprofit Security Grant Program window is over. The Vermont Homeland Security Unit, part of Vermont Emergency Management, says on its NSGP page (opens in a new tab) that "the FY26 Nonprofit Security Grant Program application period is now CLOSED." The page didn't show deadline dates, a per-site cap, or any FY2027 notice when Grantsights checked on November 9, 2026.

The page does spell out what an applicant had to file, which is the best guide to preparing for the next round:

The insurance certificate trips up small parishes most often, because it takes a call to the insurer; request it weeks ahead.

Places of worship are named as eligible on FEMA's NSGP page (opens in a new tab). According to FEMA, the program has $300 million for FY2026 ($150 million each for urban areas and states), up from $274.5 million in FY2025, and FY2026 awards were announced September 28, 2026. Grantsights found no state-funded security grant for Vermont houses of worship. For assessments, see our church security grants guide; for the UEI, see our SAM.gov registration guide.

Historic Preservation: The State Grant Funds Active Churches

Vermont's Historic Preservation Grant has $300,000 to award for 2027, in one-to-one matching grants of up to $20,000, according to the Historic Preservation Grant program manual for 2027 (opens in a new tab). The manual names churches outright: "Churches or other buildings owned by religious organizations are eligible," judged on the same criteria as everyone else, and "in no event will grant funds be used for religious worship."

The FY2026 award summaries (opens in a new tab) show what that means. Five grants went to buildings still used by active congregations, $97,300 in all:

A case in point for public benefit: Newfane's church hosts a monthly senior luncheon, sewing and quilting groups, and meetings for local nonprofits in its fellowship hall. The manual scores public benefit, and each funded church described weekday community use.

The 2027 round closed on October 5, 2026, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation makes its decisions in December 2026. A church that won a 2026 grant can't apply for 2027. Churches tend to underestimate the cash rule: the whole match has to be in hand when you apply, and the church fronts the full cost until the state reimburses it.

Federal credits and national funds. A sanctuary used only for worship can't claim the federal 20% rehabilitation credit, which the National Park Service limits to income-producing buildings (opens in a new tab). The National Trust's grants page (opens in a new tab) lists National Fund for Sacred Places grants of up to $500,000 and Preserving Black Churches awards of $50,000 to $200,000. Its October 20, 2026 round (opens in a new tab) funded 30 of 466 applicants, and none was in Vermont. Our church building repair grants guide and historic churches guide list other building funders.

Food Programs: TEFAP and EFSP in Vermont

Vermont sets its TEFAP income line high, at 300% of the federal poverty level. The Agency of Education's USDA food distribution page (opens in a new tab) says the agency "partners with the Vermont Foodbank to operate TEFAP," that residents qualify at or below 300% of poverty, and that no proof of income is required.

The Vermont Foodbank's TEFAP eligibility statement (opens in a new tab), effective February 10, 2026 through June 30, 2027, sets these yearly limits:

The form tells pantries not to count 3SquaresVT benefits as income. A church food shelf gets TEFAP foods by becoming a Vermont Foodbank network partner; the Foodbank's network partner programs page (opens in a new tab) says it distributes TEFAP to eligible food shelves and meal sites and points new partners to its network relations staff.

EFSP sits almost entirely with the state committee. Per the EFSP National Board's Phase 43 allocation table (opens in a new tab), Vermont received $250,000 for FY2025:

That's 84% of Vermont's EFSP money in the set-aside. Only Chittenden and Orleans counties have their own lines, so a church pantry or warming shelter in Rutland, Saint Albans, Barre, Montpelier, Brattleboro, or anywhere outside those two counties competes through the State Set-Aside Committee. Grantsights couldn't find a dated Vermont page naming the committee's contact, so ask other local emergency food providers who convenes it. Our church food pantry grants guide covers what EFSP boards look for.

Denominational and Regional Funds in Vermont

One faith-based grant program for Vermont congregations had current terms posted when Grantsights checked on November 9, 2026. Vermont Interfaith Power and Light's Climate Action Grants page (opens in a new tab) offers matching grants to "faith and spiritual communities in Vermont" and twelve New Hampshire towns:

Its recent grants paid for heat pumps, efficient lighting, and replacement windows, a useful complement to a preservation grant that won't fund heating systems.

Grantsights didn't confirm current, dated grant terms for the Episcopal Church in Vermont's grants and loans committee (the most recent announcements found were from 2017 and 2019), the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church, the Vermont Conference of the United Church of Christ, the New England Synod of the ELCA, or the Vermont Community Foundation. Ask your own judicatory what it funds in 2027; our grants for small churches guide lists the questions worth asking.

What Vermont Church Grant Lists Don't Tell You

Five Vermont facts that generic church grant lists leave out:

1. 38% of the raw dollars went to one non-congregation. Without the Plymouth recipient, the total falls from $6.9 million to $4.3 million.
2. Vermont has the fewest open doors. At 15.7%, its route share is the lowest of the nine smallest church-grant states and well below the national 23.1%.
3. Nine in ten recipients have one patron. 89% were funded by a single foundation, so money follows family ties, not proposals.
4. The state preservation grant welcomes churches. It says so in writing, and five working congregations won FY2026 awards.
5. Vermont's constitution is friendlier than its reputation. The Compelled Support Clause targets worship, and the Cabot opinion read it to allow neutral structural repair money.

A 90-Day Plan for a Vermont Congregation

1. Days 1 to 15: confirm the building's status. Ask the Division for Historic Preservation whether your church is listed in or eligible for the State Register, and photograph it from the road and the green.
2. Days 10 to 30: bank the match. Since the preservation grant needs cash on hand at application, open a restricted repair fund now so you can show up to $20,000 before the next round opens; its dates hadn't been announced on November 9, 2026.
3. Days 20 to 45: build the security file. Finish a self-assessment, get the insurance certificate naming the Department of Public Safety, and draft the Investment Justification so you're ready when the FY2027 notice posts.
4. Days 40 to 70: write to a short list. Use the funder list to pick Vermont foundations that publish a route and have funded more than one congregation, and send a one-page letter for one project.
5. Days 60 to 90: food and energy. Call the Vermont Foodbank about network partner status, find out who convenes the EFSP set-aside committee, and ask VTIPL whether an energy audit grant fits your heating plans.

To widen the search beyond churches, run the free eligibility checker, or open the church grant path index to see funding grouped by roof, food, security, and other needs.

Limits of the Vermont Data

The 484 grants in the lead figures come from 990-PF filings, which trail the actual gifts by a year or more; tax year 2025 holds only 20% of Vermont's rows. A Vermont parish filed under a trust or a pastor's name won't show up, and city rows reflect mailing addresses. Grantsights couldn't confirm the next NSGP window, a dated contact for Vermont's EFSP set-aside committee, VTIPL's grant caps or deadlines, the outcome of the Cabot case on remand, or current grant terms at most Vermont judicatories.

Sources Checked

Each Vermont source below was checked on November 9, 2026:

• Vermont Constitution, Chapter I, Article 3 (opens in a new tab); Taylor v. Town of Cabot, 2017 VT 92 (opens in a new tab), including its discussion of Chittenden Town School District; Trinity Lutheran (opens in a new tab), Espinoza (opens in a new tab), and Carson v. Makin (opens in a new tab)
• Vermont Homeland Security Unit NSGP page (opens in a new tab); FEMA NSGP page (opens in a new tab) (checked November 6, 2026)
• Division for Historic Preservation 2027 grant manual (opens in a new tab) and FY2026 awards (opens in a new tab); NPS tax credit eligibility (opens in a new tab); National Trust grants (opens in a new tab) and 2026 awards (opens in a new tab)
• Agency of Education USDA food distribution page (opens in a new tab); Vermont Foodbank TEFAP eligibility statement (opens in a new tab) and network partner programs (opens in a new tab); EFSP Phase 43 allocations (opens in a new tab)
• Vermont Interfaith Power and Light Climate Action Grants (opens in a new tab)
• Grantsights analysis of Vermont recipients in 990-PF filings, tax years 2022 to 2025, as of November 5, 2026