Church Urban Fund

If your Church has been blessed through Giving in Grace please consider making a gift to the work of the Church Urban Fund and support ministry and mission in communities right across England.

The Church Urban Fund is an independent charity established in 1988. The creation of the Fund arose directly from the 1985 Faith In the City report, commissioned by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Runcie. The Church of England committed itself to raise £18million from Church members to help people in the poorest urban areas to create opportunities and hope for themselves. The response was remarkable. By 1996 the Church Urban Fund had awarded £25million in grants. In 2006 this grants figure had risen to an astonishing £55 million shared with some 4,400 faith based projects in the poorest areas of England. For examples see the case studies in the sidebar on this page.

The vision of the Church Urban Fund is to bring about lasting and positive change in the lives of people most on the margins of society - through investing resources, influencing change makers, and impacting on the causes of poverty. The mission is to assist the Church in its ministry and mission, enabling it to impact both the causes and results of deprivation across England, and to bring about lasting change.

The Fund resources people working at the local level who are putting their faith into action in the places where they live. By partnering with other organisations, the Fund supports men and women, who are seeking to do extraordinary things for the good of others in their communities. Projects supported by CUF should arise directly from local needs. To be eligible for funding a project must be part of or have a working relationship with the local Anglican Church. The Church Urban Fund has been an ecumenical Fund from the outset and participation from other partners, e.g. different faith communities and local agencies is encouraged. To date, the Diocese of Liverpool has received nearly £3m in grants. Projects range from Mums and Tots, Playgroups, Parenting Skills, Youth Work, as well as capital grants for major building work to open up church buildings to the parish and surrounding community.

The Church Urban Fund focuses its work on the most needy communities in England. It will support projects in parishes considered to be Designated Priority Areas (DPA’s). To qualify as a DPA parishes must fall within the upper 10% of deprivation measured by the the Government's Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). The IMD recognises that deprivation in communities has multiple causes. The Index measures the impact of income and unemployment alongside other factors such environment and access to housing and services.

Grants are made directly to projects from the Church Urban Fund’s own resources. The Fund also acts as a ‘pump priming’ Fund, often being a first or early funder which helps projects to attract funding from other trusts and also sponsorship by corporate donor’s.