We can work in partnership with you to develop, realise and evaluate your project idea, help share its results with others, and offer small to medium-sized grant funding for good projects. The Trust’s three main areas of benefit are:

• Christian learning, discipleship and theological education, particularly amongst the most marginalised
• The churches’ work in, and contribution to, the FE and lifelong learning sectors
• Strengthening religious education in schools, particularly teaching and learning about and from Christianity

From October 2022 the Trust has a new set of priorities within these three main areas.  These will affect the kinds of work we do and the types of projects the Trustees support.  Click below to read the latest priorities.

Working/Funding Priorities 2022-25

You can also read a bit more about the new priorities here.

We have 4 separate streams of funding available for creative projects concerned with one or more of the above areas.  Click on the tabs below to read more about each of these.

The Trust has now largely spent its anticipated income on grants for the 2024-25 financial year, so we are unable to consider new grant applications for this period EXCEPT for small grant applications, and projects being put forward/developed by individual local churches, schools or colleges (or small local partnerships thereof).

We are seeking to re-focus a bigger proportion of grant expenditure on grass-roots projects developed in a particular locality but which might become the model or inspiration for work elsewhere. 

Consequently, until further notice, one third of grant expenditure annually will be ring-fenced for projects developed by individual local churches, schools, colleges or charities/faith-based community projects, or localised partnerships thereof.  The Trust’s general funding criteria (below) still apply.  More detail on our new priorities can be found on this blog post.

We do not as a matter of course provide:

• Grants to cover the cost of fees and maintenance for personal study and research*
• Core costs (e.g., for ongoing staff salaries. We only fund additional salary costs for specific pieces of project work to be undertaken)
• Grants for capital projects (e.g., building repairs and maintenance)
• Subsidies for work which churches, schools, colleges and other organisations should be doing anyway – Trust funding is not available simply to ‘prop up’ existing activity

*If you are seeking bursaries to cover cost of fees and/or maintenance whilst studying, you may be able to apply to one of the other Trusts which are members of the Association of Church College Trusts. you can check their criteria here.

If you have a good idea for a project, as a first step please contact us for a conversation to help us determine whether it could become the basis for a formal application.
What we support:

• The work must be locally-based within the area of benefit and be concerned with one of the three spheres of interest within which the Trust has chosen to work
• The work must be a partnership venture between the Trust and local project organisers, jointly coordinated and developed
• The work must be imaginative, innovative, experimental and creative and as far as possible of value to a wider audience
• The work must focus on the interconnection of religion and education.
• The Trust exists to enhance Christian religious education and learning, but within this, projects with an interfaith and/or multi-faith focus may be considered
• The work must take the form of a discrete project, with clear aims and objectives, time limits and resource requirements
• The work must widen and advance work in education and religion, giving special benefits beyond the norm to schools, colleges, churches and other organisations

It is not necessary to be a registered charity to apply for funding; however, preference will usually be given to non-profit-making groups.

We strongly encourage you to get in touch to discuss funding at an early stage of your project, rather than leaving it until the project is almost complete.

If encouraged to make a formal application, project proposals will be judged upon:

• Degree of fit with priority areas identified by the Trust
• Extent to which project is felt to be creative, innovative, exploratory or experimental
• Degree of meaningful partnership with St Peter’s Saltley Trust
• Evidence of meaningful connection with/potential benefit to the needs identified within the West Midlands region
• Potential for the project to benefit the most marginalised in church and society, and to grow the vision, understanding, gifts and capacities of people at grass-roots level (not concentrating power and expertise into the hands of a privileged few ‘experts’)
• Extent to which learning from the project may be captured and shared for the benefit of others
• Potential for sustainability (if relevant to the aims of the project)
• Scope for work developed within the region to become a model for work done elsewhere