Living Alongside Bats in Churches Grant
Would your place of worship benefit from a small grant to help manage bat roost-related issues?
As a legacy of the Bats in Churches Project partnership, the Bat Conservation Trust, the Church of England, Natural England, Churches Conservation Trust and Historic England have come together to offer places of worship in England the opportunity to apply for the new Living Alongside Bats in Churches Grant Fund. This is a small grant aimed at supporting places of worship who are in need of help with their roost; for example, the roost might be causing an increased cleaning burden.
Why churches need support with bats
Bats have always been in churches and places of worship – there are records of this dating back many hundreds of years. Even churches built in a non-traditional style, and places of worship from other traditions, can provide refuge for bats as well as people. However, the number of bats using churches and places of worship has increased in recent decades. Where there is significant loss or degradation of habitat, particularly woodlands and hedgerows, and loss of traditional agricultural buildings, churches are often stable features of the landscape. The Bats in Churches project found that approximately 55% of all Anglican churches across England have bats. This figure rises for older churches (pre-Victorian) and rises further still for ancient churches in areas where loss of habitat has been intensive. Therefore, we recognise the importance of bat management and assistance with this, that some places of worship may now need.
What could the grant be used for
Places of worship in England are invited to apply for a small grant which should be spent on a small-scale solution that will help manage the bats in their building, such as seasonal professional cleans, pew covers, catch trays, modern cleaning appliances and specialist heritage repairs of bat damaged items. The fund should help protect heritage and offer a clean space for communities to use. At the bottom of this page, we have included some testimonies from churches who have seen huge improvements in their places of worship through small-scale solutions.
Requirements of the grant
To receive the grant, we ask that your place of worship create a positive community engagement activity inspired by nature. Wildlife engagement activities help connect people to nature on their doorstep and encourage the community to interact with their local place of worship where they may not have done so before. Please note, you can use some of the funding to hold the community engagement activity.
To assist with this requirement, we have compiled a list of examples of the sorts of events and activities your place of worship could carry out. You can find this in the appendix of the guidance on the Church Community Engagement Activities page via a link at the bottom of this page.
Area: Your place of worship must be in England.
Fund size: Up to £1000
Length of grants: Projects need to be completed within 12 months of receiving the money.
Applications are now closed.
Please monitor this website for opening and closing dates. We will run the scheme twice a year. The next round will open in Spring 2025.
