Helping fund the next chapter of our mission in South London

Croydon Vineyard is entering a significant new season.

As we prepare to take on Old Palace in central Croydon, we believe we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strengthen our worshipping life, deepen our community impact, and serve the borough in a more stable, visible and joined-up way.

Old Palace gives us a long-term home for Sunday worship, children and youth work, Vineyard English School, prayer, hospitality, counselling, refugee support, community partnerships and much more.

This is a big opportunity - and it will require wise, careful and creative funding.

Alongside congregational giving and lettings income, we are developing a structured approach to grant funding. We are calling this our Croydon Vineyard Grants Engine.

Why grants?

Grant funding will never be the centre of Croydon Vineyard’s life. Our mission is rooted in worship, prayer, discipleship, generosity and service.

But grants can be a very helpful servant of that mission.

Over the last few years, we have already seen this through Vineyard English School, where external funding has helped us expand free English classes, support asylum seekers and refugees, strengthen our volunteer team, and build partnerships across Croydon.

Old Palace creates a much larger opportunity. It connects with the priorities of many funders, including:

  • community infrastructure

  • children and young people

  • asylum seekers and refugees

  • homelessness prevention

  • mental health and wellbeing

  • food, hospitality and cost-of-living resilience

  • town-centre renewal

  • faith-based mission and Christian community action

We want to pursue these opportunities well: with integrity, clarity, good governance and prayer.

What is the Grants Engine?

The Grants Engine is our way of making grant funding more structured, collaborative and sustainable.

Rather than relying on one or two people to spot every opportunity and write every bid, we want to build a simple process that allows more people to contribute while keeping accountability clear.

The model has five parts:

1. A shared Case for Support

Our Master Case For Support is the core document that explains why Old Palace matters, what Croydon Vineyard already does, what the building will enable, and why funders should consider supporting the project. This is regularly updated and is the foundation for future grant applications, donor conversations and impact briefs.

2. A shared funder pipeline

We are building a shared document “CV OP Grants” to list our potential funders who may be interested in different aspects of the Old Palace vision. This includes Christian trusts, community funders, capital funders, local funders, children and youth funders, refugee and asylum funders, wellbeing funders, and others.

3. A small grants contributor team

Some people may be able to help with research, drafting, editing, evidence-gathering or proofreading. All applications will still go through central review and sign-off. But a small team of contributors can hugely help us increase capacity and quality.

4. Clear sign-off and submission

Grant applications need to be accurate, aligned with our vision, and responsible in what they promise. For that reason, final submissions will be overseen centrally, with clear accountability for quality, governance, safeguarding, finance and delivery.

5. Relationships and stewardship

Grant funding is not only about applications. It is about trust. We have developed excellent, ongoing, collaborative relationships with those who have trusted us with funds up to this point. We want to continue to communicate well with funders, report honestly, share impact, learn from feedback, and build long-term relationships.

How you can help

We would love to hear from people in the church who may be able to help in one of the following ways.

1. Suggest a funder

You may know of a trust, foundation, company, philanthropist, church network or grant programme that could be relevant.

This might be a funder connected to buildings, children and young people, refugees, mental health, community spaces, Christian mission, poverty, education or Croydon.

2. Join the grants contributor team

You may have skills in writing, research, fundraising, project management, finance, charity governance, evaluation, public policy, proofreading or administration.

You do not need to be a professional bid writer. We are looking for careful, thoughtful people who can work from shared materials and contribute within a clear process.

3. Help with evidence and stories

Strong funding applications need good evidence.

You may be able to help us gather impact stories, VES student feedback, volunteer testimony, local statistics, photos, outcome data, or examples of what God has been doing through Croydon Vineyard.

4. Pray

This is a practical process, but it is also a spiritual one.

Please pray for wisdom, favour, integrity, courage and provision. Pray that the right doors open, the wrong doors close, and that every pound raised serves the mission faithfully.

 

Our approach

We want to pursue grant funding in a way that reflects who we are.

That means:

  • we will not chase funding that pulls us away from our calling;

  • we will not make promises we cannot responsibly deliver;

  • we will be honest with funders about our Christian identity and motivation;

  • we will seek partnerships that strengthen Croydon, not just Croydon Vineyard;

  • we will maintain clear accountability through staff leadership and trustee oversight;

  • we will treat grant funding as a servant of the mission, not the mission itself.

What happens next?

Over the coming months we will be:

  • continuing to update the Master Case for Support;

  • building the shared funder pipeline;

  • working with external grant specialists on Old Palace-specific opportunities;

  • identifying potential funders for different parts of the project;

  • forming a small grants contributor team;

  • beginning the first wave of applications.

This page will be updated as the Grants Engine develops.

For now, the most helpful thing you can do is let us know if you have a relevant funder lead, useful experience, or capacity to help.

I CAN HELP

Get Involved

For questions about the Grants Engine, please contact:

Andy Brims, CV Grants Engine Lead at andy@croydonvineyard.org.uk