Religious Institutions
Please note that this grant program will not be offered after the
2008-09 grant year.
The Louisville Institute, however, will continue to offer grants to support
both pastoral sabbaticals and research by scholar/pastors and scholar/educators
that strengthens the religious life of North American Christians and their
institutions while simultaneously advancing American religious and theological
scholarship. These grant programs aim to serve three strategic
constituencies who are essential to the future of the church. The new
grant programs will continue to address questions related to Christian faith and
life, religious institutions, and pastoral leadership in North America.
Information about the new grant opportunities offered by the Louisville
Institute will be available on this website after July 15, 2009.
The Religious Institutions Grant Program supports research projects by academics and
pastors dealing with how the religious core of an institution orients and shapes
its mission and contemporary practice, the impact of the institutional field
within which religious organizations live, the mutual interaction of religious
institutions and American society, and religious institutional leadership.
The Louisville Institute is persuaded that vital religious institutions are
essential to a just and flourishing society. The Religious Institutions Grant program
seeks to advance our understanding of the contemporary situation confronting religious
institutions so that they and their leaders can respond in more informed and effective
ways to the challenges they face. Among other goals, this program seeks to explore four
broad issues or themes:
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how an organization's religious core shapes its institutional mission and contemporary practice,
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how the ecology of religious organizations shapes the way in which each
organization carries out its mission,
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how religious institutions function within the context of American society, and
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how religious leaders can and should respond to these institutional challenges.
Eligibility
The Religious Institutions Grant Program of the Louisville Institute is open to both academic
and pastoral leaders. Applicants must have earned the terminal degree in their chosen vocation
(e.g. M.Div., Ph.D., Th.D.) and must demonstrate a capacity to complete the
proposed project in a timely fashion. Questions about eligibility may be
sent to info@louisville-institute.org.
Proposed projects should contribute significantly to our understanding of the challenges and opportunities
facing religious institutions in North American society. They may employ a variety of methodological
perspectives, including, but not limited to, the social sciences, history, ethics, biblical studies,
or historical, systematic and practical theology. They may also be interdisciplinary in nature.
Academic applicants eligible for a sabbatical leave and/or a release from all teaching
responsibilities during the grant year should indicate that fact in their proposal. Applicants who are not so
eligible should indicate in their proposals how they plan to devote sufficient time to the proposed project.
In many cases, for example, this may require a course buyout or some other reduction in teaching load.
Applicants may not submit applications to more than one Louisville Institute grant program within
the same grant year (June 1-May 31).
Application and Selection Procedure
Application forms for the Religious Institutions Grant Program may be requested from the
Louisville Institute or downloaded from this web site. All materials must
be postmarked no later than December 1, each year. Grant recipients will be
notified in March, and awards must be used during the following academic year. Applications include:
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Applicant Information and Project Summary Form,
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Narrative statement of approximately 5-7 pages (double-spaced and typed in
a 12 point font, 2000 word limit) that succinctly describes the proposed research
project and explains its relationship to the goals of this grant program,
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Selective bibliography (2-3 pages double-spaced),
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Detailed budget and budget narrative. A document entitled,
Guide for Budget Preparation, including sample
budgets, is available on the Louisville Institute web site or by mail,
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Copy of your current Curriculum Vitae or résumé (no more than 4 pages), and
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One letter of recommendation.
Please submit one copy of the complete proposal, using paper clips, without the
use of staples and mail to the office of the Louisville Institute by the appropriate deadline. These materials,
except for the Applicant Information and Project Summary Form (if submitted online) and the letter of
recommendation, should be assembled in the order listed above. The letter of recommendation should be
sent by the writer directly to the Louisville Institute by the application deadline.
Grantees will be chosen by a selection committee including at least two members of
the Board of the Louisville Institute and two other persons familiar with the goals of the Religious
Institutions initiative. Applications will be judged according to the extent to which they:
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propose a coherent, persuasive, and intellectually promising research project, and
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address the goals of the Religious Institutions initiative to examine the life of diverse
religious organizations and institutions, to seek to understand the fundamental
ways their institutional context is shifting and how they are responding to those changes,
and to provide assistance to them and their leaders as they deal with both serious
challenges and new opportunities.
Duration of Award and Stipend
Research periods supported by this grant may range from nine weeks to nine months. The grant
amount requested should not exceed $40,000. Normally, the Louisville Institute will pay the
grant directly to the institutions of those selected. The Louisville Institute allows up to 10
percent indirect costs based on the total direct costs of the project.
Please note that Louisville Institute
grantees may not simultaneously hold two grants from Lilly Endowment-funded
organizations that total more than $45,000.