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:

• how an organization's religious core shapes its institutional mission and contemporary practice,

• how the ecology of religious organizations shapes the way in which each organization carries out its mission,

• how religious institutions function within the context of  American society, and

• 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:

• Applicant Information and Project Summary Form,

• 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,

• Selective bibliography (2-3 pages double-spaced),

• 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,

• Copy of your current Curriculum Vitae or résumé (no more than 4 pages), and

• 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:

• propose a coherent, persuasive, and intellectually promising research project, and

• 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.