A search for "clergy wellness grants" usually turns up the same disappointment as searching for an "ADA grant": the money is real, but there's no single portal where a congregation fills out an application and receives a check to support its pastor's mental health. The funding exists — it just moves through a different channel than most churches expect, and understanding that channel is the difference between wasted effort and actually getting your pastor connected to support.
Pastoral ministry has always carried a particular kind of isolation — a role where the person is expected to have answers, hold confidences, and rarely show strain in front of the people they serve. Research out of Duke Divinity School's Clergy Health Initiative and repeated denominational surveys over the past two decades has tracked elevated rates of burnout, isolation, and departure from ministry compared to many other professions, particularly among pastors serving small or rural congregations without a staff team to share the load.
That research is part of why major funders started treating clergy wellbeing as a distinct funding category rather than folding it into general "church health" or "leadership development" grants. The largest single funder in this space, by a wide margin, is the Lilly Endowment.
Since 2017, Lilly Endowment has made 129 grants under its Thriving in Ministry initiative to religious organizations — seminaries, denominational bodies, and faith-based nonprofits — that build or strengthen programs supporting pastors serving congregations. Individual grants have ranged from about $31,500 to $1 million, funding programs that run anywhere from two to five years.
The funded programs share a common thread: helping pastors build relationships with other clergy who can serve as mentors and peers through the specific challenges of congregational leadership. Some focus on pastors navigating ministry transitions, others on women of color in ministry, bi-vocational or multi-vocational pastors, or clergy serving rural communities — recognizing that the isolation and pressures look different depending on context.
Lilly Endowment also made a separate $2.6 million grant to Duke University to coordinate program leaders across the initiative and share what's actually working in pastoral wellness and leadership support, rather than leaving each funded program to operate in isolation.
This is the part that trips up most congregations researching clergy wellness funding: the Lilly Endowment doesn't accept unsolicited applications from individual churches for this initiative, and even where it does fund open competitions, the money goes to an organization capable of designing and running a multi-year program — a seminary, a denominational office, a network of congregations — not to a single church seeking support for one pastor.
In practice, that means your congregation's real task isn't writing a grant proposal. It's finding out whether a Thriving in Ministry-funded program, or something like it, already exists that your pastor can join. Many of these programs actively recruit participants because filling cohorts is part of what keeps the grant-funded work moving.
Our free eligibility review covers the full range of grant categories available to churches — from clergy support to building projects.
Check Your Grant Eligibility →It's easy to conflate clergy wellness funding with sabbatical funding since both aim at the same underlying problem — pastors running on empty. They're not the same tool. Lilly Endowment's separate National Clergy Renewal Program funds a defined block of time away from ministry, typically several weeks, with a portion of the award going directly to the congregation to cover pulpit supply and interim costs while the pastor is out.
Thriving in Ministry-type funding doesn't send a pastor away. It builds ongoing infrastructure — peer cohorts that meet regularly, coaching relationships, counseling access, leadership training — that a pastor uses alongside normal ministry duties, sometimes for years. A congregation whose pastor needs an extended reset should look first at a renewal grant. A congregation whose pastor needs regular peer support and isn't in acute crisis is a better fit for a wellness-type program.
| Feature | Sabbatical / Renewal Grant | Wellness / Thriving Program |
|---|---|---|
| What it funds | A defined period of time away | Ongoing peer support, coaching, counseling access |
| Who applies | The congregation, on the pastor's behalf | Usually not applicable — programs are run by seminaries/denominations |
| Duration | Weeks (often 4–13) | Months to years, ongoing |
| Best fit | Acute exhaustion needing a real break | Sustained isolation, transition, or lack of peer network |
Since there's no single national application, finding an active program takes some legwork specific to your context:
Before assuming your pastor needs a new grant-funded program at all, check what's already available through existing denominational structures. Many pension boards and clergy benefits plans already bundle in an Employee Assistance Program or counseling benefit as part of group health coverage — support that has nothing to do with grant funding and requires no application beyond using the benefit that's already there. This is frequently underused simply because pastors don't realize it's included, or worry about confidentiality within a small denominational structure.
If your congregation is independent or nondenominational with no benefits board to check with, a regional ministerial association or a local council of churches is often the next best source of low-cost or free clergy counseling referrals.
Outside the Lilly Endowment's national scale, some community foundations and smaller family foundations fund clergy coaching or counseling scholarships as part of broader "faith community" or "nonprofit leadership" grant categories — but these awards tend to be modest, one-off, and specific to the funder's local giving area rather than an ongoing structured program. Your local community foundation is worth a call, but plan for a smaller, one-time award rather than a multi-year program if this is the path available in your area. For the broader process of identifying local funders like this, see our guide to finding local church grants.
Set expectations honestly before you go looking:
For the related question of extended time away rather than ongoing support, see our pastor sabbatical and clergy renewal grants guide. If your goal is funding a counseling ministry for your congregation rather than support for your pastor personally, that's a separate question — see our mental health and counseling ministry grants guide. Learn how FaithGrants helps congregations map out the right funding path at How It Works.