Interfaith America’s work to unlock the potential of American religious diversity has been grounded in a steady vision for pluralism.
Emerging Leaders
The Building Interfaith America Grants are an invitation to our network to consider your community’s strengths, identify a felt need or opportunity, propose a project to address it, and leverage the strength of interfaith cooperation to achieve your aspiration. This is a cohort experience and grantees will join a community of practice and be supported throughout the grant period with coaching, convenings, and storytelling development.
Apply by October 2, 2026
At Interfaith America, we believe that U.S. religious diversity is a strength; when we engage that diversity proactively, we can address the major challenges of our communities and our nation. Yet, engaging across deep differences is work that requires interfaith leadership skills and resources. As this country continues to strive to realize our potential and promise – a nation in which each is invited to contribute their best and to participate in the daily work of democracy – we need everyone to contribute.
This year, we are especially interested in applications from leaders working in healthcare, K-12 education, and business sectors — and from leaders living and working in rural communities across the country. If you have not previously engaged with Interfaith America or the Emerging Leaders Network but are working with others across lines of difference in your community, we encourage you to apply.
In his book, We Need to Build, Eboo Patel writes:
We will know we have achieved Interfaith America when it is simply commonplace for cities across the country to have days of interfaith service; when there is an established scholarly field called interfaith studies that certifies tens of thousands of people every year who have the knowledge base and skill set of interfaith leadership; when companies, schools, hospitals, and civil society organizations hire interfaith leaders because they recognize the significance of proactively engaging the religious diversity within their organizations; when houses of worship regularly have partnerships across faith lines; when people across traditions can readily articulate the theology or ethic of interfaith cooperation of their own community… Most importantly, when religious diversity is understood as a powerful and visible asset that ought to be engaged positively and proactively rather than a dynamic that is either invisible or a threat. (Patel, 21)
The Building Interfaith America grants are an invitation to our network to consider your community’s strengths, identify a need or opportunity in your community, propose a project to address it, and leverage the strength of interfaith cooperation to achieve your aspiration.
Grant funds may not be used for:
FY27 grantees will participate in a cohort experience that includes:
Grantees are required to:
All applications are reviewed at the end of the application cycle. Through its programs, Interfaith America is committed to supporting initiatives that meaningfully engage people with a range of religious, philosophical, or ideological perspectives as well as diverse racial and ethnic identities.
Examples include, but are not limited to:
Building Interfaith America Grants
The Building Interfaith America Grants are an invitation to our network to consider your community’s strengths, identify a felt need or opportunity, propose a project to address it, and leverage the strength of interfaith cooperation to achieve your aspiration. This is a cohort experience and grantees will join a community of practice and be supported throughout the grant period with coaching, convenings, and storytelling development.
Apply by October 2
Consider your community’s strengths, identify a felt need or opportunity, propose a project to address it, and leverage the strength of interfaith cooperation to achieve your aspiration.
Please contact us with any questions about this opportunity.
Ali Kaleel
Assistant Director of Emerging Leaders Network
Interfaith America
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