Emerging Leaders
Identify a need or opportunity in your community, propose a project to address it, and leverage the strength of interfaith cooperation to achieve your goal.
Applications Closed
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.
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.
Grants are offered to the members of Interfaith America’s Emerging Leaders Network to create initiatives, events, or projects that Build Interfaith America. Grant recipients will use the funding to carry out projects that address a social need through an interfaith lens and/or to participate in activities that further develop the individual’s interfaith leadership skills. Topics could include racial equity, environmental protection, bridgebuilding, etc.
If you are not a member of the Emerging Leaders Network, you may apply to join here before applying for this grant opportunity.
Grant funds may not be used for:
Grantees are required to complete a final report survey (sent by Interfaith America) within two weeks of the completion of their funded project or by June 1, 2026 at the latest. This report should include an assessment of program impact as well as commitment to next steps in the field of interfaith cooperation.
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
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.
Apply by October 6
Leveraging Interfaith Skills to Increase Civic Cooperation
Please contact us with any questions about this opportunity.
Ali Kaleel
Assistant Director of Emerging Leaders Network
Interfaith America
