Faith & Health

Faith & Health Campus Grants

The Faith & Health Campus Grants create opportunities for cross-disciplinary teams to embed interfaith competency in a range of health-related curricula, build sustainable partnerships with community organizations, and strengthen academic and public understanding about religion as a social determinant of health.

The Opportunity

Across the health ecosystem, leaders and practitioners increasingly recognize religion as a key social determinant of health. Yet, despite our nation’s growing religious diversity, few health professionals are equipped with the religious literacy and interfaith competencies needed to address this key factor in wellbeing. Additionally, most health leaders do not fully engage the web of faith-inspired support systems as trusted allies and assets in the cycle of care. This project will address both gaps.

Interfaith America is building on our ongoing efforts to embed religious pluralism across the health ecosystem through campus-based efforts that promote curricular and co-curricular learning, campus-community partnerships, research, and public scholarship. Leveraging a growing network of academic partners working at the intersection of faith and health, this project will help to integrate understanding about religion as a social determinant of health across clinical and community settings by supporting multi-disciplinary curricular transformation, growing the pipeline of future health professionals, and shaping scholarly, professional, and public understanding about America’s religious and spiritual diversity as an asset in human wellbeing.

Interfaith America seeks to catalyze institutional change on campuses poised to advance the vital role that our nation’s religious diversity can play in strengthening individual and community health outcomes. With the Faith & Health Campus Grants, cross-disciplinary campus teams selected from both undergraduate and graduate settings will work strategically to embed interfaith competency in a range of health-related curricula, build sustainable partnerships with community organizations, and strengthen academic and public understanding about religion as a social determinant of health. Along the way, grantees will participate in a robust community of practice with other academic partners committed to advancing religious literacy in a wide range of health fields, including public health, medical education, nursing, and others.

This grant is made possible through the support of Grant 63248 from the John Templeton Foundation.

Grant Details

Requirements

Program Design

The IA Faith & Health Team solicits grant proposals from cross-disciplinary campus teams of at least three members that are well-positioned to embed religious and spiritual literacy in courses and curricula, to develop ties to the broader community, and to share learnings from their work with academic and public audiences. Evidence of buy-in from key campus leaders is required as part of the proposal process. Proposals should include a two-year budget of up to $60,000 to support educators’ capacity and time, project activity expenses, and (if appropriate) support for community partners. (Please see Proposed Budget Template provided.)

Successful proposals will include the following multi-pronged, campus-based efforts:

Curricular Development and/or Design: Teams will create or revise at least two courses that prepare students to serve in a health-promoting capacity. These courses may be required health sciences courses that embed interfaith capacity-building, such as those that address social determinants of health or incorporate patient simulations or case studies; they also may be biomedical ethics courses, “medical humanities” courses, general education courses, cross-listed courses, or other curricular offerings that fulfill requirements for health sciences students. In addition, proposals will outline a clear strategy for ensuring repeated and widespread learning about religious diversity for health fields students including appropriate and sustainable incorporation of interreligious competencies within learning outcomes addressed throughout the curriculum. This design can include curricular and co-curricular learning, internships, research opportunities, and/or other approaches.
Campus-community Partnerships: Teams will establish or develop sustainable partnerships with organizations that recognize religion as a social determinant of health and a potential asset in pursuit of health equity. Partnerships may engage health systems, public health departments, faith-based or -inspired organizations, or other entities. This facet of the project will support community organizations in student internships, course-based projects, volunteer opportunities, public events, or other structured initiatives.
Shaping the Field: Academic partners will capture and share learnings from this project in ways that align with and support their own academic pursuits and, in turn, contribute to the growing movement to integrate religious and spiritual factors in the health landscape. These efforts may include academic or professional presentations, peer-reviewed publications, public scholarship, or other distribution opportunities. Proposals that exhibit an intention and the capacity to shift broad public understanding and/or professional practice (through guild- or discipline-specific channels) will be prioritized.

Additional Expectations

During the two-year subgrant cycle, IA will design and host the following virtual and in-person gatherings for campus teams across the cohort:

Virtual Grantee Gatherings: All campus grant recipients will participate in a series of virtual gatherings that foster connection and learning, including an orientation session, spring and fall check-in calls and a final debriefing.
Interfaith Leadership Summit: At least two members of each campus grant team will gather in person in Chicago each August as part of IA’s annual Interfaith Leadership Summit. All expenses related to attendance will be provided for at least two campus team members. The gathering will include a pre-Summit convening for grantees and participation and leadership in a Faith & Health Educator track at the Summit.

In addition, campus teams will participate actively in IA’s Faith & Health Educator Network through an online platform created for the faith and health movement.

Current IA grantees in good standing are eligible to apply. If you or your organization is located outside of the United States, contact us before applying.

Deliverables

Awarded campus teams will submit the following outputs:

Syllabi from at least two courses created or revised as part of this project, along with other relevant teaching materials, including case studies, assignments, bibliographic materials, and other resources
Evidence that at least one of the courses will have been offered within the two-year grant cycle (e.g., screenshot of online catalogue or registration bulletin)
Numbers and percentages of students enrolled in relevant health professions programs who encounter meaningful interfaith learning at least twice during their course of study
Publicity, flyers, reporting, or other evidence of at least two collaborative efforts with a community partner
Evidence of at least one academic (including conference presentation or peer-reviewed submission) or three public narrative artifacts (such as articles, podcasts, video interviews, blogs, or other multimedia pieces)
Other meaningful data identified for collection at project outset in consultation with IA assessment and evaluation team

Additionally, all awarded campus teams must:

Provide a non-itemized report of actual spending
Submit a Progress Report survey, sent by IA (due 12/31/2026)
Submit Final Report survey, sent by IA (due 12/31/2027)
Participate in project wide surveying of students and community partners.
Participate in spring and fall check-in calls with IA staff about the project progress
Participate in cohort meetings and workshops with other grantees
Participate in IA’s Interfaith Leadership Summit
As the orientation session will further explain, use at least five Interfaith America resources in the execution of the grant project

Timeline

This is a 24-month grant commitment from December 2025 to November 2027.

August 2025: Applications open
November 1, 2025: Application deadline
December 1, 2025: Grantees notified of their selection
January 2026: Orientation session (virtual)
Spring 2026: Cohort check-in call(s)
August 2026: Interfaith Leadership Summit
Fall 2026: Cohort check-in call(s)
December 2026: Mid-grant Project Status Report due
Spring 2027: Cohort check-in call(s)
August 2027: Interfaith Leadership Summit
December 2027: Final Report due

Funding

The grant of up to $60,000 will be paid to selected campuses in two installments. 

Funding

Accepted campus teams will receive up to $60,000 in grant funding to support their campus-based interfaith initiatives and programming. 
Funding will be disbursed in two installments: 1) after attending the orientation session in January 2026 at the beginning of the grant period; and 2) in January 2027, upon completion of a mid-grant report.
Funding can be used for the kinds of projects listed in the Grant Overview section. A portion of the funding can also be used to compensate those who lead the projects through stipends or offsets for course release. (Proposals allocating more than 50% to stipends or course release offset should clearly indicate circumstances that warrant such an allocation.)
Grant funds should primarily be used for purposes that directly support the grant proposal.
Up to 10% of disbursed grant funds may be used for operational costs if required.
The grantee is responsible for understanding and navigating their institutional or organizational grant processes.
Those who receive funding may receive a 1099 tax form at the end of the year.
Institutions receiving funds over $10,000 may be required to provide a certificate of insurance listing Interfaith America as additional insured or provide documentation of insurance.

Grant funds may not be used for:

Alcohol
Expenses associated with political campaign activities, including directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office; making contributions to political campaigns; or attempting to influence legislation (i.e., lobbying)
Capital funds or expenses (e.g., endowments, capital campaigns, annual funds, tuition, or student fees)

While not restricted, we generally don’t fund proposals that allocate a large portion of their funds for Interfaith America’s fee-for-service offerings, such as campus consultations or speaking engagement fees.

Proposal Review & Selection

Besides ensuring the inclusion of project elements named above, IA staff and external partners will review proposals and prioritize the following criteria:

Institutional Commitment: Proposals should include at least one letter of support from a key administrator (at least dean or program director) indicating the campus’s commitment to and capacity for institutional change. Priority will be given to proposals that demonstrate support from both institutional and program-specific leaders. In addition, proposals that demonstrate meaningful support in the form of course release, additional funding, or other institutional investment will also be prioritized in the selection process.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Teams should include at least two faculty representing both religious studies/theology and a discipline that trains future health professionals. In this way, the project will promote sustainable cross-disciplinary partnerships that leverage the expertise of those trained academically in the study of religion as well as those preparing future clinicians, public health professionals, and others advancing human wellbeing.
Health Equity Commitment: Proposals should demonstrate the campus’s commitment to populations that have been marginalized in conventional health settings, including immigrant and refugee communities, people of color, rural communities, and the economically disadvantaged.
Effective Champion: At least one member of the proposing team should bring evidence of effective efforts at intersection of faith and health through cross-unit collaboration, community engagement, academic presentations or publications, and/or connection to professional health settings outside of campus. Critical to this role is the demonstrated capacity to engage key decision makers to serve as internal allies and sponsors, helping overcome resistance, secure support, and pave the way for adoption of the proposed initiative.
Religious and Worldview Pluralism: Proposals should reflect alignment between the institution’s mission, vision, and values and this project’s lens of religious pluralism, an approach that bridges diverse religious, spiritual, and worldview perspectives while respecting differences and seeking common ground.
Plan for Dissemination: Proposals should specify likely academic and/or public narrative distribution channels for sharing learnings from the project.

Through its grant 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. To this end, the selection process will employ strategies that lead to the selection of diverse projects from a range of institutions. IA will conduct an initial blind review of proposals and ultimately prioritize institutional diversity among selected proposals.