Faith-Based Housing Affordability Grant Program

Overview

Across the United States, faith-based organizations are having a dynamic impact when it comes to the issue of housing affordability, from advocacy efforts up to and including deploying strategic assets to develop affordable housing units on faith-based organization property. This movement, often referenced as “Yes In God’s Backyard” (YIGBY), has its origins in California but has spread across the country as so many communities are wrestling with crippling housing costs. Faith-based organizations are often well positioned to help advance the cause of housing affordability in their communities, including factors such as their strategic location, their community service orientation, and the social capital they often weld to ensure timely development timelines and approvals.  

While faith-based organizations have many structural advantages when it comes to housing affordability efforts, their need for ongoing support and expertise is clear. Clergy and lay leaders are not housing experts and can get overwhelmed easily by the highly technical work of developing affordable housing- from engaging with and ultimately choosing the right non-profit developer to developing the funding tools required to fulfill their vision.  This doesn’t a myriad of other issues congregations must be prepared to face in this work, including the initial and vital consensus building required to ensure a faith-based organization has clarity as to the scope, complexity, and timeline of this work and alignment on how to best advance their specific approach.  

To help faith-based organizations partner with mission-aligned Triangle housing nonprofit organizations, Triangle Community Foundation is launching our first ever Faith-Based Housing Affordability Grant Program. This initiative is designed to help congregations navigate the early, critical stages of housing development by funding foundational pre-development and capacity-building efforts in partnership with experts from local housing nonprofit organizations. By helping mitigate initial financial and technical barriers, this grant program aims to empower faith-based organizations to deploy their strategic assets in support of sustainable, community-serving housing solutions. 

Grantmaking

We are pleased to offer project support grants to help Triangle 501(c)3 faith-based organizations partner with Triangle 501(c)3 housing nonprofit organizations to advance housing affordability efforts in our region. We have a total of $75,000 to deploy, with applicants able to apply for up to $25,000. The goals and funding strategies are outlined below: 

Program Goals

Help Triangle 501(c)3 faith-based organizations partner with Triangle 501(c)3 housing nonprofit organizations to deploy assets in service of housing affordability efforts 

Funding Strategies

Fund project-specific awards of up to $25,000 for Triangle 501(c)3 faith-based organization and Triangle 501(c) housing nonprofits to partner for work such as (but not limited to): 

• Community engagement & congregation educational workshops/consensus building 
• Pre-development feasibility (architectural fit, site or environmental surveys, etc) 
• Financial Modeling 
• Legal Fees (land lease structuring, title search, etc) 
• Zoning & Entitlement fees 

Application Guide

• A lead applicant is required for this application, and this can be either the faith-based organization or the housing nonprofit. Information from both organizations will be required to complete and submit an application. 
  • Please note that a faith-based organization is limited to one application in this grant program. 
  • Triangle housing nonprofits are allowed to submit up to three applications in this grant program, but each application would need to represent partnerships with different faith-based organizations.  

Eligibility

• Applicants must be a Triangle based and serving 501(c)3 faith-based organization and a Triangle based and serving 501(c)3 Triangle housing nonprofit 
  • Triangle Community Foundation considers the Triangle to be the following counties: Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham 
• Organizations must meet the Foundation’s non-discrimination policy (see application) 
• Organizations must affirm our Fair Housing & Inclusive Occupancy Statement and our Faith Neutral Resident Selection Statement (see application) 
• Faith-based organizations are limited to one application in this grant program. 
• Housing nonprofits are allowed to submit up to three applications in this grant program. 
  • Each application needs to represent a partnership with different faith-based organizations. 

Evaluation Criteria

• Alignment of current/planned housing affordability efforts with program goals and community needs 
• Track record of delivering initiatives and programming that aligns with program goals 
• Commitment to equity and community engagement 
• Financial health of applicants 

We will seek to have a grantee cohort that reflects a diversity of housing affordability strategies and represent the four counties Triangle Community Foundation serves (Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham). 

Information Session

Have questions? Join our info session on Friday, October 9^th at 11:00am. Register here. 

Timeline

Call for proposals open	Monday, September 28, 2026
Applications deadline	Friday, October 30, 2026
Grantees announced	Friday, December 11, 2026