Innovation Fund Grants Awarded
The Innovation Fund is helping to bring new ideas to life across the Unitarian community. In its first year alone, 27 projects have received funding for initiatives that support growth, innovation and community impact. This page showcases the projects that have successfully secured Innovation Fund support and highlights the exciting work taking place across the movement.
Funded Projects
Use the links below to jump to a specific project.
- Experimenting with spiritual practices
- Bradford Unitarians, Doncaster Unitarians, Rosslyn Hill/New Spiritual Gatherings, Shrewsbury Unitarians
- Creating inclusive communities
- Weddings Research, Brum Unitarians/Children’s Programme Lead, Golders Green Unitarians, Lewisham
- Building our capacity
- Gellionnen and Graig Unitarians, Brum Unitarians/Income Generation Advice, Brum Unitarians/Operations and Communications Support, North East Lancashire Unitarian Mission, Unitarian Transformers/Chorley, Unitarian Transformers/Warwick, Ditchling and Lewes
- Supporting our congregations
- Rosslyn Hill/Soul Deep, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Southampton
- Serving our communities
- Bury St Edmunds, Chowbent Unitarian Chapel, Evesham Unitarians, Graig Trebanos Community Hub, Northern Unitarian Association, Whitby and Chatham
Experimenting with spiritual practices
Bradford Unitarians
‘The Flow Zone’
The Flow Zone – Arts and Ritual Project is an inclusive initiative by Bradford Unitarian Church to explore and develop creative, contemplative arts and ritual practices that support spiritual and relational wellbeing for people of all backgrounds.
Impact and outcomes
The project aims to create new, accessible ways for people to experience spiritual connection and reflection through the arts, helping individuals find meaning and community beyond traditional religious settings.
Doncaster Unitarians
Arts Programme
Beyond the Scroll is a five-year collaboration with the ArtBomb festival to bring creative workshops, art events, and community activities into the church, making the Doncaster Unitarians a lively place for everyone.
Impact and outcomes
The local community will feel more welcome, connected, and inspired by Doncaster Unitarians through the work with local artists, making the church a hub for creativity and social change.
Rosslyn Hill
New Spiritual Gatherings
Heart Spaces created a new weekly worshipping community in central London, offering a range of creative and welcoming spiritual gatherings such as music sharing, meditation, discussions and open mic events.
Impact and outcomes
The project gave people new ways to explore spirituality, build connections across Unitarian communities, and create a welcoming space for deeper engagement with Unitarianism.
Shrewsbury Unitarians and Unitarian Transformers
Mid-week Meditations and Spiritual Outreach
Piloting two mid-week meditative gatherings at lunchtimes and after work to help more people in the community connect, reflect, and find support.
Impact and outcomes
The project created welcoming new spaces for reflection and discussion, attracting new participants, growing community involvement, and raising awareness of both the church and Unitarianism beyond traditional Sunday worship.
Creating inclusive communities
National – Weddings Research
A research initiative to understand how UK Unitarian congregations can better support and promote wedding ceremonies, especially for younger couples who often organise their weddings using digital tools and apps.
Impact and outcomes
The findings will support congregations to help more couples discover and choose Unitarian weddings, making the experience easier and more welcoming (particularly for same-sex couples and younger people) by improving resources and digital support.
Brum Unitarians
Children’s Programme Lead
A Children’s Programme Lead to create a structured programme of activities to support children’s spiritual and ethical development.
Impact and outcomes
The project aims attract and retain families to create a more thriving, intergenerational Unitarian community.
Golders Green Unitarians
LGBTQ+ Choir
‘Golders Queens’ is a new, inclusive LGBTQ+ community choir in North West London, providing a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQ+ adults to sing, connect, and celebrate their identities.
Impact and outcomes
The project will enable Golders Green Unitarians o facilitate acceptance, friendship, and community for LGBTQ+ people, by building a sustainable choir that promotes dignity, inclusion, and mutual support within both the LGBTQ+ and wider local community.
Lewisham
LGBTQ+ Spiritual Wellbeing
Lewisham Unitarians are holding consultations with the local LGBTQ+ community about how they can best support their spiritual wellness.
Impact and outcomes
New relationships with the community and a better understanding of how they can serve their local area.
Building our capacity
Gellionnen and Graig Unitarians
Fundraising and Financial Stability Advice
Funding for a consultant to support governance and fundraising plans to help secure match funding and ensure the Trebanos Community Hub is financially sustainable.
Impact and outcomes
Staff and trustees have understand what governance improvements they can make and have a practical financial strategy to ensure the project is adequately resourced.
Brum Unitarians
Income Generation Advice
Brum Unitarians used a small grant to pay for Counter Culture to provide advice on how they could increase income.
Impact and outcomes
The trustees now have a clear financial growth plan, with practical advice and activities they can take forward, so that the community is more sustainable.
Brum Unitarians
Operations and Communications Support
New staff roles in operations and communications to build capacity to manage events, hires, outreach and volunteers for sustainable growth, deeper community engagement, and wider impact in Birmingham.
Impact and outcomes
The roles will relieve unsustainable pressure on volunteers, enable consistent delivery of activities, and support the congregation’s growth and outreach goals.
North East Lancashire Unitarian Mission
Grant Application Support
Support from Unitarian Transformers to explore a funding application for a district-wide staff post.
Impact and outcomes
The support facilitated greater consultation with congregations within the district and more details on how the project might be implemented.
Unitarian Transformers
Capacity and Governance Support for Chorley Unitarians
Providing capacity and support to trustees to develop new community connections, such as children’s art groups and support for parents.
Impact and outcomes
Increased pariticpation from the local community with the life of the chapel, and meeting their needs and interests through new activities.
Unitarian Transformers
Capacity and Governance Support for Warwick Unitarians
Supporting trustees and ministers to introduce new activities, such as family/all-age worship, evening and lunchtime meditations, and proposals for potential new staffing roles.
Impact and outcomes
The congregation has experimented with new activities and worship formats, and considered how the life of the community could be resourced.
Ditching and Lewes
Developmental Ministry
A six-week pilot of ‘Developmental Ministry’, providing a short term visiting minister to assess the communities strengths and challenges as they navigate potential change.
Impact and outcomes
The congregations are supported to look at deep-seated challenges with spiritual and organisational support, ending with practical next steps for the congregations.
Ditchling and Lewes, Shared Administration
Piloting shared administration across the two congregations.
Impact and outcomes
Reduced burden on volunteers, freeing them up to focus on other activities that can grow and rejuvenate the congregations.
Supporting our congregations
Rosslyn Hill
Soul Deep Administration and Communications Support
Administration and comms support for groups to run Soul Deep, an eight-week course of spiritual exploration for small groups.
Impact and outcomes
Participants find deeper meaning and greater spiritual fulfilment in their daily lives.
Cambridge Unitarians
Self-Compassion Workshop
Piloting a two-day workshop within the congregation exploring barriers such as shame, practice self-compassion and exploring egalitarian structures.
Impact and outcomes
Funding demonstrated that this workshop can help communities to become even more compassion and connected, with the skills to have courageous conversations and be more inclusive.
Edinburgh St Marks Unitarians
Peer Support GroUps
Peer support groups led by trained church members, focusing on supporting one another through shared experiences, e.g. parenting, bereavement etc.
Impact and outcomes
The congregation is better able to support one another, more closely connected and better able to serve the wider community.
Southampton
Developmental Ministry
This project will pilot ‘Developmental Ministry’ at Edmund Kell Unitarian Church in Southampton, funding a short term visiting minister who can help congregations facing big challenges try new ways to grow and improve.
Impact and outcomes
The project will pilot a new way to help struggling congregations rebuild, renew, and strengthen their community connections so they can thrive in the future.
Serving our communities
Bury St Edmunds
Outreach and Communications
Funding will pay for a digital communications expert to boost their online presence and a Local Outreach Leader to build relationships with local groups, offer the building for community activities like exhibitions, mental health groups, and social events, and create new ways for people to connect and get involved
Impact and outcomes
The project will connect with thousands of local people online and in person, welcome at least 20 new members and volunteers, and make the Meeting House a lively hub for community activities, support groups, and events that bring people together.
Chowbent Unitarian Chapel
Primary School Newsletter Collaboration
A collaboration with the adjoining primary school to develop a joint ‘newspaper’ created by pupils, visiting the chapel.
Impact and outcomes
The project uses ‘soft outreach’ to introduce young people to a Unitarian community and develop stronger relationships between the chapel and the primary school.
Evesham Unitarians
Community Conversations
Piloting a community conversation on difficult topics, hosted in partnership with Evesham Quakers, and facilitated by an experienced community philosophy practitioner.
Impact and outcomes
Encourage open-minded discussions, greater understanding across differences, and establish the chapel as a hub for thoughtful community engagement.
Graig Trebanos Community Hub
Community Minister
A part-time community Minister role, to enable activities that support local residents’ wellbeing, connections and spirituality and the transformation of a redundant chapel and hall into a vibrant community centre.
Impact and outcomes
The Trebanos community hub volunteers are more supported, empowered and connected, and better equipped to address social issues and create a spiritually nourished intergenerational community.
Northern Unitarian Association
Community Development Worker
A community development post to develop new, flexible ways for people in the North East to gather for Unitarian spiritual community outside of traditional Sunday services, especially for those who feel disconnected from regular church activities.
Impact and outcomes
The congregations will have more connections with the local community, and be more welcoming and relevant by offering new types of gatherings, attracting a wider range of people, and sharing successful ideas with other congregations across the country.
Whitby and Chatham
Shared consultancy support for both chapels going through the process of laying down the congregation and handing their buildings and spaces over to the community.
Impact and outcomes
The congregants will receive support to ensure Unitarian values can live on in these spaces, and continue serving the community after this chapter in the live of the congregation ends.