GRANTS

Organizational grants

Most of the financial support provided to the faith communities is distributed as general organizational grant and is allocated primarily for local activities. Allocation is based mainly on the number of members reported by a faith community and the number of people it serves.

Operational grants

Operational grants are mainly distributed as support for spiritual care in the health services. There are individuals working with spiritual care at every major hospital in Sweden who receive financial support through the Agency.

Many individuals will, when afflicted by disease or health trauma, express a need for spiritual and social care. In Sweden, this is often referred to as pastoral care and has traditionally been provided by the Church of Sweden and the minority churches. As the demography of Sweden is changing and there is now a greater diversity of faiths, pastoral care needs to include representatives from more faith communities. The Agency provides support for this process. However, the Agency does not deal with support for other forms of institutional pastoral care (e.g. in the prison system, police, armed services, education).

Project grants

Project grants are mainly offered to support the buil- ding and refurbishment of places of worship, for the purchase of such facilities, and also for the adaptation of facilities for the impaired and disabled and also for security improvements. Minor amounts are also granted to students from faith communities with no educational institutions of their own in Sweden who seek theological training abroad.