Community Building Grants for Churches and Christian Schools in Montana

The Gianforte Family Foundation has set up a special program with RW360 that is designed to provide Montana churches and Christian schools with grants of up to $2,600 that may be used to pay for training and resources that enable them to serve their communities by providing biblically grounded training that improves relational and conflict resolution skills, strengthens marriages and parenting, reduces conflict and divorce, improves job performance and business productivity, and, most importantly, enhances their Christian witness.

Churches and schools have option of delivering this community service and training in three ways: (1) hosting Sunday school classes, small group studies and other special classes that are promoted community wide; (2) training members to deliver free Professional and Community Engagement (PACE) seminars to businesses, schools, government offices and other secular venues in the community; and (3) developing in-house Peace Sower Teams that are equipped to provide ongoing training, life coaching and conflict resolution services to their own members and to their wider communities. Here are real-life examples of how this type of service can impact a community:

To Learn More RW360 and Our Training Resources:

Costs Covered by Grant – Up to $2,600 for:

  • Sunday school and small group materials or seminars open to your community
  • Advertising or childcare stipend to host training for your church, school or community
  • PACE Instructor Training
  • Peace Sower Team training for 2-6 individuals from your church or school

How Much Money Should Your Church Request?

  • Before completing the application, please have your leadership team read and discuss materials described above to gain a full understanding of the all the resources and training options you could pursue with grant funds.
  • You may request any amount up to $2,600. For example, if you only plan to do a one-time Sunday school class for 25 people using the Discovering Relational Wisdom 3.0 Group Study Set, you would need only $200 (for the group set, which includes 10 study guides) plus $150 (for 15 additional study guides), for a total of $350. You can reuse the course videos any time in the future and purchase additional study guides at that time.
  • If you plan to take full advantage of all the RW360 resources available through this grant, however, we suggest that you request the full $2,600. This would give you the ability to expand your training program as interest grows and more people decide to get involved in advanced training and community outreach. For example, you could start with a church-wide training in the basic principles of relational wisdom and peacemaking using Sunday school/small group study sets. Your leaders could simultaneously start through both the basic and advanced levels of RW Shepherd training ($490/person). Some of them may decide to go on for further training as RW coaches or conciliators. Following Moses’ example in Exodus 18:13-23, you may decide to expand your Peace Sower Team by having other spiritually mature members of your church or school pursue training as RW Instructors, RW PACE Instructors, RW Life Coaches or RW Conciliators. Finally, you have the option of using grant funds to cover some of the costs of having team members attend one of RW360’s RW Summits, where they can obtain further training as instructors, coaches and conciliators.
  • If you do not use all the requested funds as allowed under the grant guidelines, you can eventually refund them to the Foundation.

Grant Process:

The Gianforte Family Foundation has only recently made this grant available to Christian schools, so they are in the process of updating the application process. If you do not see directions on this form for a school, please use this link to request guidance from the Foundation on how to submit a request for your school.

  • Click on the “Apply” link in the navigation bar
  • Click “Grant Application Log-in“
  • Click the “Create a New Account” button
  • Fill in all your account information
  • From the dashboard, click the “Apply” link at the top of the page
  • In the Access Code box at the top of the page, enter CHURCH then click “Enter Code”
  • Click the blue “Apply” button by “2nd Round Montana Christian Church Outreach Grant”
  • Complete the application

Foundation Expectations

Churches and schools are expected to actively promote training to their communities, not just their own congregations or schools. (Grant funds may be used for advertising.)

Churches and schools may request less than $2,600 if they don’t think they will use that full amount for RW360-related and other training expenses.

The Foundation will send the funds directly to the church or school, which will then use them to pay for training resources.

Ten to eleven months after the receipt of the grant, churches and schools will receive an email from the Foundation requesting a report on how the church or school has benefited from the training.

Churches and schools will be on the honor system and will not be required to submit receipts for how it spent the grant funds. However, if a church or school does not use all the funds as specified above, it should contact the Foundation to reallocate or return funds.

Churches and schools may seek further guidance from the Foundation by using this “Contact Us” form.

May 8, 2025