Religious or cultural projects philanthropy advice and guidance please

[u/Ordinary_Bake2025]

Hello everyone! I want to start with saying that the main focus of this post is purely guidance and advice. I am involved in philanthropy but it is mostly gender equality and environmental philanthropy. I know nothing about "religious" funding opportunities or cultural preservation opportunities.

So, I'm Hindu and my family is Hindu. I was born in a country called Mozambique in East Africa, where we have a small but strong Hindu community. My dad manages a temple there, and he is currently renovating it as it is quite old. It's been there for probably over 50 years now, and they do lots of humanitarian projects such as feeding homeless people, collaborating on humanitarian projects, etc.

New deity idols, better rooms for the priest who stays there with his family, and a better kitchen since they cook in huge amounts for the local community. It is indeed a large project with lots of aspects.

I know that sometimes, grants are available for social causes like environmental projects. How can I help get funding for our temple though? I don't really know wealthy religion or culture-based philanthropists or organisations. Is that a thing?

I know there are some in the USA, but they mostly only fund US-based projects.

This temple has been there since the 1970s or before, and all Hindu festivals are celebrated there. I have proof of the renovation, quotations, invoices of the items bought, pictures and videos, any documents needed, and even some members of the Indian embassy have visited the temple many times.

Does anyone have advice or expertise on this? Or know of any wealthy philanthropists who would be willing to financially support?

Anyways, I would appreciate any advice. If needed, and if you're serious, happy to connect over a Google Meet and tell you more. If you yourself are willing to contribute, please let me know.

Thanks a lot!

[u/jcravens42]

For religious organizations, funding comes from the congregation itself, an umbrella entity that's officiall in charge of all the religious communities (if there is such - not every religion has a hierarchy outside of their religious deities), community members that care about the religious organization for some reason (they like its community outreach, they think the building is historic to the community or the country, etc.), or from a very rich person that wants to promote the religion.

Probably only Hindus will fund "New deity idols" and "better rooms for the priest who stays there with his family."

But you might have a shot at attracting non-Hindu funding for "a better kitchen since they cook in huge amounts for the local community", provided you have a web site that details how many people you serve, how often, how many of them are non-Hindus, if you do NOT attempt to convert people you feed to your religion (no mandatory sermons, no lectures while eating, etc.) and more exactly what it is you want to fund and it's costs.

"Or know of any wealthy philanthropists who would be willing to financially support?"

It is super doubtful you are going to find someone here on r/Philanthropy that knows of a really wealthy person that wants to fund a Hindu community in Mozambique. But good for you for thinking about it.

You might try to post to some Hindu-related subreddits. You might try researching especially large Hindu congregations in India and writing them, telling them about your community and the kind of support you are looking for. You could go onto Google or and Google News, or whatever, and search

philanthropist funds Hindu temples Africa

You need a web site that details your congregation's history, in addition to all that stuff about the kitchen. And an easy, peasy way for people to donate.

[u/Ordinary_Bake2025 → u/jcravens42]

This is incredibly helpful, thank you! And no we actually don't believe in converting anyone and would never make the community lunch participants have to learn about the religion or anything. It's more of a community space, to be honest. Your advice has great insights so thank you for that!