By the UTO Grant Committee
We tried something new in 2026 with community partners, and it helped open the door to learn a lot about our grant process. Perhaps the most important thing we learned, is that when we create a system with support, it creates a system that welcomes feedback. To honor all those who applied for funding, we worked with applicants and dioceses about their experiences and have radically updated the process. Here are the big changes:
- There are now three deadlines: We know, that’s a lot of deadlines, but it serves a few purposes.
- The first deadline is split geographically. While The Episcopal Church is found in many countries, our bank is in the United States, which poses some challenges with funding international projects. The first deadline to submit is to help with this process. For all applicants within the United States, please submit your materials to your diocese. For all applicants outside of the United States, please submit your documents to UTO. This initial step requires less information and allows dioceses to determine which application they want to proceed with. This means less work for applicants during the initial local process. For those outside of the United States, this gives our staff time to work with the lawyers and finance office on ensuring that if you enter the UTO grant process and your application is selected for funding that we would be able to send the funding to you given current embargoes. Again, the goal is to have you do less work to start in case there’s no way for the project to be funded regardless of the value and importance of the project.
- We really don’t want you to use AI or a professional grant writer. Because of this, we’ve added additional support throughout the process, including the opportunity to schedule time with UTO to discuss your application and receive more support along the way. We want to know what God is calling you to do, and we don’t care about perfect grammar, or quippy AI text; we care about you and your voice.
- The final deadline is when all documents have to be finished before the application packets are reviewed by the UTO Board.
- We really don’t want you to use AI or a professional grant writer. Because of this, we’ve added additional support throughout the process, including the opportunity to schedule time with UTO to discuss your application and receive more support along the way. We want to know what God is calling you to do, and we don’t care about perfect grammar, or quippy AI text; we care about you and your voice.
- We no longer are asking for a timeline but are trying something new to help understand how you plan to execute the project if funded. We’ve created a lot of support to help explain what we’re looking for, but we hope this will be easier to follow.
- The materials are located in a grid to help you each step of the way. If you can’t find something, let us know!
You can access all the materials at https://unitedthankoffering.com/apply/. We can’t wait to hear about your projects. As always, we hope you’ll get started early so that if you need help, we can be sure to offer it along the way. Also, be sure to check out the next article about the August training day. This is open to anyone who is interested in the grant process or may be supporting someone in the grant process. Please reach out to Heather with any questions: hmelton@episcopalchurch.org.
