By the Grant Committee
The 2027 grant process is underway, and we want to highlight a few changes from the last year. Please note that the earlier deadlines are because of this year’s General Convention and do not reflect a permanent change.
- Three deadlines: The first big change is regarding deadlines. This change reflects a request from dioceses to give them enough time to evaluate potential applications and to help UTO ensure that, if awarded, grants can be paid to those outside the United States. If you are applying from within the United States, you will use the first deadline to apply to your diocese. If you are applying from outside the United States, please submit your information to UTO. After the first deadline, the process resumes as it normally has in the past.
- Drafts are welcome. While this has always been true, we want to make it very clear this year. UTO would like all applicants to refrain from using AI when drafting their applications. Instead, we encourage you to submit draft documents for review by the January deadline. You can go over word limits (within reason) and our staff will help you to revise prior to the final deadline in February.
- Project Management instead of a timeline: This year, we’re trying a new model for describing project plans using project management language. If this is new to you, don’t worry! We’ve created a helpful hints page and a diagram to explain.
UTO welcomes first-time grant writers, we hope that having extended time for grant writing makes it a collaborative rather than a competitive experience. We are here to help, and we can’t wait to hear about your projects. You can access all the materials here: https://unitedthankoffering.com/apply/. As always, we hope you’ll get started early with the process so that if you need help, we can offer it along the way. Please reach out to Heather with any questions: hmelton@episcopalchurch.org.
