Updates from the UTO Grants Committee

Please note: The initial deadline to enter the process for 2026 has passed. For those in the Anglican Communion, your final deadline is Feb. 6 at 5 p.m. Eastern time. For those in The Episcopal Church, your final deadline is Feb. 27 at 5 p.m. Eastern time. These deadlines are only for those who met the initial deadline, and all revisions and additional documents are due at this time. Incomplete applications will not be considered for funding. 2026 grants will be presented to Executive Council for final approval at their June meeting, and all applicants will be notified of the status of their request by June 20.

Many people ask us why it takes so long from the deadline to submit your application until we announce when grants are awarded. A lot happens behind the scenes to support applicants, ensure a fair process, and get the grants approved. This month, we wanted to share the timeline of what happens during the grant process.

Between the initial and final deadline, applicants have four weeks to work on revisions and making sure their application is complete. We created this dual-deadline process to give those who want to apply for UTO funding but maybe didn’t have any experience writing grants the same chance at funding as those who either have experience writing grants or can afford a professional grant writer. While no one has to take the advice given to them, our goal is to try to get all applicants who met the initial deadline to the point where their application is as clear as possible and eligible for funding.

Once the second deadline passes, applications are given to the grants committee to review. The committee makes sure everything is correct, that no information is missing, and ensure that the budget, and everything UTO is asked to fund, is in fact eligible for funding. We call this the criteria check. The committee meets to discuss and either go back to the applicant for more information or to forward the application to the Board for final review. 

Because UTO doesn’t arbitrarily cut budgets, we ask that applicants not ask for more than they need to do the project. Sometimes there are things on the budget that are not within the criteria, regardless of all the work leading up to this moment. If that is the case, the grants committee removes that requested line and the application moves forward as a partial request. Any applications that are incomplete are also removed from the process at this time. This part of the process takes a couple of weeks.

UTO Board members read and rate every application. This means that some years the Board is reading about 80 applications. Because they are reading so many applications (and using a standard rubric that the grants committee created and the Board approved), this part of the process takes several weeks. It’s also important to note that without fail, there’s no good way to avoid Holy Week during this process. Our Board members are often reading grants while leading, supporting, participating in, and preaching at Holy Week services. The ratings are due about 10 days after Easter. 

Board members enter their numerical scores into an online form that then averages the scores into a final rating for each grant. These ratings are then put into order, and the Board funds the highest-rated application down the list until the Ingathering from the previous year is fully spent. Sometimes, the Board has money left but not enough to fund the next request. The Board then talks to the applicant to see if that amount of money would work for them to be able to do some portion of their project. In the end, 100% of what was donated is represented on the grant list. 

The list is created using the description the applicant wrote on their application and is translated into Spanish. Our staff also creates multiple reports that compare the current grant list to previous years (you can see some of this data in our annual report) and a report to respond to a General Convention resolution about access to grant funding called D006. These reports go to the Board for review and final approval. This takes about a week. Once approved, these reports go to Executive Council, six weeks prior to its meeting. The materials are translated into Spanish, then read and reviewed by Executive Council members. When they meet, there might be questions shared back to the UTO leaders, and then finally grant recommendations are approved on the consent agenda on the last day of their meeting. As soon as the consent agenda is approved, Heather sends out all the notification emails to applicants. 

You can see, it is a long process from when applicants hit “submit” until we can announce the grants. So many people contribute to the process to ensure that everyone gets a fair chance, that the focus and criteria are met by the applicants, and that the Ingathering is both accounted for and awarded. We give thanks for all the support we receive from staff, in the Finance Office, Communications Office, and of course from Heather, for making the whole process work. 

If you ever have questions, please reach out! We review the process each year to find ways to improve the overall experience so we’re always happy to get questions because we learn so much from them. We also give thanks for everyone’s patience with the process and support of UTO.