By Tammy Smecker-Hane, Province VIII Representative to the UTO Grant Committee
UTO 2026 Grants Review Process Has Begun
For those of us on the UTO Board, this time of year brings the excitement of reviewing the completed applications for UTO Grants. The focus of the 2026 grants is fostering justice and bridging divides. This year, we received 40 grant proposals by the deadline—26 from organizations affiliated with The Episcopal Church and 14 from groups within the Anglican Communion. The specific topics of the grants ranged from addressing issues of gender-based violence and social injustices to peace building to ministering to historically marginalized communities. After reviewing the applicants’ budgets and removing a few items deemed outside the criteria, the total amount requested by this year’s grant proposals is $1.52 million.
The hard work begins now as UTO Board members carefully and prayerfully read each proposal, evaluating them using a well-designed rubric. Then, the scores are averaged, and the highest-scoring grants are awarded until every penny from last year’s UTO Ingathering is allocated. We are still determining exactly how much that is and will announce the amount in our next update. The list of awarded grants will be published in May.
The Grants Committee would like to send a huge THANK YOU to all the UTO diocesan and parish coordinators who publicized last year’s UTO grant opportunity, encouraged groups to apply, and helped them with their applications. Some dioceses had internal competitions to decide which project idea would go forward, as each bishop can recommend only one UTO proposal per year. diocesan coordinators helped groups get their bishop’s endorsement forms and often aided them throughout the process by reviewing and commenting on applications, budgets, and timelines. The hard work of supporting applicants, many of whom are first-time grant writers, clearly showed in the quality and thoroughness of this year’s proposals. We received positive feedback from applicants about our online office hours and two-stage application process that included detailed guidance from UTO’s director, the Rev. Heather Melton. Our whole approach is motivated by the desire to award the very best grants in the fairest possible way and a commitment to being excellent stewards of UTO donations.
2027 UTO Grant Focus: ‘The Gifts of God for the People of God’
The process begins anew as we announce the focus for next year’s UTO grants. For 2027, UTO is searching for projects that exemplify being “the Gifts of God for the People of God,” as inspired by the Holy Eucharist Rite II in the Book of Common Prayer and as embodied in this quote from our Lenten book group selection:
Gratitude and reciprocity are the currency of a gift economy, and they have the remarkable property of multiplying with every exchange, their energy concentrating as they pass from hand to hand, a truly renewable resource. Can we imagine a human economy with a currency which emulates the flow from Mother Earth? A currency of gifts?
—“The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, p. 14
In 2027, UTO will fund projects that focus on connecting the unique gifts of a particular church, diocese, or province with the unique needs of its local community. Groups should consider how they are best suited to solving a particular problem that challenges people around them. Successful applicants also will show how the blessings will continue after the grant ends. For example, how will this project empower the people who benefit from it to “pay it forward”?
Here are a few examples of projects that would align with the 2027 call for proposals:
- An urban church located near a hospital might realize that the nurses who work there have difficulty finding daycare for their infants, so the church might propose adding an infant room to its existing preschool to meet this pressing need. The give-back in this case is the fact that the nurses can return to work after giving birth, confident in the knowledge that they can walk across the street to breastfeed during work breaks. The nurses give back by continuing to provide health care to the community at large.
- A congregation might notice a lack of afterschool options in the area and work with local elementary schools to start a homework program, chess club, or something similar to help meet the gap between the end of the school day and the time most parents finish work. Or the congregation might start a camp during winter or spring break.
- A group in a rural area may see the need to create a worker space that brings together community members with small businesses to support one another and share resources for taking these businesses online.
We encourage diocesan and parish coordinators to reach out to their communities and encourage potential applicants. Now is a great time to write a diocesan newsletter article announcing the grant focus and offering help with the application process. Information about the 2027 UTO grants, including the focus and criteria, is available online at https://unitedthankoffering.com/apply. The additional forms needed for the application process will be posted there in June.
The first step for interested churches or Episcopal groups is to identify a pressing problem in their community and determine what they have to offer (e.g., specific knowledge, talents, facilities, etc.) to solve that problem. Then, they’re ready to begin the application process and, if funded, use their gifts to improve the lives of the people of God, which we know means EVERYONE around us!
If multiple groups in a diocese are interested in applying, the coordinator should email the bishop and set a date for an internal deadline. Remember, the initial UTO grant proposal deadline is in January, but with the fall/winter holidays right before, it’s wise to start the grant process by early fall or sooner. If a group wants to apply for the Ida Soule UTO Grant (which has a maximum budget of $100,000, rather than the typical $55,000 maximum), there is an additional grant form to submit, and we encourage those groups to obtain significant in-kind funding. Any group thinking of applying for the Ida Soule Grant should begin the planning process now.