Updates from the UTO Finance and Archives Committee by Maggie Noland, Chair

Before I discuss online giving, I must say that 2025 is rapidly coming to an end! The days and months just seem to pass increasingly quickly as the years go by. 

As time passes, changes come. The Episcopal Church Center has rolled out a new online giving platform. This is a work in progress with some glitches still to be worked out; however, the UTO Board has complete confidence in this change.   

Online giving is becoming increasingly popular, as many people no longer keep cash on their person. The ease of pushing a button, selecting an amount and payment option, as well as receiving an automatic receipt, make this form of giving very attractive.  

There are a couple of donate buttons on the United Thank Offering website; both will give good receipts marked as UTO donations.  We are happy to say that there is also a donate button on The Episcopal Church website where you can select UTO as an option for giving. (Note: It does give an email receipt; however, it will say DFMS rather than UTO. You will also get a follow-up postcard from Heather a month later from UTO.) The money does go to UTO if UTO was indicated on the online form. You can also easily set up recurring online donations, which we encourage.      

One piece of feedback that we’ve received is that Blue Boxes are not being used nearly as much now as in the past, due to folks not carrying cash (and many places no longer accept it), so the UTO Board has decided to phase out the printed color boxes, which are more costly, and go instead to “Color Your Own” Boxes. Coloring appeals to all ages, making these boxes popular with many of our UTO congregations. Without text on the boxes, the Color Your Own Boxes are more accessible for our bilingual congregations. There is a QR code on the Color Your Own Boxes, which is another easy way to give online to UTO. We are getting a new design created for the Color Your Own Boxes to build off the popularity of the ones created by Illustrated Ministries that we are using now. If you love the printed Blue Boxes in color, please email Heather and she’ll send you a box full of them that you can continue to use.

Whatever your method of giving might be, UTO is grateful to everyone who supports our mission of awarding life-changing grants domestically and abroad, made possible only by your generosity. Thank you!