Updates from the UTO Finance and Archives Committee
We know that 2025 has been difficult and unpredictable. One of the really interesting things about the UTO Ingathering is that giving tracks alongside consumer confidence, so when folks are worried about the world, giving goes down. We are in that boat right now, and the Ingathering is down over $100,000 from this time last year. We need your help to be able to fund the important work of bridging the divide in our communities, so we want to encourage you to set up an ongoing donation. Ongoing donations are a great way to budget your donation to UTO over the course of the year. You can set it up monthly or quarterly, and it will automatically debit your bank account or credit card. Consider giving up one trip to the coffeeshop a month and instead donate that $10 to UTO. Over the course of the year, that’s $120 (plus interest) that will be given away in grants the following year. Your ongoing gift will be credited to your church and diocese just like if you put a check in the plate. The big difference is that we will send you formation materials directly and a thank-you gift once a year. This means that even if your church only participates in UTO during Lent, for example, you’ll still get our fall and spring materials along with special updates during the year. Many of us no longer have change to put in our Blue Boxes, so this is a way to digitally make your thank offering over the year as way to give thanks for all the blessings we encounter, big and small. To find out more, or to set up your ongoing donation, visit www.unitedthankoffering.com/give. And thank you for supporting the work of UTO.