By Joyce Landers, UTO Board Vice President

The United Thank Offering Board is very happy to announce that the applications, and associated materials, for the 2022 granting cycle are now available on our website. 

The 2022 focus is as follows: Care of Creation: Turning love into action by caring for God’s creation to protect the most vulnerable – who will bear the largest burden of pollution and climate change – through justice, advocacy, environmental reparations, and the development of formational materials

We want to call your attention to some changes that have been made. Since 2022 is a General Convention year, the schedule for Executive Council will be modified. So, we have scheduled the due date for all applications on Feb. 4, 2022, so that we can submit the approved grants list to Executive Council by its deadline. Additionally, we have chosen to set a cap on applications at $55,000. We will consider applications for over this amount, but applicants must submit a compelling reason for the larger request. The cap was set based on the average amount awarded over the past four years, and we hope this will enable us to fund more projects. 

Each diocese is invited to submit one application. However, since we are no longer accepting companion applications, dioceses that receive funding from the General Convention budget and from Province IX will be permitted to submit two applications. Provinces from the Anglican Communion will also be permitted to submit two applications if they are from two different dioceses. There are other small changes that have been made, and we highly suggest that you read the materials carefully.

As usual, there will be many webinars to help you in any way we can. In September, there will be a webinar with the creation care team to further explain the grant focus and how the church is trying to respond to our climate crisis. The links to sign up for these webinars are included in the helpful hints page. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if there is anything we can do to help you. You can do this by emailing our UTO staff officer, Heather Melton.