By: Joyce Landers, Vice-President, United Thank Offering Board

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Thank Offering Board has decided to postpone the published 2021 focus of Act: Turn 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 to 2022. The new focus for the 2021 granting cycle will be Recovering with love and gratitude: An Episcopal response to the COVID-19 pandemic in local contexts. It is our hope that we can help The Episcopal Church to help our communities as we heal and recover.

The Board understands that the needs are great and immediate, so we will be splitting the 2020 Ingathering funds into two granting cycles. Grant application materials for the first granting cycle will be made available on June 15, 2020, with a deadline of August 14, 2020. These grants will be funded from all Ingathering monies received by August 31, 2020 and will be announced on Tuesday, October 5, 2020. The second granting cycle materials will be made available on November 6, 2020, with a deadline of February 26, 2021. Those grants will be announced on April 20, 2021.

The United Thank Offering Board is offering grants to new innovative ministries as well as existing UTO Grant sites that are responding to the pandemic and economic downturn. We wish to award as many grants as possible, so we have created two funding levels with a maximum of $10,000 or $25,000. All projects need to demonstrate how their ministry is responding to issues directly associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

UTO Staff Officer Heather Melton is available and willing to offer any help you need until the month prior to the deadline, so please plan and work ahead. We will be hosting several webinars that will give you the opportunity to ask us questions and learn more about the granting process. The dates, times, and links will be published with the application materials. We want to remind all grant writers that Heather’s availability to answer questions and provide editorial assistance decreases the closer we get to the deadline. We thank you for your understanding and your respect for her time.

Additionally, we will offer four webinars during the first round of grant applications.

2021 UTO Grant Process Overview and Q&A for Applicants
Tuesday, July 7, at 12 noon and 7 p.m. Eastern time

Join us for this one-hour webinar (offered twice on the same day) during which important parts of the 2021 grant application will be covered, including those details most overlooked by applicants. We will also go over all the changes for 2021 to ensure that the process is as straightforward and clear as possible. There will be time at the end to ask specific questions about the process, and we will stay on the webinar until everyone gets their questions answered.

Register in advance for 2021 UTO Grant Process Overview and Q&A for Applicants at NOON:
https://zoom.us/j/97998609111?pwd=ZFlGOTZ2a0RoR3oxZ2NjUWRJaURZQT09
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Register in advance for 2021 UTO Grant Process Overview and Q&A for Applicants at 7 p.m.:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYvde2qpj0pHtaoJ8UifzNtoB-tTfKjGMNS
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

2021 UTO Grant Process Overview and Q&A for UTO Coordinators/Diocesan Staff
Tuesday, July 28, at 12 noon and 7 p.m. Eastern time

Join us for this one-hour webinar (offered twice on the same day) during which important parts of the 2021 grant application will be covered, including information for screening committees and final submission of grant applications. We will also go over all the changes for 2021 to ensure that the process is as straightforward and clear as possible. There will be time at the end to ask specific questions about the process, and we will stay on the webinar until everyone gets their questions answered.

Register in advance for 2021 UTO Grant Process Overview and Q&A for UTO Coordinators/Diocesan Staff at NOON:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwtfu2hqTIoH9Q8b56mrinVSnu0bz1umEAz
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Register in advance for 2021 UTO Grant Process Overview and Q&A for UTO Coordinators/Diocesan Staff at 7 p.m.:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEuc-qsrDgqE9H34URwP1QWAalENA_jAe17
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

These are difficult and stressful times. The United Thank Offering Board believes it is more important than ever to practice gratitude every day. We thank you for your continued participation and support. We understand that without all of you, we could not accomplish anything. We value the coordinators as well as those who work diligently to make the ministries that we fund possible. Working together, we will continue to spread the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.