By Joyce Landers, UTO Board Vice President
The United Thank Offering Board is very excited to announce the 2023 grant recipients. We wish to congratulate the 2023 grant recipients and the important work they are doing to spread the kingdom of God here on earth. The full list of 2023 grant awards is available here or here. This year the grants addressed the worldwide incarceration crisis; projects funded included jobs for returning citizens, prevention programs which address job training skills for those at risk of incarceration, projects supporting the children of incarcerated people, and hospice care inside prisons. The grants brochure has been sent to the printers and will be available for order or download through Shima as soon as possible.
Each year, the UTO Board works diligently to read and score the grants as objectively as possible. The decisions we make are not easy. We celebrate with those who are funded and mourn those worthy projects we were unable to support. The total ingathering from 2022 was $1,079,600.54, which enabled us to fund 22 projects. However, we received 49 applications totaling about $2.6 million. It is our hope that we can all work together to increase the practice of gratitude and giving to UTO so we can support more grants in the future.
Need help raising the awareness of UTO? Check out our webpage. You will find the coordinator’s handbook, coloring pages, creative ideas for various seasons, and sample newsletter articles that you can use to promote UTO in your parish and diocese.
2023 UTO Grants at a Glance
# of Grants Awards to The Episcopal Church – 10
# of Grants Awards to the Anglican Communion – 12
Largest Award – $100,000 to the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago for St. Leonard’s Ministries & St. Andrew’s Church
Smallest Award – $1,207 to the Southern Diocese of Brazil for music apprenticeship courses for vulnerable children
Average Amount Award = $49,000