By UTO Grant Committee

Open Office Hours for UTO Grant Applicants Begin in September!

Just a quick reminder that beginning in September, UTO staff and grant committee members will host open office hours to help grant applicants. These are not open meetings with a presentation, but an opportunity for applicants who have questions, or just want to talk through their project, to get the chance to meet one-on-one for help. Check out the “Helpful Hints” page for a full list of office hour opportunities.

UTO Grant Open Office Hours for September:
Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 1 p.m. Eastern time
Register here

Want to help applicants in your community/diocese?

Many folks help with UTO grant applications, from the initial idea to the completed and submitted packet. This year, the grant committee has created a training to help UTO leaders or diocesan staff have a better understanding of what to look for when helping applicants. This training was presented live in June as a part of our third annual training day; however, you can now watch the recording, take the quiz, and complete the training. Our goal is to not have applicants get conflicting information locally by ensuring that our leaders have the best information accessible to them. 

If you complete the workshop and a quick online 10-question quiz, you’ll get a digital badge saying that you’re trained to help applicants in your area, and we’ll share your information with applicants from your diocese who reach out to us for support. We can also list you on our website if you’d like. You will receive as much support as you request from UTO staff and Board members during the application process to help your local applicant. It is our hope that this helps our leaders feel more confident in supporting applicants and helps our staff have more support in reviewing drafts, especially when the deadline approaches. If you would like to view the training and take the quiz, please visit www.unitedthankoffering.com/apply; scroll to the bottom of the page to find the video and the link to the quiz. (For those who are worried about the quiz, know that you’ll have as many tries as you need to complete it, and all of the answers are found in the training.)

New Double Deadlines for Grant Applications

For several years now, UTO has had a “double deadline” for the Anglican Communion (AC). That is, their deadline for submission has been a few weeks before the final deadline. This allows us to give staff attention to each AC grant and help each application be the best it can be. We have long offered this level of support for all our applicants. We see part of our mission as helping our applicants learn how to write a really good grant and be able to take those skills and apply them to other grant opportunities as well. 

Based on the success of this method with the Anglican Communion, the hope of the Board is that having the two deadlines will help dioceses select the grant they wish to put forward sooner and allow staff adequate time to help make sure the application is complete, the budget is correct, and give recommendations on whether the grant, as written, is “in criteria” for any given year. We have found that our rolling deadlines for different kinds of feedback have been difficult for Episcopal Church applicants to keep track of, or that dioceses have been so late in choosing the grant they’re putting forward as to miss the deadlines for review. By having only two dates, every application will now be able to receive the same level of assistance with time to make sure that applications are ready for review by the grant committee for criteria and then the full board for review. As with any change, it may take everyone a cycle or two to get used to this new way of doing things, but we’re here to help! Don’t hesitate to reach out to the Rev. Heather Melton, staff officer for UTO, or to me with any questions at rlarson@episcopalnetworks.org.