Saturday, June 7

By the Grant Committee

Last year we launched a new effort to help grant applicants locally by offering training for UTO leaders or diocesan staff on the UTO grant process. We learned a lot from our process this first year and are bringing it back with some changes for the 2025 grant process. Our training for local support will take place during our annual UTO leaders training day and will be available to watch at a later date as well. 

Due to the nature of the grant focus for 2025, we really want to help local leaders think through the required element of bringing two groups together. This is a new requirement, and we know that some grant applicants may find it challenging. It is our hope that local leaders will be a resource to applicants to think about who they might be able to partner with locally since they are someone familiar with the region/state. While we’ll go over some of the basic things to look for when helping an applicant, we’re hoping that having a more direct conversation about the focus will better support those of you helping others. In place of going over the detailed points of an application, we’ll provide a checklist of things to look for in an application. We’re hoping that this checklist will help everyone be more successful at filling in the application and all its materials.

As always, we encourage dioceses to set up an internal deadline to receive and review applications. We are once again using a two-deadline system, so applicants will get up to five application reviews between the two deadlines (the number depends on how quickly applicants can revise their drafts). In addition to this timeframe, UTO offers open office hours during the fall to help applicants with their packets and answer questions. Draft applications can also be reviewed from the time the materials are released until the deadline. As always, our hope is that everyone gets all of the help they need to submit a complete and eligible application, but we can only do that if you reach out for help, so please encourage applicants to seek help! Register for the Online Training Day here.