United Thank Offering Report August 2026

Province VIII Meeting – UTO Report – Aug 2026

Date: Aug 18, 2026

Submitted by: Tammy Smecker-Hane (tsmecker@cox.net), UTO Board Member from Prov VIII

For more than 130 years, United Thank Offering (UTO) has been a discipline of The Episcopal Church focused on ministry and mission where every penny that parishioners donate annually goes out as innovative grants to Episcopal groups in the USA and the wider world through Anglican Communion groups to solve pressing community problems. For more information, see our website at https://unitedthankoffering.com.

Here is the UTO news for this quarter:

1.     Congratulations to 2026 UTO Grant Awardees from Prov VIII!

In 2026, the themes of UTO grants were bridging divides and bringing justice. Twenty-five grants were awarded totaling $930,778.

Two grants were awarded to Prov VIII groups. The Diocese of Hawaii was awarded

$37,002 for a project to bring together youth and elders at the Cathedral in Honolulu through an expansion of their theater program to decrease social isolation and improve mental health. The Diocese of San Joaquin (California) was awarded $36,320 to bring together four different church communities that span different denominations, ethnicities, cultures and languages around a community garden project and the development of a summer day camp for children.

Other notable grants that exemplify the 2026 theme was a $43,575 award to Province VI to create a faith-based suicide prevention program by Indigenous leaders in Province VI for Indigenous people across the Episcopal Church, and a $48,000 award to the Province of Burundi’s Diocese of Buye (Africa) to change cultural mindsets and bridge the gender gap by training women as catechists and supporting their ministry by creating a micro-loan program. See the full list of 2026 grants on the UTO website for more.

2.     We have an urgent need to revive the practice of UTO in our dioceses and parishes in Prov VIII

Note that the total awarded by UTO in grants was less than $1 million in 2026. That’s the lowest in recent memory. Only 55% of UTO grant applicants were funded. Many very deserving projects do not get funded simply because of the lack of donations.

The table on the next page shows the UTO donation amounts in 2025, 2024, and the past 10 year average (2016 – 2025) by dioceses in Prov VIII.

Highlighted in blue are the diocese that increased their giving in 2025 compared to 2024. The total donated to UTO in Prov VIII decreased by 13% from 2024 to 2025, reversing the slow increase we had been having as a rebound after the covid19 pandemic began in 2020. Even more concerning is the fact that the donations in 2025 were 25% lower than the average over the past 10 years. This is trend is not unique to our Province as others are also experiencing it. However let us set a goal to reverse this trend by making sure each diocese in Prov VIII has a UTO Diocesan Coordinator, whose role is to spread the word about UTO to parishes and encourage parish participation.

	Change from 2024 to 2025	Change from Past 10 yr Average to 2025	Past 10 yr Average $ Amount	UTO Donation $ Amount
DIOCESE				2025	2024
Alaska	-345%	-88%	3,407	400	1,780
Arizona	-20%	-23%	5,056	3,904	4,668
California		-100%	4,782	0	1,637
Eastern Oregon	-88%	-28%	3,390	2,428	4,566
El Camino Real	3%	-55%	3,472	1,562	1,512
Hawaii	-251%	-63%	1,838	688	2,411
Idaho	-31%	16%	1,485	1,719	2,255
Los Angeles	44%	13%	14,653	16,610	9,259
Micronesia			0	0	0
Navajoland		-100%	37	0	0
Nevada	14%	6%	6,435	6,826	5,867
Northern California	-156%	-77%	1,673	384	983
Olympia	29%	8%	11,356	12,236	8,695
Western Oregon	31%	-9% -17% -100% -67% -5% -80%	4,146	3,777	2,617
San Diego	-196%		1,349	1,125	3,331
San Joaquin			957	0	1,674
Spokane	-279%		8,833	2,901	10,997
Taiwan	1%		2,674	2,530	2,504
Utah	-5%		1,305	257	270
Average or Total =	-13%	-25%	76,848	57,345	65,027

3.     UTO In-Gatherings

Most churches raise money for UTO by having a UTO In-Gathering once or twice a year. It can be as simple as having a collection on a given Sunday designated for UTO, or it can be a month-long event where you distribute UTO boxes to parishioners, ask them to notice the things they are grateful for in their daily life and donate to the box accordingly. Maybe $1 goes in when you get a great parking spot at the crowded grocery store, or maybe $20 goes in when your child brings home an amazing report card. Then on a certain Sunday, parishioners bring their filled boxes back to church, they are offered up and blessed, and the donations are sent to UTO. Every cent of that will go out the next year as UTO grants to make positive changes in the world. UTO provides all the material you need to expand the practice of gratitude in your congregation (free of charge) and make these In-Gatherings so easy that only one volunteer is needed to run one. For details on holding an In-Gathering, see https://unitedthankoffering.com/ingathering.

4.     Order your UTO In-gathering Materials for Fall by September 18

All the materials you need to do a UTO Ingathering in your parish are available free of charge by ordering a Parish Kit from www.unitedthankoffering.com/shop, but you must order well ahead of time. The deadline for materials for Fall In-gatherings will be September 18. Expect delivery in the first week of Oct. Read all about our Fall formation materials at https://unitedthankoffering.com/fall. If Fall is not a good time for this activity in your parish, you can do it any time of the year and UTO provides a wide range of seasonal gratitude materials on its website.

5.    Apply for a 2027 UTO Grant to be the “Gifts of God for the People of God”

In 2027, UTO grants will fund projects that empower congregations/dioceses/provinces to use their gifts to meet the unique needs in their local communities. This means that all of the projects will look a little different. In some communities this might mean a project to create an after-school tutoring program, in others it might look like renovating a kitchen to provide space for home bakers to start a cottage business, in some it might mean hosting an annual health care fair for the unhoused event. Each Sunday, we are reminded that the bread and wine are the “Gifts of God for the People of God”, so UTO looks to support the unique way God is calling you to become a gift of God and make an impact in your community. Its never to early to start talking about applying for these grants. Go to https://unitedthankoffering.com/apply for more information. We fully outline the process for you on-line with the goal of making it easy for even first-time grant writers to be successful, and we provide you help along the way with on-line Office Hours with Rev. Heather Melton, the UTO Director. The first UTO deadline to meet is Dec 4, but your diocese will have to approve your project beforehand because a Bishop’s Endorsement Form is required for each proposal and the bishop can only endorse one proposal each year.

6.     UTO Board

I am the Province VIII representative on the UTO Board, and I have been asked to remain on the UTO Board for a second 3-year term (2027-2030). Note that Province Representatives can remain on the board for a maximum of two consecutive 3-year terms. I have accepted, and I was elected to be co-chair of the Grants Subcommittee for 2027-2030.

With sincerest wishes for God’s blessings on you & your ministries,

Tammy Smecker-Hane

UTO Board Member from Province VIII

UTO Diocesan Coordinator, Diocese of Los Angeles

UTO Parish Coordinator, Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church (Irvine, CA) Email: tsmecker@cox.net