Umunhum Labs

Research · Bay Area

The 2026 Bay Area Online Prayer Study

We’re talking with congregations across the Bay Area about what they’re actually doing online — and what is and isn’t working. Everyone who takes part gets the findings before they’re public.

Interviews through September · Findings to participants shortly thereafter

Forwarding this to someone?

Here’s a note you can paste into an email. Change anything you like.

Passing this along — a small Bay Area company is running a study on how congregations here are handling prayer online. They’re interviewing about 25 communities and everyone who takes part gets the findings before they’re published.

It’s 20 minutes on the phone. Details here: https://umunhumlabs.com/study

Not the right person?

Usually this is whoever looks after communications, the website, or the prayer list — sometimes a staff member, often a volunteer. If that’s someone else at your organization, passing this to them is the most helpful thing you can do.

What the 20 minutes covers

The whole conversation, laid out as best as we can predict

  • 0:00Who we are, and what happens with your answers
  • 0:30Your community — how many, how far people travel
  • 2:30What you do online now for prayer, if anything
  • 7:30How people who can’t be there stay part of things
  • 10:30Who would run something like this, and who signs off
  • 14:30Three rough ideas we’d like you to react to
  • 18:30Anything you’d want to be involved in

What you get

What we won’t do

  • We won’t sell, share, or rent your contact details. Not to anyone, not ever.
  • We won’t quote you without asking, and you choose whether a quote carries your name.
  • We won’t name your organisation in the report unless you tell us we can.
  • We’re not selling anything on this call. If we ever have something to sell you, that will be a different conversation and we’ll say so plainly.

What we’re looking into

Three areas for now. We have a few rough ideas in each, and we look forward to hearing what resonates with you.

Who’s asking

We're a team based in sunny San José, California. We believe spiritual wellbeing is a fundamental human need. We build for people on their path through life. And we look forward to meeting you!

Joy Banerjee

Logistics and partnerships professional with experience in entrepreneurship. Economist by training, Executive MBA, and Bay Area resident for 25+ years. Proud dad, originally from Europe, with a knack for pondering life’s big questions and connecting the dots.

Tim Bonnemann

Longtime community architect and e-participation expert with 20+ years experience in the private and non-profit sector. Passionate about connecting people around shared purpose.

Get in touch

Twenty minutes on the phone, via video conference, or – logistics permitting – in person, at whatever time suits you. Either way, it starts with an email.

Email info@umunhumlabs.com

Making sense of the world together, rather than alone, is something people have always done. The forms vary enormously — across traditions, languages, and continents — but the need underneath doesn't. People still face things they can't resolve on their own, and still turn to each other to carry them. We're reminded of that daily. Mount Umunhum rises south of San José, in view from where we work — sacred ground to the Ohlone for thousands of years, and a reminder that what we're building is much older than we are. What's changed is that many communities and families are now spread out, across time zones or just across schedules that no longer line up. The tools are new. The need they serve is not.