Annual Budget Drive
Yearly Finances Depend on Your Pledges during the Annual Budget Drive
A Message from Annual Budget Drive 2012 Co-chairs
We love the Annual Budget Drive: It creates connections among everyone at FUSN.
Just as music is not “notes” but “the relationships between notes,” our community is not the people here but the relationships among us. The Annual Budget Drive fosters conversations about what’s important to us:
- Why we came to FUSN,
- Why we stay,
- What made us first feel connected here,
- What we value.
These conversations create relationships that make our community strong, resilient, and valuable.
We've met such great folks here through stewardship conversations.
But many dread the budget drive because they don’t want to be cornered and pressed to talk about financial matters. It doesn’t have to be that way.
This year, we’re making changes so that everyone can feel good about the budget drive and get back to making connections. We’re offering pledging parties as alternatives to stewardship meetings – so please sign up for one. Also, all pledging will be done privately by sealed envelope.
What a great time to be part of FUSN! Our congregation is thriving. Minister! Music! Member Services! Religious Education! Social Action! At FUSN, we know each is our own wonderful achievement, a jewel, an amazing resource for us and for the community.
Our budget drive makes all this possible. It’s our primary source of funding. It’s 66% of our revenue. (The Sunday collection basket is only 2%.)
This year we need to raise $542,000. That’s 15% more than last year. There are two major reasons for this increase:
1. We need to have a full-time Member Services Director. (Read why) Kristin has done an amazing job on a part-time basis, and there’s so much more good work to be done. It’s an investment in our community, to focus on attracting and retaining new members. A congregation our size should have full-time support in this role.
2. We’ve been funding deficits with a pool of previous surpluses, and that pool will soon run out. To keep what we have—to make FUSN sustainable—we must increase pledges to fill the gap. If we do that, we’ll be paying for what we have. And we’ll be pledging in line with other thriving UU congregations. (We’re actually falling short of that now.)
What’s your fair share? We have a detailed Giving Guide, but in short:
“Don’t give until it hurts, give until it feels good.”
When you think of your pledge, we ask that you consider these four essentials:
- The importance of FUSN in your life (what it is, and what it could be)
- FUSN’s impact in our greater community
- What is needed for FUSN to thrive, and
- Your own financial resources
… Then please make a financial commitment of which you will be proud.
That amount is different for each person. Try on some numbers. The right one may be higher than you think. What you can – and should – be proud of is always within your own financial means.
Please look at the drawing of the Pledge Quilt. It shows all the pledges made to FUSN last year. Each box is one pledge. There’s a wide range in size, but each and every pledge is needed to make this quilt. We cannot have FUSN without all of them. People can be really proud of any of these pledges.
And now we need a quilt that’s 15% bigger. That’s the gray margin you see in the drawing that we need to cover.
We need everyone to step up and participate at a level at which they are proud – whatever that level may be.
If you did not pledge last year, this year we have a Matching Pledge Program that will double the impact of your pledge, up to a combined $6,000 for all new pledges.
If each of us is proud of our own pledge—and if we have faith that the others around us are proud of their pledges—then we will have a very strong community.
And that’s what the budget drive is all about.
Be sure to read these testimonials from our congregation:
- Josie Greene: Learning About Commitment
- Bobbie Sproat: Giving Until It Feels Good!
- Brian Burba: The Value of Our Community to FUSN's Youth
- Bonnie McDonald: Gratitude and Connection Drives My Pledge
- Andrea Zatarain: FUSN is the Village that Parents Seek
- Brian Hicks: Showing Tangible Thanks for What Enables Us to Connect
- Fiora Hougteling: Our Vital, Cariing, Creative, and Searching Society
Thank you for keeping this wonderful community strong.
Josie Greene and Bruce Henderson
Annual Budget Drive Co-Chairs
budgetdrive [at] fusn [dot] org
