Annual Pledge Drive 2024
Time, Talent, and Treasure
Creating and sustaining a faith community like FUUSN takes a lot of heart and soul, in many different forms. The annual Pledge Drive is an opportunity to consider what forms this heart and soul may take: through Pledge Parties, coffee hour chats, and Zoom calls, we connect over our experiences here and nourish a shared vision for our future together.
On the financial side, FUUSN’s pledge drive covers two-thirds of our congregation’s expenses, and this year we hope to raise $625,000 from 230 households – a modest increase over last year’s goal. FUUSN’s Board of Trustees has set a target that will allow us to cover our existing costs and run a smaller deficit: to hire a settled minister, maintain our current staff and programming, and provide a 3% cost of living increase. The giving levels described below will help us achieve these goals and more! The Unitarian Universalist Association challenges each of us to donate at least 2% of our pre-tax income to our faith community; however, every pledge, in any amount, is meaningful and appreciated.
Our community’s vitality is based on the large and small ways we engage with each other. Many of us find that participating in community life is highly rewarding on a personal level, while also helping FUUSN promote our goals as a Society in the wider world. This year, in particular, as we renew ourselves, reengaging after the pandemic, welcoming our new minister, transforming into a stronger more connected community, we need your support more than ever.
What We Could Do with more Funding:
KEEP UP WITH INFLATION:
Consider increasing your pledge by 5% this year to help FUUSN keep pace with rising costs – including helping FUUSN’s dedicated staff cover rising costs of living in the Boston area.
Ensuring Our Strength:
For those who are able, a 10% pledge increase would allow FUUSN to perform essential building maintenance and continue investing in impactful programming, ministry, and social action.
Building Our Future:
A 15% pledge increase would inspire new possibilities for making our building more accessible (and rentable), expand our staff hours, reach out to the broader community, and ensure our next settled minister has a solid foundation for helping all of us write the next chapter of FUUSN’s story.
What We Could Do with More Participation
OUTREACH to the Greater Community:
- Member Services: Greet your friends and neighbors at the sanctuary door; make great friends working with a team; help out at family fun nights, cookouts, etc.
- Religious Exploration: Learn and grow alongside FUUSN’s children and youth, guiding their religious exploration and spiritual discovery – this may include putting your Lego skills to the test!
- Lay Ministers: Service to others is service to yourself! Jump in when you can as a care crew member.
- Buildings and Grounds: Write a building maintenance checklist and regularly walk the building to check emergency lights, water shut offs, and potential leaks from ceilings and plumbing.
- Events Support: Unleash your creative side and consider doing communications for our big events! (services auction, holiday fair, yard sale, Ferry Beach or Sandy Island retreats, etc.)
Do you want to enliven existing committees or start your own?
- Show off your Zoom skills and serve as the Zoom operator for a Sunday service or hybrid meeting.
- Be the soup chef at the next community meal or provide plant-based goodies for FUUSN dinners. Support the team to brew up those wonderful, responsibly sourced coffee beans and be the most popular person at coffee hour.
- Help organize an event such as the Holiday Fair or Community Expo.
- Get cooking! We always need cooks for events like dinners for 7, Patriot’s Day breakfast in Roxbury, and new member dinners.
For more ideas, see our Volunteer page. And there are many more opportunities to engage that nobody has thought of… yet.